Just upgraded from 20D to 30D and I think it was worth the $90

Lots of people have down-played this upgrade as being very minor, but for me it made sense. I had bought my 20D second hand and I liked it. It appeared to be in excellent condition and had not yet shown any signs of malfunction.

However, I felt my 20D was a bit like a ticking bomb as regards the remaining shutter life. In addition, the 1.8" LCD display was really too small for my ageing eyes to read comfortably and it didn't have spot metering, which I have have found useful on some previous cameras.

I sold the 20D and bought a 30D on Ebay. My first 30D was a dud and displayed the dreaded Err99 as soon as I tried to use it. However, the vendor was very good about it and offered either to refund my money or to send me another 30D that he had available. He even sent me the money to cover the cost of returning the faulty 30D to him. I gladly accepted his offer of an exchange camera and so I now have what appears to be a fully functional 30D in very good condition. It does smell of tobacco but I don't mind that because I used to smoke until recently anyway.

I regard this as 90 bucks well spent. Even though I realize it's really just a 20D with refinements, they're important refinements to me.

Congrats...I've had both and the 30D is worth the little extra dough.

I used my 30D like crazy, upgraded to 5d and gave my mom my 30D. I think its somewhere in the area 160-170K actuations and running strong. It is a great body.

id go for the 40D. how much more will it cost ya.

So you sold your 20D and added $90 to those proceeds to buy a 30D. Not bad.

Marloon wrote in post #12401004
id go for the 40D. how much more will it cost ya.

Of course, if I could have afforded it I would have preferred a 40D. That's going to be my next target! Right now, though, I need money for other things as well, like buying a new washing-machine for my wife.

Had it not been stolen, I'd still have a 30D. the upgrade from my 20 to 30D was great for Airshows + paintball and Soccer where things were coming toward/away from me. the 20D would freak out.. the 30D rolls with it. Have fun!

Congrats! It's a great body! My only complaint was the preview thumbnails were very low resolution, which made checking for focus accuracy on the camera LCD difficult because everything looked soft when zoomed in. But the rest of it was awesome. Wonderful camera that has gotten me many excellent shots!