My impending upgrade.....

Well I've been and got my mitts on a 20D in Jessops.....just for 10 mins though...needed to handle one.

Feels much more solid than my 300D, and I like the wheel on the back.

How long before I crack....

 

Probably about as long as I did. Went into Jessops last week to have a look at the Minolta Dynax 5D (already a Minolta user otherwise it would have been a 350D or a D50).

Did I get one? No ended up with a 7D instead. In for a penny and all that.

it's a lovely camera, feels really well made, just have to find some time to get out and play now.

 

*opens book* oddds arnt very good!


yeh the jog wheel and joystick on the back are brilliant, its just a great peice of kit, you;d love one john!

 

They are about £300 less than they used to be and Canon is doing £100 cashback offer
Unless there is a 30D (12 megapixel, 8fpm burst : new kid on the block etc ) there is probably no camera at its current prize range to touch it for sheer quality.
I bought the 350D because of the big cost differnce then..no regrets but coming from a 300D the only way up really is the 20D
Now I would just flash the plastic and starting eating once a day for a while

 

If I were you John, as it's primarily aviation you're going to be shooting, I'd avoid the 20D - have heard from sooo many unhappy owners of them.

For the same price or less you can pick up a second hand 1D - less MP but an infinitely better camera.

 

With an order pending with Kerso for said camera can you expand a little on why I should avoid it

 

Everyone I know that owns a 20D, whose opinion I respect, have had problems ranging from the standard lock-ups and ERR 01/99s to shutter failure, battery grip problems (still not fixed by the 'fixed' grip I hear) and unreliable autofocus.

There are lots of happy 20D owners out there but it just seems a significant number of people who use theirs a lot for action photography are pushing it beyond what it can handle both in terms of physical reliability and AF accuracy. I had similar experience with the 10D - hugely unreliable AF - and have found both the earlier D60 and later 1D2 much more solid in that respect.

 

I had a 20D and sold it for one of the said reasons above, All in all it was a very nice camera but for the money you shouldnt have a camera that locks up making you look stupid when doing weddings etc, then having to take the battery out and replace it to waken the camera again...

Please don't think I am dissing the 20D... There are hundreds of happy users out there using this camera, Just my luck I must have got a Friday afternoon model..

However I now use a 1DMk2 and although they are lots more money to buy I cannot fault it. The performance and reliability is 100% spot-on.

And Johndm.... For the amount of aviation you shoot I would certainly look towards the 1d series money permitting..
The high burst mode and autofocus is just unbelievable mate, The 1st time I used it on aircraft in flight in rattled off 20 odd pictures in RAW mode and filled the buffer long before it got to me..

 

whilst i an agree id like to point out that my camera gets used for "action photography" in what could be considered the worst conditions for a camera, it gets knocked around, gets covered in beer from punters, the light varies from pitch black to bright white, red and blue and the autofocus rarely gets it wrong.


ive also only had 1 lock up, and this was quickly solved by removing the batterya and putting it back in, thats the only problem ive had with the camera.

so its not in all cases, i believe it to be a superb bit of kit

 

Please don't think I am knocking the 20D mr jones, I most certainly arnt and for my money its a top quality camera..

The fact is I do upgrade quite often whether it be my computer or my camera. The camera upgrade was brought forward for two reasons in my case.

1: My 20D was locking up and was indeed cheesing me off..... "ie" the action starts and my beloved camera has frozen up. Not nice when you wait maybe 2 to 3 hours for jets coming up the mountains only to have a dead camera to shoot with. The same thing happened at a wedding I was shooting at. The biggest embarrassment was a lady offered me her point and shoot to use as my 20D had locked up, I could have throttled her to be honest..

2: The 1DMk2N will very soon be in our shops and at almost £1,000 more that its predecessor the 1DMk2 I took advantage of picking one up before they were no longer available then paying over the odds for very much the same camera as the N model..

 

Always good to hear 'both sides of the coin' ............(so to speak).......... interesting

Thanks

 

I think you'll always hear more horror stories than satisfied users....

I still read about the 20D grip problems..the 'flex' still not resolved???

My 300D and grip have worked almost flawlessly for 18 months, but for the first time recently, after a burst, (yes a small burst) of shots, I glanced down at the camera to see the display had gone off...and the three pics were lost..

Now, I was swinging it around a bit with my 100-400 hanging on..so if this is the same as the 20D problem, then no big deal really.
Just a flick of the power switch brought it to life again.

 

Maybe you had a bad copy??? Did you not try and exchange out of interest, or just give up and go for the 1DMk2?

I looked a one the other weekend, guy told me he picked it up for 2.5k with just 1500 on the counter...

