The 20D is hella fast!!!

[pcasciola]

A friend and I just did a side by side speed comparison of his 10D to my new 20D. In the largest JPEG mode, using a 1Gb Sandisk Ultra II 60x CF card, I fired off 40 pictures with the 20D in about 10 seconds. As if that wasn't enough for our jaws to drop open, the write light was completely off only 8 or 9 seconds after I stopped shooting. The same test on the 10D with the same memory card produced about 20 pictures, and then it took at least 25-30 seconds for the write light to go off.

I then did a RAW+L test (RAW and Largest JPEG) with the 20D. The buffer was full after 6 shots and then I was stuck at about one frame every 1-1/2 seconds. The 10D managed about 8-9 RAW shots before filling the buffer, and then was shooting one frame every 2 to 2-1/2 seconds.

Not a very technical test, but they were so far apart in speed that we didn't need to be that precise.

[SENster7]

Yeah the RAW buffer issue with the 20D is a bummer, but I've actually overlooked this, and I am extremely happy with the 20D. I started a thread last month about the small RAW buffer on the 20D. It isn't as bad as I thought it would be, to be honest, I am amazed on how fast and great my JPEG shots are with the 20D, that I am actually thinking of going back to JPEG and not shooting RAW anymore..SHHHHHHHHHHHH

[pcasciola]

I will definitely be leaning toward using JPEG most of the time, too, especially when shooting sports where that kind of speed is really needed. The quick recovery time is also a big plus. I don't see myself ever really filling the buffer in JPEG mode. It feels almost endless.

For portaits and landscapes though, the RAW buffer on the 20D is just fine. I don't need that kind of speed in those scenarios. 6 shots every 10 seconds is plenty for me in that case.

[SENster7]

I will definitely be leaning toward using JPEG most of the time, too, especially when shooting sports where that kind of speed is really needed. The quick recovery time is also a big plus. I don't see myself ever really filling the buffer in JPEG mode. It feels almost endless.

For portaits and landscapes though, the RAW buffer on the 20D is just fine. I don't need that kind of speed in those scenarios. 6 shots every 10 seconds is plenty for me in that case.

I agree, as long as you nail WB and EC in JPEG yer set...

[Morden]

Due to the much improved (compared to the 10D) write speed, the 20D seems to be able to take a RAW shot about once a second until the card fills! (dependant on the speed of the card, of course)

[Scottes]

Drop the 20D to JPEG small. You'll fill the gig card before the buffer ever fills, and the camera will never slow down.

[OviV]

What are you guys using for RAW conversion? CS Raw does not supported yet also I like to use Zoombrowser to download the pictures from the card to the computer because it does a nice job of organizing them by date but camera does not come with zb and my older version is not successfully downloading them either. I would hate to have to plug the camera in to download pictures or have to manually copy files. What is the Digital Photo Professional software that comes with it?

[tommykjensen]

Just did a few tests with different cards.

I shot 20 seconds continuos in P mode ISO 100. 3 tests, first JPEG small fine, second JPEG Large fine and last RAW.

Lexar 1 GB Prof 80x
Number of Large fine JPEG: 40 (buffer full before 20 seconds)
Time for drive light to go out: 20 sec
Number of Small fine JPEG: 68
Time for drive light to go out: 12
Number of RAW: 15 (buffer full before 20 seconds)
Time for drive light to go out: 16

Kingston 1 GB
Number of Large fine JPEG: 39 (buffer full before 20 seconds)
Time for drive light to go out: 17
Number of Small fine JPEG: 60
Time for drive light to go out: 7
Number of RAW: 15 (buffer full before 20 seconds)
Time for drive light to go out: 17

Hitachi 2 GB microdrive
Number of Large fine JPEG: 33 (buffer full before 20 seconds)
Time for drive light to go out: 14
Number of Small fine JPEG: 61
Time for drive light to go out: 14
Number of RAW: 15 (buffer full before 20 seconds)
Time for drive light to go out: 16


Conclusion on my not very scientific test: The speed of the card is not so important when shooting RAW.

But with JPEG the faster the card the more shots before BUSY. And as Scottes mention with Small fine the card will fill up before BUSY. In one minute with the Kingston card I shot 213 photos!

[tommykjensen]

Ups, correction just realized that above tests was done in ISO 1600 :oops:

[tommykjensen]

Redid the test with one of the cards in ISO 100

Lexar 1 GB Prof 80x
Number of Large fine JPEG: 60 (buffer full before 20 seconds)
Time for drive light to go out: 20 sec
Number of Small fine JPEG: 97
Time for drive light to go out: 16
Number of RAW: 20 (buffer full before 20 seconds)
Time for drive light to go out: 16


Quite a difference.

[Scottes]

Yeah, the noise in ISO 1600 will cut compression down considerably while increasing time to compress.

Even still, it's pretty fast.

[drisley]

Yeah the RAW buffer issue with the 20D is a bummer, but I've actually overlooked this, and I am extremely happy with the 20D. I started a thread last month about the small RAW buffer on the 20D. It isn't as bad as I thought it would be, to be honest, I am amazed on how fast and great my JPEG shots are with the 20D, that I am actually thinking of going back to JPEG and not shooting RAW anymore..SHHHHHHHHHHHH

Yeah, I remember our Raw Buffer rant. Wow, it's good to see you got your 20D already! Doesn't the 20D allow writing to the card while taking pictures (something the 10D does not). So, all in all wouldn't even shooting Raw be MUCH faster as long as you dont use the spray and pray method?

[James Yeung]

Holy smokes!!

Makes my recently purchased 300D a joke!

At any rate, I'm a total newbie and I'm very happy with my 300D. Sometimes I do run into problems waiting for the images to be copied into flash. All things considered, it doesn't take long before I can shoot again, for a noob.

I started out with a 1.5MP Fuji 4-5 years ago. It came with a 2meg card and immediately bought a 8meg card. I updgraded it to 128MEG a year ago and it takes around 20 seconds to boot up and around 15 seconds to copy one 700k pic. From where I was coming from, I think the 300D is god but from what I hear, the 20D is 'The One'! I'll upgrade eventually, but not for many years to come. :-)

James

[DaveG]

What are you guys using for RAW conversion? CS Raw does not supported yet also I like to use Zoombrowser to download the pictures from the card to the computer because it does a nice job of organizing them by date but camera does not come with zb and my older version is not successfully downloading them either. I would hate to have to plug the camera in to download pictures or have to manually copy files. What is the Digital Photo Professional software that comes with it?

Photoshop CS SHOULD support the 20D's RAW format. It's just the .CR2 RAW format of the Mark II and PSCS certainly supports that. There have been upgrades to PSCS and perhaps that included the .CR2 that wasn't in the original PSCS package. If you don't have this capability have a look at the Adbobe site for updates.

[Scottes]

PS CS does not currently officially support the 20D RAW files. They are the same as the MkII, but since the 20D wasn't out for the ACR 2.2 update it doesn't know what to do with the files since "20D" isn't on the list. There is a hack out there requiring one to hex edit the plug-in, over-writing the MkII info with the 20D info. It works for some, not for others.