Canon EOS 20D 8.2MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only)
by Canon
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List Price: Our Price: $210.00 You Save: $1089.99 (84%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Digital Camera See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Canon EOS 20D 8.2MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only)
Customer Review: Well worth purchasing
Summary: 4 Stars
I was skeptical after switching from from film, medium format, which I have been using for close to a decade. It took a few weeks of playing to figure out how to get the best out of this great digital camera. I didn't get the standard zoom that is offered in the kit, but got the Canon 85, 1.8f USM lens instead. Old habits die hard. If you do a lot of available light shooting for portraiture, this lens can't be beat.
Anyway, once I figured the camera out, I was satisfied with the results. Shooting raw images and using the Photoshop raw plugin yielded the best results.
I don't mind being labled as a Luddite for saying this, but as great as this camera is, it still can't do better quality images than the "old school" medium format camera that I still own.
Customer Review: Dim LCD
Summary: 4 Stars
Apart from all the good points rightly pointed by all reviewers there is one design problem with the camera: the LCD screen. It is simply too dim. To the point that is almost useless on a bright day. The quality of the pictures is great and the bundled software is very powerful and easy to use. Specially the Digital Photo Professional, that comes with no manual, is great. You can find an excelent tutorial here: [...].
Maybe that is why another reviewer complains about the images being too dull. I first tried the camera on an overcast day in Chicago and as almost everything is gray, the pictures at the LCD screen were quite ugly and flat. Very different from another cameras LCDs.
Customer Review: Undocumented fact: limited CF-card capacity
Summary: 4 Stars
Canon considers memory card capacity a deep dark secret. You can look for it, but you won't find it. The 20D will support an 8GB CF - MAX.
You can buy a larger CF - but you can't write more than 8GB. If you format it, you'll discover its size has been reduced to 8GB. (You can use a partition editor like Linux's gparted to resize the partition table back up - but you shouldn't have to.)
So stop eyeing those 16- and 32GB CF cards. Since you're limited to 8GB, you can spend the difference on faster write speeds. And more of them...
Customer Review: Excellent Camera... slow service from Canon Warranty
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a great camera. Plenty of resolution. Excellent shot speed. Sturdy frame. The kit lense doesn't do the camera justice. Buy the body separate and add a better lense.
On the bad side, I had a small glitch with the camera's firmware soon after purchase and had to return it for a fix. It was two months before the camera was returned. Sorry, Canon... you lose a star for that.
Customer Review: Satisfying, except for lack of spot metering
Summary: 3 Stars
Two months after purchasing the 20D, I'm happy with the quality of shots and of the body itself, but regretting buying a dSLR without spot metering. (Live and learn.)
The one disappointment that still bugs me about the 20D: no spot metering for back-lit situations. This often slows down getting a shot as the only work arounds are bracketting or manually readjusting for overexposing. Yes, this can be a major pain, and "perfect" moment shots can be lost or have underexposed foreground subjects. Folks who shoot mostly in studios really should not comment on spot metering!
Don't be fooled by the partial metering like I was--it really doesn't make much of a difference over the evaluative, especially on human sized subjects! The partial metering area is simply to big to catch a proper exposure in backlit situations.
Unfortunately, the only way as of today, March 9, 2005, to get spot metering in a Canon is to buy a 1D (or 1Ds) Mark II, which is huge and much more expensive. Nikon offers the feature on the D70, so consider carefully before investing in lenses!
Other than this short-of-fatal shortcoming, the camera has few things to complain about. Great images, custom functions, and ergonomics. All things considered, I'm satisfied with the camera and have learned to work around the lack of spot metering (meaning as soon as I realize I'm in a back-lit situation I twirl to slightly overexpose--no matter how fast I twirl, however, spot metering would be faster and more efficient.)
One point playing off a few other reviews regarding firewire: In-body firewire and USB 2.0 are both virtually obsolete. For less than $20 just buy a little CF card reader that plugs directly into a PC/notebook--with or without a cable. Who wants to fiddle with a cable attached to a camera, particularly when traveling and setting up on the often cramped spaces in motel rooms? Just pop out the CF card and stick it into the reader--this lets you drag and drop the files from the card to the PC instead of patiently letting them download out of the camera.
Furthermore, using a card reader means you don't have to install the camera's clunky image download software--Windows 2000 and above handles the card readers automatically, dispaying the card contents just like they are on another drive. And all the card readers come with drivers for Windows 98.
Sincerely,
A somewhat satisfied, and wiser-after-the-fact buyer.