20D Official Press Release

[kevin_jesequel]

Just checked Canon's website and it's up:

 

http://www.usa.canon.com/templatedata/pressrelease/20040819_eos_20d.h

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[kevin_jesequel]

sorry,

 

http://www.usa.canon.com/templatedata/pressrelease/20040819_eos_20d.html

[claudinho]

Look here too

 

http://web.canon.jp/Imaging/eos20d/index.html

[ted_kostek]

Looks like the smaller sensor size (1.6x mag factor) is going to be with us for a while yet. They even have two more lenses obviously aimed at the smaller sensor size.

 

I wish they would make a corporate annoucement about this we can decide whether we need to rethink our lens selection...

[sheldonnalos]

Checked the link, and it wasn't working...

 

went to the front page of the www.usa.canon.com site, there it was. There's a couple other announcement as well.... S70 digital camera, flagship 580EX flash, Powershot G6, a Rebel T2.

 

Time to read some press releases!

 

Sheldon

[bobatkins]

I guess that puts an end to the rumors...

[sheldonnalos]

Quick excerpt from the press release...

 

Aside from the five frames-per-second burst rate, the EOS 20D digital SLR delivers superb low light performance and exceptionally low noise, even at high ISOs. In fact, images taken at ISO 1600 are approximately equal in noise to those taken with the EOS 10D model at ISO 400.

 

That is very cool, and starts to make me understand why the new EF-S lenses are very fast.

 

Sheldon

[barefoot]

It looks as if it will be possible to select Adobe RGB and set on-camera parameters

[r_n]

Sheldon: if that works out in practice, that 17-85 mm IS lens could be quite useful after all, in its niche.

 

580EX -- Color balance on flash! Nice. And then some.

[mark u]

The 17-85 is too slow to produce good DOF isolation for portraits on a crop sensor. What you gain in focal length multiplier, you lose in DOF multiplier. Did you ever shoot portraits at f/9 on film (other than when using a P&S)?

[johnrwoods]

"the EOS 20D digital SLR delivers superb low light performance and exceptionally low noise, even at high ISOs. In fact, images taken at ISO 1600 are approximately equal in noise to those taken with the EOS 10D model at ISO 400."<p>

 

ohhhhhhh now that tickles my fancy.<br>

very interesting...

[Spearhead]

I usually shoot portraits on film at f8 - f16. I do quite well at those apertures, and have no problems.

[jim_larson1]

<b> HIGH PRECISION CENTER FOCUS POINT </b> for F2.8 lenses.

<p>

BUT. . .<p>

. . .Shot buffer is only 6 for RAW. 23 for JPEG. (5 FPS confirmed!)<p>

. . .Pentaprism<p>

. . .internal flash only covers 17mm.<p>

BUT<p>

. . .10D style Alloy body (good!)<p>

. . .white balance and K braketing!<p>

. . .B/W mode (<i>but why?</i>)<p>

. . .CF card info in viewfinder!<p>

<p>

Still no info on<p>

. . .improved dynamic range.<p>

.. . NO ISO IN VIEWFINDER.

[suhaskulkarni]

"In fact, images taken at ISO 1600 are approximately equal in noise to those taken with the EOS 10D model at ISO 400.

"

 

I wont believe this... to good to believe.. more pixels packed in the sensor and gives such lesser noise!!

I will not believe this until some (may be Bob Atkins!!) does comparison on Production model.

[jim_larson1]

Have you guys seen the estimated street prices?

 

NOTE: THESE ARE STREET PRICES, NOT MSRP.

 

This is really bad news.

 

10-22 EF-S: $800.

 

17-85 EF-S IS: $600.

 

20D: $1500.

 

I think you save $100+ on body with lens kit.

 

Anyone who has read my other posts will know what I have to say about this.

 

I don't think I need to say any more.

[hyunyu]

Well, I'm just thankful that my budding photography hobby/skills are still doin' just fine with the Digital Rebel... it's more than what I need in a DSLR for now. Quite surprisingly I'm feeling no "new-toy-envy" with the 20D!

