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79 of 79 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great camera / lens, 10 Mar 2008
This is my first "proper" dSLR. After owning a nice Canon film EOS, I bought a small Canon p&s (point and shoot) which is also a great little camera.
I bought this camera rather than the 400D because
1) it's a bigger and much sturdier body being crafted from metals rather than plastic. Now some might prefer the lighter 400d but for me the larger 40d is just much nicer to handle and use.
2) the kit lens is better quality than the one with the 400d.
Having owned the camera for a few months now, the key points over film or compact digital are
- with a 4Gb card you'll fit literally hundreds of images on a card
- image quality is just fantastic and you can snap away without worrying about film or filling up the roll
- the camera is easy to use, especially if you're used to a film EOS, with the usual "full idiot" mode if you're just snapping away, but
- buried within the various menus are all sorts of adjustments to metering and film speed to keep you busy for a while.
Some other points if you do buy one - because this camera has really stimulated my interest in photography again
- select "raw" mode for image storage on the data-card because you can then make all sorts of adjustments to the image on the PC when you download the photos
- you may be interested in some other software - well I think Adobe lightroom is very nice but before you splash out £200 please ensure you make full use of the canon software that comes with the camera including working through the extensive tutorial which, again, comes with. (I'm still learning and it's fun to use)
If you fancy a long lens, I've gone for the Canon 70-200 L4; which is £400 on Amazon. This is a really nice compliment to the kit lens and is great quality, and very nicely balanced on the 40d body - looks great too. Bear in mind that most dSLRs have a smaller (than film) digital sensor which means there is a "crop factor" of 1.6. This means that the 200 end of the zoom is effectively a 320 zoom - long enough for most uses. Also note that all of the canon EF lenses will work on the 40d but that the EF-S range of lenses will only work on the "crop factor" ranges of digital cameras. I.e. your film EOS lenses will work fine on your 40d but the kit lens (EF-S) won't go on your film body.
Hope this helps - if you're interested enough to have read this review, you'll not regret buying the camera!
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46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
All hail the Canon EOS 40D, 21 Mar 2009
I started off with an EOS 400D as my first DSLR, and quickly realised that it was just not the camera I needed. After hours of poring over the specifications and white papers for the 40/50D and the 5D Mk II, I decided that the 40D was the way to go. I wasn't wrong! Canon themselves have described the 40D as "very much like a slightly cut down version of the 1Ds Mark III" (watch the 40D Masterclass video on Canon-Europe). While there is some creative license involved in this claim, after using the EOS 40D for a while I can see why they said it.
There are some good reviews already for this camera so I will mention the biggest disappointments and the best overall features (in other words, what you want to know before buying).
DISAPPOINTMENTS
Starting with the bad points then. It's easy because there aren't many:
* No infra-red = no cheap generic remote,
* Bundled lens is EF-S and not EF,
* Mediocre card writing speed,
* Dialling in custom settings can be a chore.
That's it. Nothing there is worth losing a star over!
The lack of an infra-red receiver is annoying as it means that your Canon RC-1 or generic remote won't work; you need a cabled or wireless shutter trigger. I use this excellent 100m Remote Control Switch (also reviewed). For many shots it's less fuss to simply use the 2 or 10 second self timer. The 40D includes a live view mode, as well as computer-controlled shooting, which can be used to great effect.
The bundled 17-85mm IS USM lens is EF-S mount and not EF, which means that if you eventually upgrade to a full frame Canon camera it will not be compatible. However, by buying this bundle you are getting a £400 lens for about £100, which is adequate compensation seeing as it will hold its value quite well for the life of the camera. And it IS a good lens, if a touch slower than we would like on the aperture side of things. The image stabiliser doesn't give you the extra four stops of the second generation IS found on the newer L-range telezooms, but it is a godsend for people who can't hold still for more than 1/80 of a second.
The speed with which this camera writes to Compact Flash cards could be much better, considering it is based around the Digic III processor (google "Rob Galbraith" to see his outstanding performance database). On the other hand, you can eke about 20 full size RAW shots out of this camera at the maximum rate of 6.5 frames per second before shooting speed falls to about one frame a second, so it's still excellent for capturing action.
Finally, the custom settings feature (which I'll go into below) is brilliant but setting it up can be a chore. Because the camera remembers ALL the settings that you save to a custom shooting mode, you need to be sure that you have programmed it properly before registering the settings. This means checking each menu tab, the four custom functions pages, and the shooting functions accessible from the buttons on the body. Getting it wrong is not the end of the world but it does mean a lot more work.
BENEFITS
Okay, let's move on to the good points:
* Shooting speed. It's a joy,
* Half-a-millisecond shutter lag,
* Three (count them - three) custom modes,
* User-defined menu page,
* Highlight Tone Priority,
* 14-bit image capture,
* RAW and sRAW recording,
* Dual RAW/JPEG recording with different size combinations possible,
* Configurable AF-On button,
* Three user-defined picture styles,
* Very low noise at high ISO,
* Computer controlled shooting,
* Rated to 100,000 shutter actuations,
* Good battery life,
* Very rugged build,
* Shoulder LCD screen,
* Makes high quality lenses worth the money.
