20D gets good press in Pop Photo

[Tom W]

Popular Photography did an "Under $2500 DSLR Shootout" in the April 2005 issue, and the 20D came up on top overall, as well as in the image quality, Control, and system flexibility categories. It came in second to the Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D in only one category, "Ease of Use".

It was compared against Nikon's D70, the original Digital Rebel, Konica-Minolta's 7D, the Pentax *ist DS, two Olympus models and others.

They did not test the new D-Rebel XT in this comparison, but it would undoubtedly have been a very strong contender, especially when price is considered.

[drisley]

On the Pop Photo forum somebody is already complaining about that article, stating that his beloved 7D should have won atleast second place. :)

[CyberDyneSystems]

This is actually more impressive than it sounds,. Pop Photo likes to be a little .. well "Non-Canon"-centric...

There review of the 20D was five months after I had my 20D in hand and shooting,. and it was not even on the Cover.... To my eyes they intentionally burried the 20D,.. waiting untill they had the 1DsMkII on the cover to obliterate the 20D from view,.

So this is high praise indeed :)

[charlesu]

Pop Photo is a waste of paper and time. Most of their editors and writers are simply gear promoters, not reviewers and though it may have changed in the last few years, my experience was that most of them still lived in the 60s or early 70s. The Nikon F was king. AF is a fad. AE is a fad. Etc. I got really tired of bull$hit reviews that meant nothing and long winded meaningless articles about some accessory Nikon made back in 1969. I guess some people are into that. And the price was cheap. I think my last subscription was $5 for the year. But it was still a waste of the paper it was printed on. Shutterbug has gone that way too. It's smaller and MUCH thinner than it used to be. The editorial content is far less. The reviews all seem to be positive and vague. Etc. I find much more interesting information from 3-4 websites than in most of the photography trade mags.

[Tom W]

..... and long winded meaningless articles about some accessory Nikon made back in 1969....

Let me guess - you're referring to Herb Keppler. :D

[CyberDyneSystems]

Herb "the dinosaur" Keppler who insists that his Vivatar 80-400mm zoom is just as good as a Canon 100-400mmL IS or Nikon 80-400VR ??

That Herb Keppler?

Why on earth would you question his judgement ??? :lol: :lol:

[Tom W]

I get a kick out of Herb. My father and Herb are of a similar era - both swore they'd never go digital. I remember my dad showing me Herb's column a year or so ago, claiming "see, Keppler won't get one of those digital cameras either".

Of course, Herb now has a *ist D, but Dad is still shooting his A1.

[DaveG]

Popular Photography did an "Under $2500 DSLR Shootout" in the April 2005 issue, and the 20D came up on top overall, as well as in the image quality, Control, and system flexibility categories. It came in second to the Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D in only one category, "Ease of Use".

It was compared against Nikon's D70, the original Digital Rebel, Konica-Minolta's 7D, the Pentax *ist DS, two Olympus models and others.

They did not test the new D-Rebel XT in this comparison, but it would undoubtedly have been a very strong contender, especially when price is considered.

Popular Photography and its clone Modern Photography were terrible in regards to objectivity in testing. No matter what it was, it was good.

I remember a glowing review of an Eastern European camera in the late 1970's. It was probably a Practica and they said way to many nice things about it. That was fully a function of a full page ad elsewhere in the magazine I thought.

There was never a word about the light build quality of Olympus OM lenses and their lack of multi-coating when everyone else in the industry had gone that way. A multi page ad probably took care of that issue. The result for me was that I got well and truly sucked into Olympus for three years, with help from PP and MP reviews of the OM cameras.

I just wonder how long Pop Photo will survive. I used to buy two or three different photography magazines a month and I doubt if I've bought any in the last year. My wife picks me up Pop Photo from the library and an average issue takes about five minutes out of my life to read. I get through the twenty pages of editorial content - all of which were on the internet MONTHS before - before I get to the hundred of mail order pages.

There used to be a section (and it may still be there) called Too Hot to Handle. There would be a letter that flamed some manufacturer about something and the magazine would respond in defence of the advertising purchaser. I always thought that the letters were faked by the writers to get their REAL opinion in print, in spite of the instant rationalization. Then again I think that Oswald did it, and did it alone.

[Mike H]

Wow! I didn't know that either Herb or the magazine (well, catalog) still existed. It's a shame to see trees die for that.

Mike H