He also demonstrated its machine gun capabilities.....MOST impressive..

 

Basically took the easy route and sold it on eBay John..

Brand new with UK warranty at Park Cameras for a snip over £2k John..

Not knowing you personally but having seen your fabulous work you would get the best out of the 1D series.

I wish we lived closer I would gladly loan you my camera to try just to see your face after using it..

 

Stiffed!!!

2.2K new for my last one just a month or so back.

 

There you go John..

 

I am unable to post here my wifes words......

 

John!!! Is it a case of under the

 

does she not realise that you buying a new camera body will...

- improve your sex life
- bring you closer together
- solve world peace


its win win

 

I already told her that....

 

Far from it...but my list is getting too long....

1. Camera upgrade
2. 16-35 & 24-70 L's
3. 42" Panny Plasma or LCD
4. Replace my ageing Trans Am with a Corvette
5. Get my PPL
6. Rent a Hummer in California next year
7. Take a 1.5 hour Warbird flight (only had 40 mins this year)
8. Get Sky Hi Def and Sky Plus
9. Upgrade DVD recorder to H/Drive job
10. Upgrade Subwoofer
11. Bigger TFT for Puter
12. Give up work to play wif me toys

 

Second-hand 1D - 750 notes.

Get a Sigma 15-30 and a 24-105 instead and save enough to buy the 1D.

They're all rubbish.

Matchbox?

However economically it's

Steal one. Much cheaper.

More than 40 mins just hurts your bum. 22 hours really hurts.

Tivo's cheaper...

Fair enough.

CRT all the way for photo work...

Done that

 

thats worse than mine

1)find house
2)buy house
3) move into house
4) decorate house
5) furnish house
6) buy laptop
7) upgrade PC
8) turn spare room into a studio

 

BocheB, What about all of the people you know with a 20D whose opinion you don`t respect ?
Mr THX, I have a 20D and to date, touch wood, have not experienced any of the problems mentioned in this thread. If you do encounter these problems the answer is simple. Do as busterboy did and unload your defective camera on some poor unsuspecting sap on eBay.
There can be no doubt that the 1DMkII is a better camera then the 20D. However as it costs nearly three times as much then so it should be. Shouldn`t it ?

 

An item costs hundreds of (a thousand, even) pounds and it doesn't work properly (is not fit for purpose) do you
(a) Exercise your legal rights and exchange it for either a replacement or a full refund, or
(b) Sell it to someone else for a fraction of what it cost you to buy under the false pretence that it works perfectly well, thereby doing youself out of hundreds of pounds, conning a poor unsuspecting member of the public out of hundreds of pounds and at the same time letting the responsible party (the manufacturer) completely off the hook.

Remember when taking advise that a person on this forum thought option (b) was the way to go.

 

These are basically people I only 'know' via forums etc. and haven't talked to enough in real life - or seen enough of their work - to gauge whether they are clueless or not.

A near 100% record on people I actually know in 'real life' having problems with their 20Ds tells me a lot! Basically I'm talking around 15 owners all with problems, and just one chap I know well who says he hasn't had any problems with his. But then I see some of his shots and they have the usual slightly off-focus look to them that you get when the AF hasn't quite got it right...

 

Not that its any business of yours when or where I sell my camera sorbiegunner you only know half the story so before you want to flame me any more listen to the facts right now!!

My camera was in-fact sent back to Canon for this very reason and after 4 weeks away it was returned with a No faults declared with it... Typical..

I continued to use it and other than the odd freeze-up it worked quite well but my mind was made up because the 1DMk2N was coming very soon..

I wanted a 1DMk2..

Question.??

Did I return it again or did I sell it, I took option B as you called it..

As you feel the need to criticize me on a public forum my 20D was sold with this service sheet so as far as I was concerned if its good enough for Canon it should be good enough for the new owner.

 

You're still going to hell buster

 

Could not agree with you more sorbiegunner. The basis of this thread was, I thought, Johndm`s possible upgrade to a 20D. We then had two people give reason after reason to not buy a 20D which was fair enough as everybody is entitled to their opinion.
We then find that busterboy has offloaded his "Alleged" defective 20D on eBay to some poor sod and then tried to justify it by blaming Canon for their failure to find any fault with his 20D that is continually malfunctioning when he uses it.
The mind boggles !
BocheB, How near 100% ? And more to the point, basically, how many people in 'unreal life' have you encountered with similar problems ?

 

See my previous post.

Kinda lost count of those on forums etc. that have had problems - a visit to POTN/Dpreview/Fred Miranda/wherever and searching on '20D problem' or similar will give you an idea!