1D Mark II vs. 20d.

What are the major differences, in a nutshell, that make the Mark II cost three times as much as the 20d? I've always wanted a camera that has the motor drive grip built in, as in the 1 series cameras. But 1499 for the 20d versus 4500 for the Mark II?

I do shoot sports (purely for hobby, high school sports, and have had quite a few pictures placed in the local newspaper).

Okay, shoot, fellas:

You could try the dpreview.com comparison feature, which is pretty good. I'm sure people here will help you lighten your wallet too, though

Larger sensor (1.3 factor vs. 1.6) with larger pixels ; 45 focus points vs. 9 and faster, more accurate auto focus; 8 fps vs. 5; Mark II has professional, weather-sealed build quality with a shutter that's rated for far more actuations than the 20D shutter.

Those are just some differences that quickly come to mind. There are more, including greater customization abilities and other advantages.

You won't feel the differences from the paper or our words...

Get one and you will know by yourself.

Good thing about digital is that you don't need a motor drive

You can always get the battery grip for the 20D.

While it most likely will not have the stability of the one-piece body of the one series, you have the ability to take it off when you want to travel light.

Best regards,
Andy

Light is of course a relative term. If you want to travel really light get a little ixus or something. I missed a great candid shot that a point and shoot would have gotten because it takes time to get the EOS out of the bag and turn it on.

Andythaler wrote:
Good thing about digital is that you don't need a motor drive

No? I thought that those are motor drives in 1D series cameras? So why are 1D series camera generally faster in processing (and noisy)? :P

nosquare2003 wrote:

Andythaler wrote:
Good thing about digital is that you don't need a motor drive

No? I thought that those are motor drives in 1D series cameras? So why are 1D series camera generally faster in processing (and noisy)? :P

Motor drive in film cameras usually means advancing the film by motor. Both digital and film SLR's have the same mirror system which is the main reason for noise. When you take a shot, mirror must be moved away and back ASAP. And the faster you need to move the mirror the more noise you get. 1D Mark II has shutter noise reduction which works by halting the mirror return to moment shutter is released.

20D mirror is about as noisy as 1D Mark II (without NR) even with slower speed (max 5fps vs. max 8fps), because in 20D the mirror does not move conventionally but has to do an extra action to avoid touching lens base because distance from mirror to lens is shorter (info from Canon rep.).

Processing speed is about card i/o speed and CPU power, nothing else. In that respect digital SLR is just like any other PC, only that DSLR processors are always DSP type custom chips . Digic II is very fast.

So the motor drive does not move the shutter?
And I thought the 1D can get faster shutterspeeds because of the stronger motor...



Best regards,
Andy

PS: Just kidding, of course