Customer Rating: - How the 20D changed my life!
A year ago I sold my Digital Rebel on eBay and purchased the 20D. I have since not looked back. This camera has brought nothing but joy to myself and others. The sharpness and colors from the famed Canon sensor are true to their reputation. Friends and family all love the pictures that come out of this camera. I take it with me almost everywhere I go.

After selling my Rebel, I debated upgrading to the new Rebel XT or the 20D, which I'm sure many of you might be having right now before pulling the trigger. I held both in my hand and played with them at the PMA tradeshow where the XT was introduced. It was very light and felt very small in my hands. I don't have exceptionally large hands, but the XT felt like it was designed for smaller hands. That being said, it is a great travel partner to have being so compact and light-weight.

The other drawback, however, is that the user interface is quite different from the 20D. Although it may seem like a trivial feature, the dial navigation on the 20D has been immensely more convenient and practical when shooting compared to pressing the buttons on the Rebel or the XT. I didn't like having to navigate through the ISO or other changes to white balance via the LCD screen. I definitely think there's a reason why the 20D is more expensive beyond the fact that it has the solid magnesium alloy body. The user interface for me was worth the extra money as well. The more you take photos, the more you will realize the freedom that comes with controlling your aperture, shutter speed, white balance and more with the 20D interface versus the XT. That being said, it is still several hundred dollars more expensive and the XT has pretty much the same sensor (just 0.2 fewer megapixels) with the same results in a different body. So don't be concerned about getting inferior photos with the XT, because the differences are mostly all external.

I highly recommend getting the kit lens with either camera. For an additional $70-100 it is well worth it just for the range and it has pretty decent quality results. Bang for your buck it can't be beat. Make sure you pick up a EF 50mm f/1.8 II USM lens for another $70-80. This is a powerful little lens at a great price.

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Customer Rating: - This camera totally rocks I'm blown away
If you're reading this review, chances are, you wanna make the hop to digital SLR from regular digital. I just did and it is amazing. I must say, for about five years a use regular digital cameras. I wish I had gone digital SLR years ago. I think of all the shots that I've missed because of shutter lag once you go digital SLR you will not go back.

One thing about purchasing a digital SLR that you need to keep in mind is. It's all about the lenses! If you're buying this camera do yourself a favor get a good piece of glass. I will have links to sites that have reviews of lenses.

This thing will take 24 shots in a row. That is just so great! With the 8.2 megapixel, you can print 36 x 24 perfectly. The images are just huge. One thing I do like also with his camera, as opposed to the digital rebel. Is that you can capture a JPEG high Quality and raw image simultaneously. Now I don't use raw images very much yet, but I will of the future I'm sure. the rebel is raw and normal quality picture

One other thing I would recommend in relation to this camera is drop a couple dollars on a good flash. I've just started recently using an external flash the 580 EX and I must say lighting is where it is at!

Now, should you get the Canon 20 D. with the included lens it depends, the lens package is only $100 more. And it's an okay lens, but the other ones in the Canon family are way better.

Info on crop factor
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What happens, if I understand things correctly, is that a full size sensor capture the same amount of data as a 35mm film would. A sensor with a 1.3 factor means that the 35mm film area is 1.3 times as large as the sensor, and the same with a 1.6 sensor.

Think of it as simply chopping off some of the data that a 35mm full-frame sensor would capture. Imagine a ruler, where the 35mm camera would capture the full 12" stretching across the frame. If you then put a 1.3 sensor camera in the same location and took the same picture (assuming the same lens, camera mounted on the same tripod in the same location relative to the ruler) the camera's picture would only show the middle 9 inches (approximately). Now if both cameras produce the same size files, e.g. 8MB pictures, you have one picture at 8MB showing a full 12 inches and one picture at 8MB showing only the middle 9 inches. If you print them both at the same size, the picture taken with the 1.3 sensor will appear to be larger.

However, full-frame sensor cameras usually shoot larger MB pictures, so you lose the 1-to-1 relationship between the two pictures. The full-frame cameras shoot at 12MB or larger, so if you then crop THAT image to be 8MB in size by chopping the outer 1/3 (1/6 from each edge) and you will see the same thing as you see with the 1.3 sensor.

So it's not really that the 1.3 sensor magnifies the image, it just APPEARS to magnifiy the image. And since in photography it really is all about appearances, in one sense it does magnify things. But not actually, when everything is put on a 1-to-1 basis, the image isn't actually larger.

What that crop factor DOES do, though, is to reduce the size of the image you can get with the same lens. That means that you either have to move back if using the same lens to get the same field of view, or you have to use a shorter lens to get the same field of view from the same location.

That is where the 1.3 factor or 1.6 factor becomes important in deciding how to shoot a scene, especially for people who are coming to digital from the film world. So when you put your 50mm lens on a 20D, it becomes effectively a 80mm lens (50mmx1.6=80), with the reduced field of view that an 80mm lens would give. So to get the same field of view that you would get with a 50mm lens on a 35mm film body, you need to put a 32mm lens on a 20D body if you are standing in the same spot as with the film camera.

Again, since what we see is of utmost importance in photography, you are actually seeing a magnified image, when both images are printed straight to paper. But if the images are made to be the same size by cropping the larger file to equal the smaller file, there isn't really magnification.
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just fyi

Okay, hope this helps have some fun-and-get-it-done!

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Customer Rating: - Giant Digital SLR Camera
Without doubt this camera is impressive. The moment you put the 20D into your hands you feel at home with it. The 20D just feels impressive and taking images with this camera is a joy, though more demanding than your normal point and shoot digital camera. Getting to know your 20D will pay lots of dividends in the long run and I would suggest that owners of the 20D read the instruction manual and then read it again, while trying out all the many and varied functions.

It is important with a digital SLR to choose quality lenses. If you buy cheap don't be surprised if your resulting images lack the quality that they could command. A quality flash gun like the 580 EX Speedlite will further help your image taking. Furthermore, I find the BG-E2 Battery Grip - which holds an extra battery - an important accessory along with the Remote Switch RS-80N3 to minimize camera shake. On the memory front, choose well! Cheap memory can result in the loss of those precious images you have spent so long taking. And make sure you have enough memory because an 8 MP digital SLR on RAW mode eats up images at an alarming rate. Personally I have three 1 GB memory cards and still I don't think this is enough.

Once you are set up with everything you will find taking images with the 20D brings you many hours, days, months and in the end no doubt years of fun. The shutter is noisy making the 20D limited for wildlife work but when taking images of landscapes, people or my personal favourite, macro work, then this camera has the lot. You get the build quality of Canon's professional cameras without the price tag. The 20D is heavy, especially with the battery grip and a quality lens attached, so be prepared to use a tripod to help you avoid camera shake.

This camera is beautiful and the little niggles I have over the focusing system etc have not stopped me loving the 20D to bits.

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Customer Rating: - the 17-85 is definitely worth the extra $$$$
The 17-85mm is proving to be a very useful and very clean and crisp lens. The IS really works. The 135mm equivalent gets me through a lot of situations where if I were using the shorter kit lens I'd have to change to something longer. I'm really pleased with it (and with my 20D - if only it had a spot meter)