Attn 20D owners....Got some questions

John E. · Feb 15, 2005

I am thinking about purchasing a 20D camera. After reading all the reviews which seem to be very positive, one has me worried. The person wrote that you need very good vision to see through the view finder as it is very small. I have stigmatism, I wonder how serious this issue will be? Cannot afford a speacial lens for the view finder at this time.

I tend to be quite rough with equipment so the durability of the body and weather proofing has me worried also.

I plan on starting with two lenses 50mm @ 1.8 and the cheap 20-55mm lense that comes with camera. I shoot mainly landscapes and portraits. The cheapo zoom dose not have much latitude in fstops but may be O.K for landscapes. Wondering what your opinions are on this lense

Any other problems I should consider?

Digital Matt · Feb 15, 2005

Go to a store and try the camera out. I have better than 20/20 vision, so I can't help you with the viewfinder. It works fine for me. As for durability of the body, it's quite durable. Magnesium allow. I still wouldn't really be going around being "quite rough" with a $1500 digital slr. The 50mm f/1.8 is a great lens. I can't really recommend the 18-55mm lens, because as you said, it's "cheapo". It all depends on how much money you wish to spend. There are much better lenses out there, but the 18-55 isn't horrible, for $100. If that's all you want to spend right now, then get it, and just start shooting. The 50mm is a must have though.

Don't forget to factor in the cost of CF memory, (1 gig at least, and consider an 80x pro card) and an extra battery, which you should buy.

Alison · Feb 15, 2005

I wear glasses and the viewfinder is quite small. However, I don't have a difficult time focusing with it. I have both a 10D & 20D for my business. To be quite honest, I prefer the 10D. Both have very strong bodies, but I didn't find the increase in price for the 20D worth it. If you can find a new 10D (check Amazon, B&H, etc) you might be surprised at the difference in price and could use that to get a better lens

As for the lens itself, you might looks for something more along the lines of a 35-70 for portraits, but I think the 18-55 would be fine to start with. I love my 50mm.

John E. · Feb 15, 2005

Thanks for the informative replies.

Matt I would like to test the camera personally but I would have a 4hr drive to the nearest store that sells 20D's and this time of the year the roads can get very tricky especially since my tires are nearly bald

fiqure I can get another 2000 miles of summer driving on them.

My budget is fairly tight but I factored in a 1gig card plus I already have a 512meg card, the spare battery and pack will have to wait. I agree with the 50mm lense as I suspect I will use that the most in any case..

Its a toss up for me if I should save my money to get a decent 24mm lense or bite the bullet and get the zoom lense.Much later I would purchase a good 85mm lense where I know I will need the faster lense and longer dof.

I have older Minolta lenses with bayonet mounts, is there any way to use them?

Purchasing a 10d and getting a good lense sounds like a great idea Alison, I am going to have to research that further.Thank you kindly for the Idea. Why do you prefer the 10D?.