Yes, I finally did it: I bought the new camera body.

After much twisting and turning on the precipice of buying a 1D Mk II, in the end, I couldn’t justify the nearly tripled cost as compared to its little brother, the 20D.

In a short time spent playing with the 20D, I have to admit that I’m impressed. The feel is a little different, and some of the controls either aren’t where they were before, or work a little differently than the 10D — that’s not inhibiting my enjoyment though!

The first thing I’ve noticed is that it is fast. Very fast. Turn the switch on, and the camera is ready. With the 10D, there was a second or two pause, which made it easy to miss the unexpected shot. The burst speed is also very fast — five frames per second, and in RAW, I can run that for two full seconds before the camera starts trying to write to my 4GB microdrive, which slows it down some, but still writes three times as fast as the 10D. With faster CF, the 20D is supposed to write almost five times faster than the 10D. Amazing.

And the picture quality seems to be terrific, too. I’ve been very impressed with the first pictures that have come off the camera as I’ve tested with it.

Overall, I’ve got to say, this is a tremendous improvement over the 10D, and worth every penny!

So, anyone need a used 10D? 🙂