Not satisfied with my Canon 20D

Dear All,

3-Years ago, I traded my Digital Rebel in and bought my Canon 20D. Since then I had never been very satisfied with my 20D's low light performance (even relative to my Rebel). The pictures mostly came out very dark. My friends who have rebel or entry Nikon DSLR's pull in great shots.

I thought it was my lens and went through a series of lens changes and I currently have the Canon 17-85, 2.8 Lens. Even after having a 2.8 lens, if my shots are dark, I am starting to wonder if the 20D is not a good camera.

Now, I am using exposure compensation or high ISO 1600 to get good shots.

Anything else that I am doing wrong or is 20D known for mediocre performance in low light?

The 20D is a great camera so post some pictures and EXIF data to determine what is going on.

barno wrote in post #8309747
The 20D is a great camera so post some pictures and EXIF data to determine what is going on.

+1 Without images it's going to be pretty hard to tell what's really going on.

And when you post the image please ensure theat the exif is intact (don't "save for web" in Photoshop).

I've published a lot of work with the 20D, post some pictures so we can see what the problem is.

Also like to hear more about this Canon 17-85 2.8 Seems like a rare find

MultiDim2009 wrote in post #8309715
Dear All,

3-Years ago, I traded my Digital Rebel in and bought my Canon 20D. Since then I had never been very satisfied with my 20D's low light performance (even relative to my Rebel). The pictures mostly came out very dark. My friends who have rebel or entry Nikon DSLR's pull in great shots.

I thought it was my lens and went through a series of lens changes and I currently have the Canon 17-85, 2.8 Lens. Even after having a 2.8 lens, if my shots are dark, I am starting to wonder if the 20D is not a good camera.

Now, I am using exposure compensation or high ISO 1600 to get good shots.

Anything else that I am doing wrong or is 20D known for mediocre performance in low light?

Firstly, welcome to the cauldron..

I'm on my second 20D since 2005.. The first was issued to me as a back up for a 1D MkII when I worked for a newspaper.. I found the 20D so good it became my work horse.. My second 20D I bought 2nd hand off a fellow POTNer.. The 20D is one camera Canon got right from the start..The image quality I get out of my 20D never fails to amaze me and can stand up to some of the new offerings from Canon..

It's maybe a good idea you post some examples where your 20D (or you) went wrong.. Have the exif intact.. Maybe you need to re-evaluate your photographic techniques..

Here are examples of low light work using the 20D,,most shot at 3200 iso..

http://www.pbase.com …eue/regurgitato​r&page=all

Friends,
Thanks for the quick responses.
Please see a picture attached with the Exif data.
http://www.screencast.​com/t/WDS9rucwn

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It's all in the way you meter and what subject your camera is metering. In that photo, the camera is set to meter the background... and you can see the background is perfectly exposed.

The people turn out dark because the background is much brighter than the people inside. If you meter the people instead of the background, you should not have a problem and the people will be properly exposed.

It looks like your aperture is kinda high...

Mike,
There was a typo in the lens. It is 17-55, 2.8. Not 85. Sorry.

Flare, not sure what I metered of on this photo, but let me take a few more pictures and share here. This is a perennial problem for me, so it is easy to take a few more and see similar impact.

Cory, I didn't set the aperture. I put in "p" mode and let it chose the aperture and shutter speed.

what metering is your camera set to? spot meter, center weighted, average?

Learn to shoot in manual.
Your camera is exposing properly for what you are telling it to expose.
If you shoot in manual (M) you just need to look at the back of the camera (Histogram) to see what your getting and adjusting as you need to.
You can also learn to shoot in AV or P or TV but it does help you learn exposure control nearly as fast IMHO.

If you can nail shots while shooting in M you will advance much faster.

Flare, It is set to evaluative metering.

flareak wrote in post #8309922
what metering is your camera set to? spot meter, center weighted, average?

the 20D does not have spot.