I'm not a professional photographer. But I'm one of those guys who the camera stores like to see: a guy with a spending habit for a "high-end hobby."

Over the past eight years I've taken tens of thousands of pictures with various point-and-shoot digital cameras, from the initial one-megapixel Nikon Coolpix 900, up through the five-megapixel Coolpix 5700. When I discovered the wonderful world of Digital SLRs (DSLR) in the form of my friend's Canon 10D, I quickly had both megapixel and deep ISO envy. However, at nearly twice the money I'd spent for my most recent point-and-shoot (and what do you mean, that's without the lens?), I couldn't convince my heavily dinged credit card to accept the charge.

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And then came the Canon Digital Rebel (officially, the EOS 300D), a solid DSLR for under $1,000--although that's like saying you can get a Corvette for $30K until you start adding everything you really want. I had one of those in my hands the first week they were available to the public. Finally, I had a camera that felt like a traditional, mid-range 35mm SLR in nearly every respect except the per-shot cost. I could swap lenses, get some serious flash units, and start snapping like the semi-pro I pretend to be.

After shooting for a year with my Digital Rebel, I was pleased to hear that Canon was replacing its 10D with a unit that was reportedly both better and cheaper. Sorry wallet, time to take another hit. I put my money down for a 20D, proudly picking it up from my local store, where I was one of the first two customers. I then spent the next two weeks finding odd moments to wander around and shoot interesting things in various conditions, and I'm happy to report that I'm very pleased with my choice. Let's start with an example story.

Quick... Get that Shot!

I was walking down the street in Boston's Back Bay when I heard an ambulance siren from just out of my view. Imagining for a moment that I was being paid as a photojournalist, I decided to "get that shot," wanting a picture of the ambulance speeding down the street right in front of me.

I reached down for my 20D hanging from my neck. I flipped the camera on (0.2 seconds startup time), switched to the five-frames-per-second motor drive (a simple button press and quick thumbwheel roll), verified that my ISO was reasonable (one more button press), and rolled the exposure control to standard "P" mode (I'd been shooting in "Tv" mode and didn't want to mess with figuring out exposure just then). This all took about two seconds.

As the ambulance started coming by, I pulled the view finder up to my eye, dialed in the proper focal length, and squeezed the shutter release, holding it down and panning with the ambulance as it went by. The autofocus nailed it instantly and reset on each shot as the ambulance came closer, passed me, and then moved further away. At nearly five frames per second, I was able to take about 25 sequential shots before the ambulance was out of view.

I had guessed that the shutter speed would be slow enough that the background would be blurry, but this was exactly the effect I wanted. I needed the rest of the camera to do the right thing though: quick focus, perfect exposure, and best of all, two dozen shots from which to hopefully find a few that I had panned perfectly in sync with the ambulance.

When I unloaded the pictures from the camera, I was amazed to find that, much as I had predicted, many were motion-blurred, but four or five were definitely printable. Figure 1 is my favorite image from the set.

Figure 1. The ambulance (f/7.1, 1/100s, ISO 100)

The "Work" Continues

Continuing in my "pretend you're a reporter" mind frame, the following evening I attended a conference awards presentation. I got there late, so I ended up sitting in the back row of seats, about 75 feet from the stage. I wondered if I could capture these award presenters and recipients in something good enough for a small print at least. I attached my Canon 75-300mm image-stabilized lens, and dialed the ISO up to 1600, and then 3200.

At ISO 1600, there was almost no noticeable noise, and even at ISO 3200, the noise was in the form of slight color variations (see Figure 2) that tended to average out when the shot was reduced 50 percent or more in PhotoShop (see Figure 3). Again, the five-frames-per-second motor drive helped here.

Figure 2. One hundred percent crop of an image shot at ISO 3200 (f/5.6, 1/30s, ISO 3200)

Figure 3. ISO 3200 image reduced for web (f/5.6, 1/30s, ISO 3200)

I presented the conference coordinator with my shots and got back a compliment on my work. The official photographer had spent his time shooting the event from beside the stage, so my face-on shots were a welcome, complementary angle. Not bad for a high-end hobbyist.