What first struck me about the 20D was its overall construction quality. The body is heavier than that of the Rebel and at least gives the impression of being somewhat more tolerant of the inevitable bumps and bruises in the field. The Rebel held up very well, I should note; it's just that it gives the impression of being delicate. There are several in-depth reviews of the capabilities of the 20D elsewhere on the web, so I won't repeat what those have stated. Those reviews always compare the 20D to the 10D, however, so I do have some further comment about the differences between 20D and the Rebel.

The 20D has a far better viewfinder. The pentaprism viewer actually allows you to manually focus; in the Rebel, I never quite knew if the focus was just right in manual focus conditions. The 20D has a superior user interface with a jog wheel and knob that lead to substantially more rapid selection of the desired menu choice or action. I have some concerns about the on/off knob on the 20D. Those with larger fingers need not apply here. It takes a small finger or a fingernail to operate (it's on the lower back of the camera rather than on the top deck) and I sometimes feel like it could break off if manhandled.

I've run into some problems with the included software. For the first few days, I couldn't get any of the RAW files off the CF card. The 20D can't be connected to a Macintosh running OS 9 as the Rebel can. When connected to a Mac running OS X, the RAW files can easily be accessed from the camera and transferred to the computer. If I take the CF card from the camera and place it into my Dazzle CF reader, the RAW files can't be transferred to any computer. Canon tells me that some CF readers have this difficulty with the 20D; it would be nice to know which readers work and which don't. The older ImageBrowser software, which comes with many Canon printers and which worked perfectly with the Rebel, works well here with everything except RAW files. The Canon Digital Photo Professional software for the Mac, which comes with the 20D, has a user interface that oddly doesn't allow for accessing folders on the desktop under OS X.

The downside of this package is clearly in the software, which really isn't ready for primetime. It doesn't crash - it does get the job done - but I constantly feel as if I need to implement a workaround to get where I want to go. The Canon folks need to implement a Mac software beta-test program in order to get this essential part of digital photography into shape. The camera is wonderful and I'd highly recommend it to upgrading Rebel owners.

Recommended:
Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 1439
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Solid Enough for a Professional