The maximum burst rate of 6.5fps makes shooting with this camera an absolute joy, and it feels a bit like firing off a machine gun. Coupled with the AI drive modes, and a shutter lag of just 0.59 milliseconds (or 0.0006 seconds), you are unlikely to miss the critical moment in an action shot.
As well as the usual modes such as Program, Av, Tv, etc, the mode dial includes three spaces called C1, C2 and C3. Basically these are your custom modes, and you can set the camera up however you please then store those settings to one of those three custom spaces. So if for example you take a lot of indoor comedy shots which you upload to Facebook, you can set up the optimum low-light, high speed shooting profile for that purpose and even have the camera automatically use small JPEGs to save on post-processing time and all that image resizing. And you have another two slots free for, say, a very high resolution HDR setup, and a panoramic setup.
To use the custom mode once it's registered, you just turn the mode dial to the relevant C setting. Aces! Saves a lot of time if you can predict the sort of shots you want to take on a day out, because you just take out your camera, turn the dial a bit, and shoot.
Related to this is the "My Menu" page, which is a blank page in the main menu. You can add six items to this page and choose what order they go in. I was cynical at first, because you still need to go to the menu anyway to access My Menu, but the camera has custom function menus and the thing you want to change frequently could be buried under several levels of menu navigation. So as it turns out this feature does help speed things up. Adding Highlight Tone Priority, High ISO Noise Reduction, Live View settings, and Mirror Lockup will save you a lot of time.
Highlight Tone Priority appeared I think on the 1D Mk III, and it's now made it to the 40D. HTP prevents blown highlights in shots which include dark colours next to very light colours with fine tonal gradation. Coupled with the 14-bit image recording of the 40D (16,384 colours per channel), HTP will be a godsend for wedding photographers and HDR enthusiasts.
The 40D can record "small RAW" files (sRAW), as well as the full 10Mp RAW files. With a 4Gb compact flash card this makes the difference between storing 284 shots and storing 509, if you aren't bothered about image size but still want the benefits of raw. As usual you can also record as JPEG images in small, medium or large size, in standard or fine resolution, but there is now a new twist. You can also record a shot as any combination of a RAW and a JPEG. For example, an sRAW and a Large Fine JPEG. This makes your life a bit easier in a variety of sharing and collaboration scenarios.
The 40D includes an "AF-On" button, and this can be configured through the custom functions menu to take away autofocus control from the shutter button. So you use your "trigger finger" on the shutter button to control exposure, and your thumb on the AF-On button to control focus. There are other setups which are possible and just to make things more optiony (or confusing) you can then switch the functions of the AF-On and AE Lock (star) buttons.
Continuing the theme of configuration, the Picture Styles menu (which now has a dedicated button under the LCD screen) includes 3 empty slots for user-defined styles. You can adjust sharpness, contrast, saturation, and colour tone and save it to one of these custom slots (you can also tweak the existing preset profiles, but unless there is a very compelling reason I would advise against it). I found it useful to define these custom styles specifically for the types of shot I have programmed into the custom modes. Seemed to make sense!
The (lack of) image noise on the 40D is very good, when compared to the 400D and the 30D. The camera can reduce noise at high ISOs (you DO need to turn this on in custom functions though), but even WITHOUT noise reduction the noise level on the 40D is directly comparable to that seen on the much more expensive 1D Mk III.
As with other EOS models, you can connect your 40D to a computer or laptop and use the included software to take control of it. Coupled with Live View, this is an excellent boon for studio photographers who now need not worry about the resolution of the LCD screen or the minute vibrations caused by touching the shutter button.
The overall quality of this camera's build is excellent. The shutter is rated for 100,000 actuations, and can be replaced. The body is stainless steel and a magnesium alloy, so it's very tough. The camera feels very rugged and durable. A word to the wise: although the 40D has *some* weather sealing it is by no means what you would call "weather sealed". You don't want to use it in heavy rain. The battery life is really good compared to other models and brands, with the supplied BP-511A battery rated between 800 and 1100 shots per charge, depending on flash use (50% and none respectively). The supplied charger only holds one battery at once but it is conveniently compact.
The 40D also has an LCD screen on its right shoulder, near the shutter button, which shows all the important settings and displays changes as you make them (E.g. shutter speed). This is a nice feature, and it's often easier to see in direct sunlight than the main LCD screen on the back of the camera.
Lastly for the pros and cons bit, this camera answers that important question of "do I want to pay extra money for my lenses?" The answer is YEAH BABY. At the time of release, the 40D had the densest sensor available on any Canon DSLR, with a microlensing system to "drag" the light into the pixels. High aperture and L-series lenses will improve your shots dramatically. I use a Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM lens, and it is quite simply...
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25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent package, 20 July 2008
As a confirmed Canon fan, having previously owned the 350D, I would thoroughly recommend the 40D. The 350D was a great camera and I considered buying both a 450D and a 30D before opting for the 40D. While the 450D has many of the features in common with the 40D the extra size and "feel" of the 40D make it far more comfortable in my large hands. The camera is a pleasure to use and I found the controls and menu system straightforward and intuitive. I debated whether to buy "body only" but the image stabilised 17-85mm lens included in the kit swung it for me. To anyone thinking of buying a digital SLR in this price bracket I would suggest you seriously consider the 40D!
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