Ok, lets start from the beginning and try to post my opinions from a personal perspective of someone who reluctantly changed from the 10D to the 20D and now feels that I have had enough time with the 20D to give it a fair assessment. This is not going to be a review, more of a differences between the two in use.
As you can see from my first reply to Silkstone and as most of you know I have been using Canon 10Ds for about 2 years both personally and professionally. I have probably shot in excess of 10,000 pictures a year on these cameras and so believe I have a fairly good understanding of their capabilities and limitations. I recently, due to circumstances changed my personal 10D to a 20D, this was not really personal choice as I had intended sticking with the old trustworthy 10D but circumstances offered me a situation that I couldnt really turn down, so a 20D owner I became.
First the niggles..
I had obviously seen the Canon news release and was familiar with the specifications and main differences. I also took the time to read the reviews from a few of the more trustworthy sites to gain a broad idea of what Canon had changed and achieved. My initial opinion of the camera however was a letdown. The camera itself is slightly smaller and appears almost identical in layout, it build quality is almost identical but its reduced weight sort of gives the impression of the camera not being as sturdy. The smaller size suits me as I never shot with the battery grip on the 10D, but I can see it being an issue for some of the people with larger hands. Canon offer a new battery grip for the 20D but there are all sorts of issues with that currently. Some people are reporting it loosing power and flexing, draining one battery much quicker than the other, giving false power readings and even coming loose from the camera itself. Canon Europe have not admitted to any faults but Canon USA have, and offer a modification to rectify the issues. It is still a gamble though as to weather you will get a good or bad version of the grip but luckily it isnt likely to affect me, and so didnt figure in my pros and cons when looking at the camera.
There are a few small differences to the button layout and accessing some of the functions and extended functions. The small multi-directional joystick struck me as being too small and too fiddly, making it next to impossible to use and a really bad execution of what essentially an excellent idea. Initially it was a complete pain to use and often resulted in me selecting the incorrect focus point, with time I have adapted though and can now make it do what I want quickly. I must point out that I have only used the camera in fair weather though and as soon as I need to use my gloves I can see this situation being tricky at best and probably a nightmare. The custom functions do allow for selecting the focus points by the jog wheel but it still makes me wonder about the thought that has gone into the joystick size.
I was again disappointed to note that despite the majority of users asking for the ISO setting to be displayed permanently, it has again been ignored by Canon. It can be seen by pressing one button but many times you just wont check and could find yourself shooting at the wrong settings, this is a simple omission once again by Canon. Canon has also ignored the many requests to make the camera not stop writing images to the card if the Card door is opened. This is almost criminal as it could result in lost pictures that are being written from the cameras now improved buffer if the cameras card door is accidentally opened. Another simple oversight maybe but these two requests can be seen going back years and through several models.
My last and biggest niggle as someone who has taken the so called upgrade path from the 10D to the 20D is the difference in what is seen through the two viewfinders. The 10D was clear, bright and sharp, the 20D by comparison is dark, dull and extremely grainy. This can not be seen so much indoors or when viewing darker scenes but get it outside in normal light and it becomes apparent, put it into bright light and it shows just how bad it is. This is not an upgrade and a very bad move in my opinion by Canon. On a DSLR we are very reliant on what we see through the viewfinder and this should therefore be clear, bright and not grainy. The 10D was great and if they had utilised the same level of clarity I would have been very happy but as it is, I still notice it every time I use the camera. I had hoped that I would adjust with time and tune it out but it still continues to bug me three months down the line.
Now the good bits..
The 20D is quick to start
very quick. I dont believe I ever missed a shot with the 10D due to waiting for it to power up but I did set it to stay on for 8mins thus avoiding start-ups as often as possible. The 20D is as near to being instant and you can get and will be ready to shoot quicker that you can frame your subject, this has led me to set the stay on time to 2mins which will result in improved overall battery life. Whist talking about battery life, here again the 20D is improved, I have not checked exactly but I would estimate the 20D to be giving me approximately 300 more shots from a battery than my 10D did. Your mileage may vary but it is certainly less power hungry.
