Canon EOS 40D 10.1 Megapixel

Ok, this is a great camera. I'm not going to cover the features of this camera, other reviewers did that well. Let me point out a few things to watch out for.

___LOUSY LENS KITS___ The Canon EOS40D is a fantastic camera, but lots of sellers will try to getcha by bundling a $1200 camera body with a really mediocre lens. If you're going to spend that kind of money on a camera, don't get seduced by 4 lens kits.

First, decide if you are planning on using a camera bag everywhere you go or not. Because if you are not taking a camera bag with you, you do NOT want 4 lenses -- 3 of the 4 will just stay home 95 percent of the time. What you will need in this case is ONE REALLY GREAT LENS.

The most common lens offered with this camera is an 18-55mm lens followed by a 17-85mm lens. Now that is a really nice wide angle lens down at 17/18mm. However, you really get very poor (55mm) to extremely mediocre (75mm) telephoto capacity with either of those lenses. If you're looking for a great all purpose lens, avoid both of these.

Next, you'll see the 70-300mm lens. That's a great telephoto zoom and gives you lots of pretty nice range. But keep in mind that 70mm is NOT wide angle. That means you'll struggle to shoot close-ups of anything. No wide-angle shots of buildings, landscapes, mountains, or even large groups of people at the dinner table. A great second lens, but not a great single all-purpose lens.

Any lens kit that mixes up 2 or 3 of the above lenses are still leaving you short of ONE GREAT all-purpose lens.

The best all-purpose lens out there is the 28-135mm zoom. 28mm is plenty wide-angle enough for anyone. And 135mm gives you enough zoom lens to shoot the kids soccer game close-up from across the entire field. With 10MP, you can still crop down for a nice close-up and get great high-quality prints. With this lens, you won't need a camera bag for 90% of you who are buying this camera for non-professional work.

Finally, avoid kits with lens correctors that screw into the end of your lens and give you more or less "magnification". These lenses are uniformly lousy.

Also, the "bonus" items in these kits, like the tripods and camera cases are cheap, cheap, cheap. Better to buy these components separately.

Last, there's a great product out there called "Camera Armor" I know they make it for the EOS 30D. As soon as its available for this camera, I would recommend it. It is a custom made rubber housing that fits like a glove over the camera's body. It does a nice job of keeping your camera from getting banged up or badly scratched.

Just released in early September, 2007, Canon 40D is their 6th generation prosumer DSLR (D30, D60, 10D, 20D, 30D and now 40D) I personally think this 40D should have been the 30D. 30D wasn't that much of an upgrade from 20D. It was more of an enhancements than total upgrade. I'd like to call it 25D. I'm sure many of you agree and many photographers who owned 20D didn't bother to upgrade to 30D and either waited for next version or move to more robust 5D.

The Canon 40D is another matter. Canon has taken a major step forward and included many new features that live up to the new name. So let's see what's new.

(1) The 40D is 10MP camera while 20D & 30D were 8MP. 2MP isn't a big jump and I'd liked it to have 12MP - but that would be competing against their own 5D market, so I think they decided to put 10MP on there. Maybe 50D will have 12MP+.

(2) LCD on the back is now huge 3 inch screen and it's much brighter and easier to read in bright daylight. Big screen is definitely welcome!!

(3) NEW Dust removal system which weren't available in 20D/30D - and IT WORKS!! If you've often experienced dust spots on the images before, you'll love these new features.

(4) NEW faster image processor called DIGIC III used in 1D MK3 and 1Ds MK3. Thanks to the new processor, 40D can now kick out 6.5 frames per second and can buffer 75 image burst in 11.5 seconds. That's almost twice increase burst number than 30D. (75 burst is a lot for most of us. I do use burst shots as well, but they end up being less than 15 so 75 is quite a lot)

(5) 14-bit ADC vs 12-bit of 30D. New 14-bit will yield better color gradients and its quality especially on the shadow & highlight details.

(6) LIVE VIEW - I'm not sure how many pro photographers are going to be using this feature, but I think it's a trend these days to include it.

There are more new features that I haven't covered here, but the ones I mentioned here should give you a good idea of what to expect on 40D. Priced at around $1300 for the body-only version, I think it's a great prosumer camera. If you have Rebel XT/XTi and wish to upgrade to more robust, faster camera, this is it. If you own 20D, or 30D you can probably get around $600~$800 for your camera and it will be nice upgrade for around $500~$700.

Purchased this camera specifically due to frames per second and burst functions. As an action photographer the number of frames I could obtain in a burst while shooting in RAW is important. I believe the technical specs state that it will shoot 17 continuous frames in RAW mode. In the literature and real life however this numbers drops if you are shooting full size raw images (it has 2 sizes of RAW images available) and dependent upon your camera settings. My current settings of a medium size .jpg file with a full raw file only allow the camera to shoot 6 frames in a burst. This is equivalent to what I can / do get out of my EOS 20D...and although the file size is larger, that's a bit of a disappointment.

The 40D is however an OUTSTANDING camera and I would gladly purchase it again. I love the larger view screen, the ease of use of functions...and of course THANK YOU Canon for putting the "film speed" (ISO Setting) right up with all the other information! Color is excellent and the idea it does a sensor cleaning each time it's powered is very nice. If you are currently using a 30D or 20D, you will enjoy the upgrades in this camera...especially if you shoot outside of the standard program modes.

** Update **
Just for clarification, I do not have "live view" on. A fellow photographer had me check that to see if it could be impacting the FPS I was getting. Since "live view" is off, it does not.

In one word – Fantastic. Very easy to operate and learn, perfect output. The main body is made of magnesium with high quality and attention of production gives very strong camera – will survive “survival” journey.
I purchased it at the beginning of January.

Improved quality compared to the older versions. Higher speed, getting focused on very low light conditions.
Line view ( through the screen ) was not available on the DSLR, is a nice option in some cases but using the auto focus option blank the screen while focusing.
Still many many new options – this paper is too short to describe.

Major Pros:

1. Very easy to operate.
2. Very clear and easy menu.
3. Automatic sensor clean.
4. Shoot using the screen.
5. High speed focus.
6. 6.5 FPS – fire machine.
7. High Priority Tune – compensate over exposure – very useful.

Major Cons:

1. Relatively cost a bit high.
2. Relatively heavier then competitors.
3. Filming through the screen KILLS the battery very fast, the sensor warming 4. causing disturbance to the image – WATCH OUT.

Found it useful ? please vote below.

Shlomi Uri