Canon 20D: Raising the Bar for Prosumer Digital SLRs
by Stephen Caston on November 11, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Digital Camera
Color Reproduction
* For all of our color tests, we reset the 20D and 10D to their factory default settings. A Canon 50mm Macro lens was used on both cameras. The 20D was set to Parameter 2 while the 10D was set to Standard. Then, they were set to record using the highest image quality JPEG option in Aperture priority mode (F/11).We took a picture of our color chart using each of the following WB settings: Auto, Tungsten, and Manual. Click on a thumbnail below to view the full-size image.
Tungsten
| Auto WB | Tungsten WB | Manual WB | |
| 20D |  Click to enlarge. |
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| 10D |  Click to enlarge. |
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 Reference Chart ("actual colors") |
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Crops
| Auto WB | Tungsten WB | Manual WB | |
| 20D |  |
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| 10D |  |
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With Auto WB, both cameras have a strong yellowish cast. However, the 20D is just a bit more accurate than the 10D. When Tungsten WB is set, the colors are more accurate, but there is still a slight yellowish cast. Again, the 20D chart is a little more accurate and brighter overall. When both cameras are set to Manual WB, the colors are very accurate. Our only complaint is that the charts are slightly underexposed. Overall, the 20D does the best job dealing with Tungsten light and produces brighter exposures than the 10D.
Daylight
| Auto WB | Daylight WB | Manual WB | |
| 20D |  Click to enlarge. |
 Click to enlarge. |
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| 10D |  Click to enlarge. |
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Reference Chart ("actual colors") |
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| Auto WB | Daylight WB | Manual WB | |
| 20D |  |
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| 10D |  |
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In sunlight, both cameras do a wonderful job producing accurate colors. However, the 10D produces charts that are just a bit brighter than the 20D. At any rate, both cameras produce consistent accurate results in Auto, Daylight, and Manual WB modes.
Studio Shot (Tungsten)
In this shot, we tested each camera's ability to reproduce colors in our studio shot using different WB settings. The cameras were set to Aperture priority mode (f/11) without the flash.| Auto WB | Tungsten WB | Manual WB | |
| 20D |  Click to enlarge. |
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 Click to enlarge. |
| 10D |  Click to enlarge. |
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In this comparison, it is easy to see that both the 20D and 10D have an orange-yellow cast in Auto WB mode in tungsten lighting. However, the 10D has just a slightly stronger cast than the 20D. With Tungsten WB, it's a similar story. Both show a lighter orange-yellow cast than in Auto WB. And again, the 20D does just a bit better than the 10D. In Manual WB mode, the cameras do much better. Both cameras underexpose the image, but the 20D is a bit brighter than the 10D. Overall, we were not very impressed with the 20D's performance in tungsten light. We are happy to see it producing more accurate colors than the 10D, but we expect more than this.
Built-in Flash
For the flash test, we set both cameras to Program AE mode and set the ISO mode to 100, white balance to Auto, and recording quality to Large/Fine JPEG. The 20D was set to "Parameter 2" and the 10D was set to "Standard". The pictures were taken from 5 feet away.| Program AE mode | |
 20D (Parameter 2) Click to enlarge. |
 10D (Standard) Click to enlarge. |
While both the 20D and 10D are able to reproduce accurate colors, they have both underexposed the shot in Program AE mode. However, the 10D image is noticeably brighter than the 20D.
| Auto mode | |
 20D Click to enlarge. |
 10D Click to enlarge. |
In Auto mode, we can see that both cameras produce pictures with higher levels of saturation. In addition, the 20D now has a slight orange cast on the white background that is most likely caused by saturation of the ambient tungsten light in the room. The background on the 10D image is virtually identical to the Program AE shot. Overall, we found the 10D to produce more accurate images with its built-in flash. The 20D shoots significantly underexposed images in Program AE mode and highly saturated images in Auto mode.