Image quality - there has been much said and written about the reduced noise visible in the 20D images. In the real world I have found that up to ISO 400 there is virtually no difference in the noise visible between the two cameras. Take the 20D over ISO 400 and the noise levels are excellent, pictures retain their saturation and detail in the shadows, the blue and red channel noise is kept firmly under control. Take it higher to ISO800 and using the camera at ISO 1600 becomes almost a no brainer if the circumstances require it. It returns images that are very useable without being run through any third party noise reduction. On the 10D I have used ISO1600 on occasions where I had no alternatives and knew that I would have to spend time recovering the Images and reducing the noise. I now have the same opinions on the 20D but instead of ISO 1600 we are talking about ISO3200, yes the 20D really is that good. Incidentally ISO 3200 is still selected by enabling it first in the custom functions, the same as on the 10D. That doesnt necessarily mean it shouldnt be used and I used to have it enabled on the 10D permanently so it could be selected when required. Why unnecessarily limit a cameras functions through menus as long as you remember that it is there?
The 20D had a larger pixel count on the sensor than the 10D (and despite what you might think it also uses a different sensor to the 350D) The 20D benefits from 8.2mp while the 350D has a 8mp and the 10D uses a 6.2mp. The images from the 20D initially are disappointing. You will find that coming from a 10D the images appear much softer and contain very slightly more saturated reds. I initially thought I had a mis-calibrated model but after doing some tests I quickly realised that the camera is more neutral in balance by design. The images respond much more favourably to sharpening than the 10D did, keeping noise low and again retaining their silky smooth appearance. I am led to believe by Canon that this was a deliberate approach and is mirrored in their high end cameras, they prefer to allow the photographer to adjust the image afterwards to get the results as required. Sometimes a softer image is required but others, a pin sharp image will hit the mark. With the 20D this range of variance is apparent. I have to say that this may not suit everyones taste though as some will not want to play around with images in PSP or Photoshop afterwards to get presentable photos. On the other hand, the in camera options will allow for adjustments to saturation, colour balance, contrast and sharpness which can be applied by the camera at the time of the shoot. How good these perform in comparison to using PSP or Photoshop I cant say as I have them set an defaults and prefer to do all my adjustments afterwards. Either way on a camera of this level, the photography is always just going to be part of the whole process of getting a final image. The larger sensor obviously returns a larger image which can allow for retaining quality when cropping or larger high quality prints.
The internal buffer speed and size has been improved to cope with the improved burst shooting speed. As CT has stated, when coupled with a fast CF card the 20D offers almost continuous shooting of 5fps and I have not managed to get locked out yet. Couple this with the improved, faster focus and you have a powerful camera with speed that has previously not been available at this price range. How much faster is the focus? Initially it appears not much but when it counts the 20D shows that it has been improved significantly. Matt has already offered one instance where this was visible and my recently posted photograph of the eagle in flight is another example. I had tried unsuccessfully to capture this shot last year on the 10D in almost identical lighting. This year I was able to track the bird and shoot a burst of 8 pictures all of which are perfectly in focus. I would like to think that it was my photography skill that had improved and allowed this, but in reality it is the technology advances that Canon have made and put into the 20Ds focusing that caught the pictures. I can see why wildlife photographers are making the switch for this alone.
My initial impressions have somewhat changed as I have become more familiar with the 20D. There are still some things that I can not understand why Canon have made them like they have, and there are areas that still need improving. However I am now happy with the 20D and dont regret the change. I am learning the ways around the menus and functions and hope that I can still tune out the grainy viewfinder screen with time (ever the optimist
) There is no doubt that it is a great camera but its not perfect.
Well thats the main differences from a personal point of view of someone who has owned both. The 10D is better in some areas and the 20D much better in others. If you think the improvements made on the 20D would benefit your style/type of photography and you can justify the upgrade cost, then you will be a happy bunny. On the other hand, if you dont need the extras then the 10D is still a worthy and excellent camera, one that even today I would be happy to go back to.
If you are on the market for a new camera in this price range then it should seriously be considered and if you have never looked through a 10D viewfinder you may not even notice the grainy view that the 20D shows you
Hopefully that helps some of you out and covers your questions, if you need any more info or further opinions please ask. I am a slow typist but will promise to answer if I can
