20D for Dummies

I took delivery of my new 20D today, and must confess to being a little intimidated by all the trinkets and gee-gaws. Guess I need a "20D for Dummies" book I would be interested in hearing from anybody with recommendations for the optimal settings for the thing to get me off the ground. I'd also like to hear from anyone that has had any experience with this camera and the "DSLRFocus" software. I'm looking at it, but have not convinced myself yet.

Thanks in advance for any tips.

Mike Vollmer
Takahashi FS102/Gemini G-11/ST-4/Meade 10" SCT, yada yada yada

Mike,

If you are looking for regular daytime settings, just set it on automatic (the little green box). It will do all the thinking itself. If you are looking for astrophtography, you will be using manual, and up to 30 seconds to start for deep sky. Skip noise reduction at first. And of course, there are lots of options after that.

As for DSLR Focus. I bought it a few months back, but was not until yesterday that I first got it to work. Yesterday Chris Venter and a fellow named Craig apparently completed a revision of the software that allowed the 20D to work with an SP2 computer. Until then one had to use a difficult work-around to overcome some incompatibility of 20D and SP2. I have not tried it on a star, yet. (Nor has any other person with a 20 D and an SP2 computer.)


Alex