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14 Comments
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shuttleboi - Monday, November 15, 2004 - link
What exactly is the point of these camera reviews? As I wrote several months ago, Anandtech is a gadget/hardware site, not a photography site. If you want to reach the photography community (like the rich folk who hang around DPReview.com, spending $1000 a month on lenses, and are ready to click on lots of advertisers' banners), you should do something novel. I suggested reviewing portable photo storage devices (e.g. the Epson P-2000, Archos AV-480, and Nikon ), but nobody listened to me. Suit yourself. As soon as you review any of these gadgets, you will find yourself on DPReview.com, gizmodo.com, and other popular sites. But don't listen to me, I'm just a yuppie male, age 28-40, making a good salary; it's not like your advertisers care about my demographic or anything.Joony - Friday, November 12, 2004 - link
I love my 20D, check out my photogallery,http://www.pbase.com/joony
Gatak - Thursday, November 11, 2004 - link
You may also want to look at the DCRAW - Digital Camera RAW. It is a open source program for reading RAW files from most camera RAW files.DCRAW vs. Canon D60: http://www.aim-dtp.net/aim/digicam/dcraw/
DCRAW vs. Canon 10D: http://www.insflug.org/raw/analysis/dcrawvsfvu/
DCRAW source: http://www.cybercom.net/~dcoffin/dcraw/
Windows binary: http://home.arcor.de/benjamin_lebsanft/
stephencaston - Thursday, November 11, 2004 - link
Woodaddy, thanks for your comments. A Canon 50mm f/2.5 Macro lens was used for all the tests except on page 11 (where each picture lists the lens used beneath the thumbnail). I've also amended the other image quality pages to indicate the use of the 50mm. Sorry for this oversight.WooDaddy - Thursday, November 11, 2004 - link
I missed something critical here. Let me know if it was posted. What lens are you using? Since DSLRs have interchangable lenses, the image quality is directly related to the lens used. If not listed, you really want to say that for reference in you image quality tests.#8, #3 I've picked on Stephen when he first got started on his reviews. He's getting better and IMO he's doing a great job. Now mind you, dpreview is for photogs/techies with an emphasis on photogs. AT is the converse; techies/photogs. I would consider ease of use and image quality and control to be a focus in a review at dpreview. Technical features would be the focus at AT....
Personally, I'm a photog more so than a techie camera guy. I'm doing quite well with my Nikon FE2 manual camera (with Acer 2740s film scanner) and Minolta G400 backup.
AtaStrumf - Thursday, November 11, 2004 - link
Wau, this thing makes some great pics! Way too expensive though.Gatak - Thursday, November 11, 2004 - link
#3 Yes dpreview has many good articles. But I think this is a good start anyway. Dpreview is very technical and doesn't really provide much explanation of technical stuff. This is something I think Anandtech could advance in =) It is possible to have technical depth and yet have good, easy to understand explanations.ProviaFan - Thursday, November 11, 2004 - link
#4 - that's why we have the term "prosumer". It's (the 20D) better than consumer, which would be the digital rebel, but it's not in the league of 1D Mark II (even though it has the same resolution, the speed and build quality don't compare) or 1Ds - which are professional.stephencaston - Thursday, November 11, 2004 - link
#4, The 20D is often referred to as a Prosumer camera. Among the reasons are price, 1.6x cropping factor, sealing, built-in flash, and _optional_ battery grip.The 20D is aimed at amateur photographers looking to replace/supplement their existing film SLR or for those looking to upgrade from a non-SLR camera. I've also heard of pros buying 10D and 20D bodies as backup cameras. I don't think it would be fair to the 1D line to call the 20D a professional camera. It is very nice, but not quite pro ;-)
sjprg - Thursday, November 11, 2004 - link
Nice article, I use both a 10D and a 20D and would like to see some ACR tests added to the CPU processing tests besides the emphasis on games to assist us in selecting the best hardware for processing digital images. One of the test that could be used is the Tom Fors ACR calibrator beta 3.http://fors.net/scripts/ACR-Calibrator/