Canon 20D: Raising the Bar for Prosumer Digital SLRs
by Stephen Caston on November 11, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Digital Camera
Noise
The noise test consists of pictures of our studio shot taken at increasing ISO levels to show the effect on the image. The pictures were taken after resetting the cameras to their factory default settings. The cameras were then set to record with the highest quality option with manual WB. Aperture priority (f/11) was used. The 20D has been set to Parameter 2 while the 10D is set to Standard. A Canon 50mm Macro lens was used on both cameras. Click on a 100% crop below to view the full-size image.| 20D | 10D | |
| ISO 100 |  Click to enlarge. |
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| ISO 200 |  Click to enlarge. |
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| ISO 400 |  Click to enlarge. |
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| ISO 800 |  Click to enlarge. |
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| ISO 1600 |  Click to enlarge. |
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| ISO 3200 |  Click to enlarge. |
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Across the board, the 20D dominates over the 10D in its low noise capabilities. Even at ISO 200 and 400, the 20D produces clean images while the 10D images begin to get a bit grainy. By ISO 1600 and 3200, the advantages of the 20D are astounding. While the 10D takes on serious detail loss and discoloration, the 20D retains significantly more fine details. In our noise test, it is safe to say that ISO 3200 on the 20D is roughly equivalent to somewhere between ISO 800 and 1600 on the 10D. This is a very important advantage for 20D users because it empowers them to shoot in darker lighting with much better results than the 10D.
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maxusa - Thursday, November 11, 2004 - link
This is a professional DSLR, not prosumer. The only prosumer attribute of the 20D might be price of the body. But even this is highly questionable if one factors in lens(es). I recommend you change this misleading assertion.Mday - Thursday, November 11, 2004 - link
Hmm, I would have liked to see an accessory list:"All" EF lenses
EF-S lenses
flashes
battery grip
Overall, dpreview forums provide much better insite into the camera from users of cameras.
Without a forum attached to digital imaging, questions and comments to anandtech forums are lost to the billions of posts in general hardware.
stephencaston - Thursday, November 11, 2004 - link
Thanks for the comment and good suggestion. We will include this info in future reviews.Gatak - Thursday, November 11, 2004 - link
Nice article =) the D20 is cirtanly on my wishlist.There are things I'd like to see for future photography /image quality tests. You should mention the colour profile and gamma settings for the images that you use.
A uncalibrated CRT monitor (the default Windows and Linux user) will use a gamma close to 2.5 instead of the sRGB of about 2.2. Unless the user has compensated the gamma shift on their system using tools like Adobe Gamma or xgamma these pictures will look much to dark.
I have illustrated the difference on this image: http://moment22.mine.nu/20dcc-gamma-compare.jpg
It should be viewed on a sRGB monitor or in a application that can simulate sRGB on your monitor (like Photoshop)