But click on the New and Used link, and I can currently see it for £400 from one of Amazon's own partners. And that's new as well; it's not a used one. That's got to be the best bargain that I've seen in a long time. You'll be paying £700 less than the 20D's cost, and for a camera that's not all that inferior to it.

Here's a quick summary of the main improvements you'd be missing by not getting the 20D:

• Increased pixel count; the 20D has 8.2 Megapixels compared to the 10D's 6.3. However, you're only ever likely to notice this if you're printing out large (bigger than A3) prints.
• Less image noise at higher ISO settings. The 20D is noticeably better at ISO 800 and higher
• Faster start up time. The 10D takes 2 or 3 seconds to start up, and this can be a major pain, especially as it puts itself into standby mode after 30 seconds or so of inactivity. (It takes those same 2 or 3 seconds to wake up from standby mode too). I don't think I've ever actually missed a shot because of this, but it's been a close thing on occasion. The 20D starts up pretty well instantaneously.
• Ability to use the Canon's EF-S lenses. This new range of digital-only lenses can, at present, be used only with the 300D and 20D. They will not fit on to the 10D! Shame, because there's some nice looking lenses in the EF-S range. 3rd party manufacturers such as Sigma have stepped in to fill this gap somewhat.

Despite these shortcomings, you'll be getting an awful lot of camera for £400. I certainly wouldn't pay much more for it now, although it was worth double that not six months ago. If you've got the money to spare, I'd still go for the 20D though.

By Michael Brown

I'm more than satisfied with its performance, and have been getting wonderful results with my most used lens, a 100mm Canon Macro f2.8. Accurate auto-focus and minimal noise even at higher ISOs seals it all for me.

By

In auto mode, the camera produces correctly exposed, sharp photos. Unlike my Canon Powershot, the camera takes the picture with very little delay after depressing the shutter button.

In the creative zones, you can set aperture priority to take, for example, selective focus shots, or use shutter speed priority and set a slow shutter speed to take some good blurring shots.

The auto focus is quick and accurate. I never use the manual focus mode. The pop-up flash works great for lighting subject that are in shadows or back lit.

I now find it a bit frustrating to use my film camera. I'm addicted to viewing my shots on the spot. And I love being able to change lenses without having to first finish a roll or wind the film back into the spool.

I also have a Canon EOS AE film camera that I purchased in 1995. Since I'm familiar with the EOS system and have Canon system lenses, I chose the 10d over the similarly priced Nikon prosumer digital camera. The EOS cameras are extremely comfortable to hold and handle.

I like my Canon cameras so well that I bought the Canon digital Elf for my sister and the Canon Powershot A80 for my mother. Both have reportedly been excellent cameras.

With the 10d, I've used a Canon 50mm/compact macro, a Tamron 28-200mm and a Canon 15mm fisheye lens with the 10d. Because of the difference in the way a film camera and a digital camera operate, you multiply the focal length of the lens by 1.6 to figure the effective focal length when used with a digital camera. So, for example, the 15mm fisheye lens is effectively a 24mm lens on the 10d.

I bought a 1 gig IMB microdrive storage card and that allows me to take 400 high res jpg or 160 raw format photos.

Unless you need the quality of the 1Ds immediately I would recommend getting the 10D because technology is moving so fast that the quality of the 1Ds will be available for the current price of the 10D in the near future.

By Stacy Munn
Seattle, WA USA