20D shutter blown

My trusty old 20D's shutter blew out two days ago. It keeps clicking and won't stop unless I pull the battery. It's exactly the same thing that happened to me June 4, 2009 and I paid $180 to repair it at Canon Irvine. I reviewed my photos and found that I had 82,692 actuations on the body. I know shutters can fail at any time, and the info on the Internet is a bit murky, with some people saying it's rated for 50,000 clicks, others higher.

The question is: repair again or buy a new body?

I mostly use the camera to shoot sports (mostly basketball) and events. The 20D's buffer is so pitiful that I have to shoot in JPEG or else the buffer fills up too fast and i can't shoot sequences. I have the 17-55mm that I don't want to give up right now, so I guess it either comes down to the 60D or the 7D.

I have concerns with that shooting RAW with an 18 MP camera will blow through my hard drive space too fast. I currently have a 1.5TB drive with about 100 GB left, and two 2TB drives with 500 GB left.

I have no plans to currently use the camera for video. Both have video anyway though, so it's not as though I'm choosing between one or the other, although i know my friend uses the 60D swivel screen to get better angles and views.

There's a website called BPP that has the 60D for $825 and the 7D for $1269. it has a fantastic rating on ResellerRatings.com so I don't think it's a scam price.

Help me decide POTN.

Assuming that it's about the same cost, you're basically paying almost 100% of the current value of the 20D to repair it. Nothing wrong with that, but this would be the second time repaired, so something to consider.

I had (actually still own) a 20D, but bought a 7D in December for the main reason that I love to shoot sports and needed a faster/larger buffer. It's a great camera and I love the faster FPS capability.

You can always shoot at a lower file size, so that you won't burn through as much of your hard drive space. I'd say if you can afford the cost, go ahead and upgrade at this point. You can also see your grip (you'll need a different one for the 7D).

Crikey! Bad luck and stuff, but if you are having to economically consider the playing field for an ancient digital 20D and your current computer gear, shoot with film or something?

Nothing is cheap in life

Upgrade to a 40D, the repair costs put you at least half the way to an upgrade. I've used the 20D, 30D, and 40D and the 40D was a significant upgrade for the XXD line.

We'd upgrade to a newer model for those prices.

Yeah, get a used 40D for $400 or the 7D if you can swing it. Then sell the broken 20D on eBay for $100 or trade it in to the Canon Loyalty Program for a refurbished 7D.

I want a 50D. It sounds like it would fit my needs. You can get a great used one for around $600

Have to agree with gonzo above - your best move at this point for continued shooting of faced paced sequences along with a MUCH larger buffer - would be a used 40D. You can pick them up at times for $350 and would be the perfect upgrade without breaking the bank...

gonzogolf wrote in post #14334127
Upgrade to a 40D, the repair costs put you at least half the way to an upgrade. I've used the 20D, 30D, and 40D and the 40D was a significant upgrade for the XXD line.

You'd be happy with a 40D. I have one, loved it until I upgraded to a 7D. Still have the 40D as a backup. Solid dependable camera.

I would use the Canon Loyalty Program (CLP) and trade the dead 20D for a 60D body. The net price would be about $640 +taxes. You can find all the details about the CLP at https://photography-on-the.net …ght=canon+loyal​ty+program. Basically all you need to know is in the initial content of the thread.

60D is a good camera - just a lot different ergonomically from his current 20D - whereas he could just fall backwards into the ergo of the 40D. Its basically the same.

I would try to move to something else. $180 is about what that camera is worth.

You'll be fine for a bit with your current hard drive storage availability. The prices of even larger external drives are continuously dropping too.

You should either go the CLP route, or sell it on EBAY as-is to put the money towards a replacement.

To the OP. What did you end up doing with this??? I am on the fence 50D or jump to the 60D for video capability. 7D is not within reach at the time.

OnTheMend wrote in post #14380370
To the OP. What did you end up doing with this??? I am on the fence 50D or jump to the 60D for video capability. 7D is not within reach at the time.

Swung for a 7D with grip and two batteries on Craigslist for $1284. If I had to do it over again, I'd probably go go the loyalty program route. I have a really cheap PowerShot A400 that is broken and was really surprised to find that I could trade even that for a DSLR (when I did the program a few years back, the cameras were limited by the trade-in value for the camera).