Earlier this year I bought this camera as an upgrade to my D-Rebel. Right out of the box I could feel positive differences between two:
1. Better build,
2. Controls layout (especially dial),
3. More focusing modes,
4. Wider ISO range,
5. Fastest shooting speed,
6. Read/write speed (I use it with SanDisk Extreme III CF)
7. and overall feel in the hands.
Battery life is superb.
After reading multiple positive reviews I blindly decided to go with EF-S 17-85mm lens which were in $600.00 price range at that time. After a month or so I started to get feeling that somewhat I'm not satisfied with the picture quality of such an expensive set. Pictures came out soft with so-so contrast. I noticed a lot vignetting and purple fringing. Indoor use with built in flash produced dark underexposed shots. But I continued shooting hoping to improve as I'm getting to know camera better, but.... What a shock it was to me to discover that my old Canon EF 28-105 USM lens outperformed the one I used al this time before. For test sake I also tried my kit lens for D-Rebel EF-S 18-55 and was unpleasantly surprised that it produced brighter and sharper images under the same settings and light conditions. I could not believe it. $600 lens outperformed by cheap kit set. Right there I decided to get rid of it and by an L glass. Later on I read similar complains from other users about this lens that only strengthened my feeling about it. What a relief was for me to find out that there is nothing wrong with camera itself. Now I'm able to produce much better, crispier, pictures using other Canon EF lenses and very happy with my camera up to date. Why 4 stars then, well as many complained
1. No spot metering
2. Poor indoor results with almost useless built in flash
3. Poor tungsten white balance(set it to custom WB to get better results indoors)
4. CMOS easily gets "dirty" (dust)
5. Small LCD display only 1.8"
But I guess Canon is aware of these drawbacks and will use it as an improvement in newer models in this price range.
My advise stay away from the EF-S 17-85 USM IS lens as it can downplay the quality and first impression of the rock solid built and beautiful camera such as Canon 20D. Better invest money in some EF lenses which you can use later when APC CMOS will be gone (as with new 5D) .
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