*** Update 16th Sept 2007 – I have now added a new 40D gallery processed with Adobe Lightroom. You can view it here.
*** Update 16th Sept 2007 – I have tested out the 40D’s continuous shooting performance with a Sandisk Ultra II CF card and have updated the review. I thought it would be interesting to compare the result from this old relatively “slow” card by by today’s standard with one of the fast CF cards widely available nowadays. Please scroll down to read it.
*** Update 15th Sept 2007 – I have tested out the 40D’s continuous shooting performance with a fast CF card and have updated the review with a section near the end of the review. Please scroll down to read it.
*** Update 8th Sept 2007 – I have now added a section on “high ISO speed noise reduction test” comparing high ISO crops with noise reduction off and & on. You can scroll down to near the end of the review for this section.
*** Update 5th Sept 2007 – I have added a section for high ISO 100% crops comparison between the 20D and 40D due to many request. please scroll down to see the new section. I will also add more photos to the sample gallery later tonight.
Hong Kong was one of the first places to get the new 40D and I managed to get one soon after it hit the streets. I have previously written some initial impressions and did some test shots. I will leave the comprehensive technical review to publications like dpreview.com. I will be mainly concentrating on the design changes compared to the 20D/30D and new features and improvement in the 40D. After hearing many comments and questions, I hope this review will answer most of them. I will be mainly using my old 20D for comparison purposes. However, the 30D is identical to the 20D in many ways other than a larger LCD and addition of spot metering, most differences between these 2 cameras are very minor. So most of the comparison will apply to the 30D as well.The main changes and improvement with the 40D according to Canon are:-
1. 10.1MP APS-C CMOS sensor, compared to the 8.2MP APS-C CMOS sensor in the 20D/30D.
2. 3 or 6.5fps continuous shooting, compared to 3 or 5 fps in 30D and 5fps in 20D. Canon also claimed 30% greater focusing speed with the 40D.
3. 75 jpeg or 17 RAW burst, compared to 30 jpeg or 11 RAW with 30D and 23 jpeg or 6 RAW with 20D.
4. New AF sensors, 9 sensors, all cross-type, compared to 9 AF sensors only center sensor is cross-type in 20D/30D
5. Digic III image processor, Digic II in 20D /30D
6. 3″ LCD 230,000 pixels, 2.5″ 230,000 pixels LCD in 30D and 1.8″ 118,000 pixels in 20D
7. Live View mode.
8. Automatic sensor cleaning.
9. Increased size in viewfinder view.
10. Interchangeable focusing screen.
External appearance
The 40D is bigger and heavier than the 20D and 30D. You can see the difference in the following photos with the 40D next to the 20D.
The 40D looks even bigger with the battery grip attached
The most obvious difference at the back is of course the huge 3″ LCD of the 40D compared to the tiny 1.8″ LCD of the 20D. The difference of course is smaller compared with the 2.5″ LCD of the 30D. The layout of the buttons is different from 20D and 30D.
The most obvious change in external appearance compared to the 20D (and partially with the 30D) is of course the huge 3″ LCD at the back of the camera.
Changes in features and design
Besides different buttons layout on the back of the 40D compared with the 20D and 30D, there is a new AF-ON button now.
The AF-ON button has many functions.
- in the creative zones (P, Tv, Av, M and A-DEP modes), pressing the AF-ON button will have the same effect as pressing the shutter button halfway
- holding down the AF-ON button in Live View mode will lift the mirror and activate autofocus
The AF-ON button can perform different function depending on custom setting:-
a) during autofocusing, you can press the AF-ON button to stop autofocusing
b) in AI Servo mode, you can press AF-ON button to repeated start and stop AI Servo AF operation
c) press AF-ON button to meter and autofocus, and press the shutter button halfway to attain AE lock
d) you can disable the function of the AF-ON button
There are some obvious changes on the top of the camera too. The top LCD on the 20D and 30D does not permanently display the ISO setting, you need to press the ISO button before you can see the ISO setting. On the 40D, ISO setting is now permanently displayed. the layout of the buttons are slightly different too. ISO is now controlled by the right side button. On the 20D and 30D, ISO is controlled by the middle button.
The most obvious change with the shooting mode dial on the left side of the 40D is the addition of 3 camera user settings.
The hotshoe on the top is now stainless steel rather than black painted. The black paint of the hotshoe of the 20D and 30D would partially wear off. The new stainless steel hotshoe should be more hard wearing.
The 40D is now partially environmentally sealed. You can see the seal around the CF compartment. The material is a kind of “felt” rather than rubber.
