is a used 1D right for me?

[viknijjar]

Hi there,

I'm moving up from Minolta film cameras and am excited about getting into the Canon family. I've done quite a bit of research and have narrowed my choices to these:

used 1D
new 1D Mark II
new 20D

I shoot all kinds of subjects from portraits to landscapes to sports and would like to make some large prints. I just haven't seen much advice anywhere on the net about what kinds of people a used 1D would be appropriate for. Is the 1D a better choice for me than the very popular 20D? Or should I just melt the credit card and get a MKII and be done with it.

Thanks in advance!

[RJSorensen]

Melt the plastic . . .

[cactusclay]

I considered one of the high end bodies recently and ended up getting the 20D mostly because of the instant start up time that my Reble didn't have. I know that the pro bodies don't change quite as often as the consumer grade ones do, but none the less they do and it really costs a lot to upgrade with them. I think the 20D is plenty for me and at less then 1500.00 I can do without the weather proofing and all the other fancy stuff that I haven't seemed to miss thus far.

[CyberDyneSystems]

I would not say a used 1D is WRONG for you,. but I would not think it was the best choice either.

The 20D has gone very far in narrowing the gap between the Canon "affordable" line and the high end pro "1" series....

Unless you are full time sports.. I'd say the 20D is the better bet to start off. It will still most likely be less expensive than even a USed 1D,. but you'll get double the resolution,. lower noise at high iso.. etc...

If you absolutely MUST have the fastest Autofocus availble at the sacrifice of resolution,. then a 1D may be worth looking into.. but for what you describe,. I would theink the 20D is a better camera for your all around use.

And of course,. you can allways have the best of both worlds.. with the 1D MkII ;)

[aeroshots2003]

I recently stepped from film body to DSLR - I used the EOS 1N HS and 1 N RS and have now bought the 20D.

I had the same problem : should I stick with the 1 Series in Digital?

Although I LOVE the 1 Series build and feel, the 20D was my choice because I just couldn't justify the price difference. And the 20D seems to do a pretty nice job, although I have to play with it a little more to learn its qualities and limitations.

I thought of it this way :
I now buy a 20D for 1/3 of the 1D MkII price and toy with it for 18 months and maybe then I pick up a second hand 1D MkII to replace my current DSLR. By then I hope there has been a considerable Mark II price drop.

[Mike Panic]

cyber - i think the one thing your missing about the 1d is speed... sure its got a fast af.... but more importantly its got a faster frame rate then the 20d, which in sports can be worth its weight in gold

ive used a 1d, luv it... i would have no problem giving up resolution to upgrade from my 10d to a 1d instead of a 20d, for the speed, for the smaller cropping factor of 1.3 and for the better auto focus system.

ive also seen prints 20x30 off a 1d that look amazing... so dont let the 4.1mp fool you - just like the nikon d1h was only 2.74 mp... it made stellar prints.

the other thing to consider is that it already has a grip built in. figure a new 20d is 1500, grip is 200 and another battery is 50... your up to 1750 - which is rougly the cost of a used 1d

the only downside ive found from using the 1d is that there is no "set" button in the middle of the rear command dial like there is on the 10d/20d - but thats easy to work around

but then agaain, if you can afford it, just get the 1d mkII