Canon yanks EOS 20Da astronomy camera

Canon has announced that the company will discontinue its EOS 20Da digital SLR later this month. The camera -- a version of the EOS 20D optimized for astrophotography with a custom low-pass filter and live LCD focusing via a mirror lock-up -- was always a unique product targeting a specialized niche. Canon insists that it's killing the cam because its base body, the 20D, is being replaced by the new 30D. That could mean that Canon plans a new model based on the 30D, or it could just be an effort to find a graceful way to kill off a product that was a little too specialized to find a decent market -- especially at a price of about $2,500 with lenses, more than double the going rate for the 20D.