[suhaskulkarni]

I think I will not buy digital SLR untill next 3 years - when the price of 20D (or equivalent SLR) will come down to 400$ (hopefully) and I decide it today not to ignore the models released at that time... otherwise this is going to be an infinite loop... :-)

[peter_phan]

<i>The 17-85 is too slow to produce good DOF isolation for portraits on a crop sensor. What you gain in focal length multiplier, you lose in DOF multiplier. Did you ever shoot portraits at f/9 on film (other than when using a P&S)?</i>

<p>

The 17-85 IS is not exactly meant to be a portrait lens. It's basically the digital equivalent of the 28-135/3.5-5.6 IS on a full frame film body. On a 1.6x DSLR, the 17-85 IS is the equivalent of a 27-136/4-5.6 IS.

[lyle bergman]

Anyone else catch that there are now four EF-S lenses?

[jim_larson1]

Just read the Luminous Landscape review.

<p>

Two things stuck out in big red letters:

<p>

<i>"But progress is constantly being made, and my bench tests show that the 20D has essentially identical noise to that of the 10D at all common ISO settings"</i>

<p>

There is a cool graph showing nearly identical ISO performance. All the way to ISO 1600. I think this answers many questions. In a positive way.

<p>

<i>...the lack of a quickly visible ISO setting. I've bitched about this before, so it's nothing new, but I have to ask; doesn't anyone in Canon's engineering department ever take photographs?</i>

<p>

Heh. I complain about this about once a week, as well :) It's not just me. :)

<p>

But I am highly encouraged by the change in the AF system. A 2.8 sensitive center sensor is cool (I do have a number of F2.8 and faster primes). I am starting to get pumped up.

<p>

Of course. . . . when you only add F4-F5.6 lenses to the lineup. . .

[r_n]

In my earlier post, the "niche" I had in mind for the 17-85 IS lens was a lightweight travel lens. (Take the 70-300 DO IS with you, too! Unfortunately the filter sizes are different though -- 67 vs. 58.) But if the noise levels are as good as claimed it will of course open up the envelope for any lens, including all existing IS lenses. The possibilities are promising indeed!

 

I guess we'll have to see about actual street prices -- hopefully they won't be quite that high!

[gary_woodard]

Most of Canons camera engineers were laid off employees from their copier division, sad but true, most don't know exactly what an ISO is,

but as long as they put out a new digital camera every 10 months they keep em on, this months new camera has a 1/8000 of a second shutter speed,(finally heeding the call of thousands of Canon users, crying out for years for a faster shutter speed, and also the camera now works when you turn it on rather than waiting a while, my how thing have change, Canon, you go girl.

[r_n]

Just a disclaimer: I posted my comments above on the 17-85 IS before I read the review in Luminous (Honest!). MR says that he has data that he can't show yet supporting that the 20D 17-85 IS combination for travel holds great promise, so I'll be looking forward to seeing his results.

 

For portraits with fine bokeh something like the good ol' 85 1.8 USM EF lens would be a good, cost-effective choice. (Kind of disappointed we haven't seen a 50 1.4 mkII that will transfer distance data yet. Can't have everything at once, I guess!)

 

I'm thinking that even if I graduate to a 1.3 or ff dslr in the future there will be a lot of 1.6 shooters around for a long time -- the resale market for these ef-s lenses (if they turn out to be good) should be strong for quite a while. The downside to ef-s is not as bad as it first might seem (--not talking about the initial 18-55 ef-s lens here, though.)

[r_n]

Just one more point: the reason you'd want to mess with the color balance grid even if you're shooting RAW is to set the flash temperature on the 580EX. How cool is that?

[jim_larson1]

R N:

 

You are forgiven :)

 

Yeah, by all appearances the 17-85/EF-S IS really is a 28-135 clone. It's just produces a smaller image circle AND costs more. :(

 

Ya know: This is starting to smell like the old APS syndrome -> advanced technology but the bottom line is you paid the SAME for smaller pieces of film. harmph.

 

EF-S equipment should be CHEAPER than EF equipment. Not more EXPENSIVE.