The seal around the battery compartment is on the small removable door. The seal material is also made of felt.
You can use the rear 3″ LCD to display settings (as on the top LCD), like in the EOS 400D. Of course the EOS 400D does not have a top LCD to display settings.
Viewfinder improvement
According official Canon literature, the viewfinder view of the 40D is bigger and better than 20D and 30D:-
“The upgraded viewfinder increases optical magnification from 0.90x to 0.95x, expands the viewing angle from 25.1 degrees to 26.4 degrees and raises the eye point from 20mm to 22mm.”
Well, I have no way of objectively measuring the size of the viewfinder, but my subjective impression comparing with the 20D is that, the viewfinder view is definitely larger. The following diagram represents my VERY SUBJECTIVE comparison of the sizes of the viewfinder view between the 40D and 20D.
REMEMBER THIS IS ONLY A ROUGH SUBJECTIVE PERSONAL ESTIMATION!
One other major improvement with the viewfinder is that, ISO value is permanently displayed inside the viewfinder just like aperture and shutter speed. I would think this is a pretty low tech feature, but previously, Canon in their infinite wisdom, only kept this feature for their professional 1 series cameras.
Image Playback
There are some changes in image playback in the 40D, compared to the 20D and 30D.
Probably because of the increase to 3″, shutter speed, aperture and folder-file number are displayed even in the most basic review mode, a feature not present on either 20D or 30D
Press the INFO button once and the view include include image recording quality
Press the INFO button again will change the view to shooting information and B&W histogram
Press the INFO button once more, and you will get color and luminance histogram. Color histogram was not available in the 20D. In the 30D, luminance histogram cannot be displayed together with color histogram.
Auto ISO
One the new features in the 40D is the inclusion of auto ISO. I personally do not like using Auto ISO as I always prefer to set ISO myself. But for those who want to use auto ISO, the following will tell you how auto ISO behaves in different shooting mode. I have tested auto ISO in different modes and can confirm they behave as stated by Canon.
In most of the auto shooting modes in the BASIC zone (Full Auto, Landscape, Close-up, Night Portrait,Flash Off), ISO speed is set automatically within ISO 100-800.
In the Sports shooting mode, ISO is set between 400-800.
In the Portrait shooting mode, ISO is fixed at 100.
In P, Av and A-DEP modes, The ISO will be set between 400-800. If overexposure would result at ISO 400, a lower ISO, as low as ISO 100 will be set.
In Tv mode, normally ISO 400 is set. For very bright or dark scenes, ISO will be set automatically within 100-800.
In M mode, ISO is fixed at 400
With flash, ISO will be set to 400 in all shooting modes. If overexposure would occur, a lower ISO ,as low as ISO 100, will be set.
Automatic Sensor Cleaning
Predictably, Canon has added this feature to the 40D, as it has been already included in the low end 400D since last year.
The automatic sensor cleaning operates every time you turn the camera on and off. You can also activate sensor cleaning at any time in the menu.
If automatic sensor cleaning cannot remove all the dust, you have to option to take a “dust map” and let the software during post-processing to remove the erase the dust spots in the images during post-processing. Unfortunately, this only works with Digital Photo Professional and not with any 3rd party RAW conversion software.
Shutter/Mirror Noise
The 20D has a very loud shutter/mirror noise. The 40D shutter mirror noise is much quieter. The quality of the noise is different too. The 20D noise sounded like a very loud “CLARRK”. The 40D sounded like a subdued “claff“. As I don’t have a sound meter, I can’t give you an objective measure, but subjectively, I would say the shutter/mirror noise of the 40D is about 30% volume of the 20D. Overall, a very welcome reduction.
Changes in Menu Structure
The menu structure has changed compared to the 20D/30D. In the 20D/30D, after you press the MENU button to access the camera’s menu, all the different choices are arranged in one long list and you turn the large scroll wheel ( Quick control dial) on the back of the camera to find the item you want.
In the 40D, the items are now broken up into different parts, which you can first select and access by either using the Multi-controller at the back of the camera or the Main Dial behind the shutter release button.
Internal Flash Settings
One new and little known or publicized feature of the 40D is that there is a separate menu for flash function settings for the internal flash. You can set curtain sync to 1st or 2nd curtain, use Flash Exposure Compensation (FEC) and set different metering mode for ETTL-II. Since there is another menu for external flash, you can now now have different flash function settings for the internal and external flash since there are 2 separate independent menus.
