Canon EOS 20D
Posted February 11th, 2005 @ 10:34am by Erik J. Barzeski
Anyone know how I can get a Canon EOS 20D inexpensively? What accessories/package would you recommend? I'd like to keep the total cost at around $1.5k. B∧H seems to have the best price - about $1.4k - for the body and the 18-55mm lens.
At this point, this is merely an exercise in… I dunno. My Nikon CoolPix 995 does an adequate job, but does badly at close-ups and has a little less control than I'd like. Tad slower than I'd like, too. Still a great camera: I just want a better macro feature, mainly, and may as well jump to a camera that'll last a few yars.
Donate Life
Posted 11 Feb 2005 at 11:33am #
If you're going to spend $1.4k on a camera, I would make sure that the lens you use isn't a $50 one... It's the lens that makes the image - the camera just records it. You'll probably get better pictures for the money if you spend more on the lens and less on the camera. See http://www.photo.net/equipment/canon/efs18-55/review/ . The 18-55mm also isn't a macro lens.
Posted 11 Feb 2005 at 11:47am #
I'm in the market myself for a 20D. I've been watching this eBay store, which I've heard has some really killer package deals.
Digital Cameras Canon
I'm interested to hear what you end up getting.
Posted 11 Feb 2005 at 11:58am #
Thanks for the link, Paul. I personally probably wouldn't buy from eBay sellers, but I have in the past and may again.
Perhaps I'm drastically over-estimating my needs… Maybe I should look for a different camera. I dunno. Something for about $1k total, with a good lens. I mean, I'm just a basic point-and-shooter for the most part.
Posted 11 Feb 2005 at 12:01pm #
I would second Ben's comments.
The Canon kit lens is generally a bad deal, you are better off buying just the camera body and then adding a lens to it. The Nikon D70 kit lens is apparently the only kit that has a decent lens in it.
I just bought a D70 and the price was the biggest factor in my choice (aside from having another Nikon that I'm really happy with).
With the Canon 20D the body was considerably more and I would need to add a lens on top of the cost and the Canon 10D isn't much of a deal relative to the Nikon D70.
So I went with the D70 even though it's near the lagging edge of it's technology, I would expect that Nikon replaces it with something closer to the 20D soon.
My view is that good lenses will last for 10's of years but a digital body is going to be pretty out of date in 3-5 years. I would tend to buy better quality lenses than a more expensive body but YMMV
Posted 11 Feb 2005 at 1:00pm #
Erik, as someone who has invested in several Canon DSLRs in the past, I can definitely recommend their equipment. However, if you're basically in the point and shoot league, you might consider either a used 10D or even a D60. You should be able to get an excellent deal on the body and with the extra money, buy a top notch lens -- like the EF50 (f1.4) or the EF28-135 IS. I'm not much into macro photography, but you might consider adding a "closeup lens" to a good zoom lens to enable near macro-lens quality macro work.
Bob Atkins has a good paragraph or two on "closeup lenses" on this his Web site. One of my old photography instructors swore by putting a 250D or 500D on his EF70-200L for close up work. And judging by the photos, it worked nicely.
Once you've invested some money in a good lens with an older body, you'll feel better when Canon releases their next DSLR body... And even the D30 (predecessor to both D60 and 10D) would still make great photos today.
Most of the photos found on my Web site were taken with the EF28-135IS. Although it's not one of Canon's Professional L series lenses, it's still a real champ.
Jeff
Posted 11 Feb 2005 at 6:47pm #
You shouldn't get a 20D. Check out the digital rebel. It'll do what you're looking for, and it's cheaper than a 20D and a Nikon D70. Canon's system is a lot nicer than Nikon's, too, and they've shown a stronger commitment to digital. For instance, last fall, Nikon announced their 12-MP D2x, which still hasn't shipped, almost 2 years after Canon shipped their 11-MP 1Ds. 5 days after Nikon announced the D2x, Canon announced their 16.7 MP 1Ds Mark 2, and they shipped it last November.
In terms of lenses, check out this 100mm macro lens. I would also highly recommend the 28-135 IS, which a lot of pros even use as their standard zoom.
Posted 11 Feb 2005 at 7:27pm #
If I were you, I'd get a 300D. Supposedly it's going to be EOL'd for a new model soon. You should be able to pickup a 300D cheap when this happens, far less then what you're looking at shelling out.
See http://dpreview.com/ (specifically, the forums) for info and great discussion.
You can watch sites like fatwallet for discussions about hot/cheap deals. (that's how I picked up mine for $100 less then what it was going for last year).
I moved from an Olympus 2000z to the 300D. I love it. For what I paid, I have had a blast with it. I realize it has limitations. But again, for what I paid, I'm quite happy.
Bear in mind the discussion above about the lenses. Whatever camera body you get, make sure you realize that the lenses are key for this type of thing - and over the next 10 years, the lenses is where you'll make your monetary investment. As long as their standard 35MM lenses you'll be set to use them far into the future (I just bought a SIGMA AF 70-300 4-5.6 "II" APO SUPER and I'm having a blast playing with it).
Posted 11 Feb 2005 at 10:25pm #
try bwayphoto.com they have great prices...
Posted 11 Feb 2005 at 10:28pm #
I don't think I will, Mario. I've heard many bad things about bwayphoto - grey market products and whatnot.
Posted 12 Feb 2005 at 6:39am #
If I were looking for an entry level DSLR, I think the main options would be the Olympus E-300, the Nikon D70 or the Pentax *ist DS.
The E-300 has 8MP and a built in dust remover (can be a problem with removable lenses), and a decent kit lens. It also gives good .jpgs, straight from the camera - others may require more post-processing.
The D70 has a decent kit lens, and has no major limitations.
The *st DS is also a good all-round camera.
Posted 12 Feb 2005 at 10:02pm #
Regarding bwayphoto.com: stay away from them. They sell grey-market imports. I purchased a Canon D30 from them back in 2001. It arrived without a US manual, warrantee, or US power cable.
Until I found a replacement cable, the camera was completely useless.
When I called to complain, these Brooklyn-ites were extremely hostile. And this is coming from a fellow NYer.
You couldn't pay me to ever purchase from those crooks again.
Posted 13 Feb 2005 at 2:19am #
I don't really have any knowledge about the Cannon EOS 20D, however I was wondering what you where planning on doing with the Coolpix after you buy the new one?
Posted 15 Feb 2005 at 12:41pm #
I've decided to wait a month or two before I make any decisions about the 20D or the D70. PMA 2005 kicks off next week, and I know enough about trade shows to wait for price drops, new product announcements,...
Posted 18 Feb 2005 at 11:38pm #
My girlfriend owns a Digital Rebel and I just purchased a D20 with the 17-85 IS lens along with the 75-300 IS lens and a bunch of other stuff.
If you are primarily a point and shoot guy, the D20 is overkill - I've been shooting film for years (still shoot an Olympus OM-2 and Hasselblad 500C) and have a pretty good grasp on how that works, but the 20D knows a lot more than I do about taking photos. I've read the manual a couple of times and am taking photos like mad to get the hang of using it in manual or "creative" mode.
My girlfriend borrows my camera often to do some very interesting stuff(tm) with it. This is not to say the Digital Rebel is limited - no way. As a DSLR used in Point and Shoot mode it's wonderful. One of her recent photos (actually a layout of five individual 2x2 photos in one 10"x10" composite) was selected for display at the 2004 Los Angeles County Fair. That certainly speaks well for the ability of the camera when used by someone with talent.
If you get the Digital Rebel kit, there is currently a $100 rebate. That knocks the price down to where you can pick up another lense and be close to your $1400 price.
Good luck.
jdg