20d or 30d

[tommygun]

i have the oppertunity to buy buy a 20d or 30d for the same price and both are in really good condition. i want some feedback as to which one you would get. Im leaning toward the 30d.:thumbup:

 

[Big Mike]

For the same price, get the 30D.

They are, in many ways, the same camera. The sensor is the same, the processor is the same etc. The 30D has a bigger screen and I think they added a spot metering option. The buffer may also bit a little bigger on the 30D as well.

 

[tommygun]

thanks! I've heard that their almost the same camera.

 

[J.Ayala]

I have a 30d and it really is the same as the 20d
and the screen is bigger on the 30d. i'd say go with the 30d it can also shoot 5 frames per second, and is a little newer than the 20d

 

[Derrel]

Yeah, go for the 30D...it has a few added niceties that the 20D doesn't have. I still shoot a 20D as my knock-around camera for casual family snaps and hazardous duty (saltwater boating,for example),and wish I had a 30D for the extra couple megapixels and the bigger LCD screen--and probably a much quieter shutter. The 20D has probably the noisiest, most-obnoxious,most-clanky shutter ever put in an SLR...I often joke that the 20D on Continuous High sounds like a softball being hit by an aluminum bat...."TINK!! TINK!! TINK!!"

 

[icassell]

If for no other reason than age, I'd go for the 30D. Any 20D you can find now is starting to get pretty old. I love my 30D. I kept it when I bought my 7D.

If you can swing a bit of extra green, however, there was a pretty sizeable upgrade from the 30D to the 40D and it might be worth saving a bit more for that 40D.

 

[Big Mike]

Yeah, go for the 30D...it has a few added niceties that the 20D doesn't have. I still shoot a 20D as my knock-around camera for casual family snaps and hazardous duty (saltwater boating,for example),and wish I had a 30D for the extra couple megapixels and the bigger LCD screen--and probably a much quieter shutter. The 20D has probably the noisiest, most-obnoxious,most-clanky shutter ever put in an SLR...I often joke that the 20D on Continuous High sounds like a softball being hit by an aluminum bat...."TINK!! TINK!! TINK!!"

I'm pretty sure the 20D & 30D have the same 8MP sensor and record files of the same size.
I don't remember hearing/reading that the 30D had a quieter shutter.
I really don't think the 20D is all that bad. Although I do remember some complaints about it, when it first came out. I guess it depends what you are used to, there are many cameras that are much quieter.

 

[icassell]

The shutter on my 30D isn't very loud (although all I have to compare it to is my 7D, it sounds similar).

 

[Big Mike]

Back in the film days, the EOS Elan cameras were very quiet. That didn't seem to get transferred over to digital though.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

Loudest shutter i've ever heard in an SLR is my FE with the motor drive attached. It sounds like it's going to fly apart every time you take a picture.

Quietest in normal use is the Nikon D40/60. super super quiet.

 

[Derrel]

I helped a friend with a small-product photoshoot two weekends ago, and was struck by how quiet,and short, the shutter release sound of the new Canon 7D was. We had a lady, one of the business partners, who needed a portrait done, and she was a habitual blinker. The 7D's quiet shutter was an advantage, I thought. The sound of the mirror rising and the shutter were almost "as one". The mirror return was also very quiet...it was an amazingly quiet shutter system. Habitual blinkers often blink based on sound or on watching the camera, I am convinced, so the quieter and faster, the better. With very slow, old,mechanical cameras like 2 and a quarter rollfilm SLR's, the mirror moves up slowly, and loudly, and the lag times are pretty long. Same with some of the older long-roll studio cameras, where the electric lens diaphragm systems are loud and slow and telegraph the shutter release to people who tend to blink habitually.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

Large format leaf shutters are generally pretty quiet.

 

[Derrel]

Large format leaf shutters are generally pretty quiet.

Yeah, large format leaf shutters are very quiet...."sssnick!" It's a cool sound. Similar sounds are from the Seiko or Copal leaf shutters in twin lens reflex cameras. Without that mirror slapping, a TLR is so,so quiet when it fires!

What's funny is that although a large format camera's shutter is quiet, the "POP!" of say four or five Speedo 102 heads firing simultaneously makes quite a racket. You can't even hear that leaf shutter fire!:thumbup:

 

[Dallmeyer]

This was a quiet SLR (no instant-return mirror was one reason)
Praktica IV M

Also an 1980's auto Chinon SLR i had but can't find a pic. That was really quiet!

Sorry to go OT...just wanted to chip-in!

 

[anel]

for the same price? that's strange. i was in the same position as you, but the 20D was around 220€ and the 30D was 350€.. i still went for the 30D though..