Camera User Settings
The 40D has 3 custom user settings. You can preset a certain set of shooting modes and custom function to one of the three Custom User Setting position (C1, C2, C3 on the shooting mode dial). Say you can set M shooting mode, Long Exposure Noise Reduction and Mirror Lock Up in the custom menu and then register this combination to one of the 3 Custom User Setting position. So for example, you can have one set of setting for shooting long exposure night photography and set it ti C1. Another set of setting for shooting fast action sport and set it to C2 and yet another set of setting for shooting portrait and set it to C3.
My Menu Setting
You can select up to 6 of your most commonly used menus or custom functions and register it to your My Menu setting.
Live View
One of the new features in the 40D is Live View. You will need to first make the appropriate settings in the custom menu before you can use Live View.
To enable autofocus in Live View, you will also have to make enable it in the custom menu.
Once you have made the correct setting in the custom menu, you can activate Live View at any time by simply pressing the SET button.
There is a small rectangle which you can freely move around. This rectangle represents the area which you can magnify by up to 10x to assist with accurate manual focusing.
To use autofocus during Live View, you will need to have set AF to the center focusing point only. Simply press and hold the AF-ON button for a second or so until you hear a “beep”, then release the button again. The camera will lower the mirror to get autofocus and raise the mirror again after you release the AF-ON button.
A few words about “Silent Shooting” mode in Live View. Silent in Silent mode does NOT really mean silent as in no sound at all. Silent in silent mode is really just a “quieter” mode or “delayed” noise mode. There are 2 Silent shooting modes.
In mode 1, you can shoot single shoot or continuously for up to 6 shots per second. Since the mirror is up, there is only the shutter noise, which is probably subjectively around 30-40% of the usual shutter+mirror noise. In mode 1, if you shoot continuously, you lose Live View as long as you are shooting.
In mode 2, you can only shoot single shot. When you press on the shutter release button the camera will take the shot with minimal noise. SO long as you keep your finger on the shutter release button, there will not be any shutter noise. The moment you release your finger though, the shutter noise will occur. This maybe the preferred mode to use if you are trying to shoot an insect or animal that may be scared away but the shutter noise. By delaying the shutter noise, you will be able to get your shot before the shutter sound will scare away your subject.
Highlight Tone Priority
This is a new feature in the 40D. As the term suggests, it is supposed to preserve highlight detail better. According to the information in the instruction manual, enabling this feature “Improves the highlight detail. The dynamic range is expanded from the standard 18% gray to bright highlights. The gradation between between the grays and highlights becomes smoother.”
To enable this feature, you have to set make the setting in the custom menu.
With Highlight Tone Priority enabled, the ISO setting will be limited to 200-1600. ISO 100 and 3200 will not be available.
I have made some shots to test out this new feature. the following shot was shot with Highlight Tone Priority disabled, the subsequent shot was shot with Highlight Tone Priority enabled.
I can see a subtle increase in detail in the clouds in the second photo. I have taken other test shots for which I could not detect any difference between the photo with this feature enabled and the one without. For the moment, I have to say the effect of Highlight Tone Priority is subtle at best and the effect can quite easily to achieved during post-processing. However, I will reserve judgment until I have time to test out this feature more thoroughly.
Autofocus
Probably due to the fact that all 9 autofocus sensors are cross-type sensors in the 40D, autofocus with the peripheral sensors have much improved over the 20D/30D especially under low-light low or low contrast situation. Previously, with the 20D, it was very difficult to get the focus to lock on with the peripheral sensors under lowlight or low contrast scenes. The focusing would hunt quite a bit before being able to find a focus, sometimes, it would be impossible to focus with the peripheral sensors at all. With the 40D, all the peripheral sensors locked on focus almost instantly even under low light or low contrast scenes.
I have tested out the focus tracking using AI Servo mode and found the focus tracking to be good.
The following are 2 test sequences using AI servo. The first sequence showed tracking of bicycle.
The following sequence showed a car coming towards me. Note that autofocus was not fooled by the barrier on the side and there was a woman crossing the road at the end of the sequence and she did not affect autofocus on the car.
40D vs 20D test photos ISO 100 to 3200
I have gone through most of the important new and updated features of the 40D. In this section, I will post some test shots of 40D at different ISO settings with comparison to similar shots by 20D. In the following sequence, 20D will always be the first shot and 40D will be the subsequent shot.
ISO 100
ISO 200
ISO 400
ISO 800
ISO 1600
ISO 3200
ISO 100
ISO 200
ISO 400
ISO 800
ISO 1600
ISO 3200
High ISO 100% crop comparison
Due to many requests for 100% crop comparsion between the 2 cameras at high ISO, I have added this section. I have done 100% crops for ISO 800 to 3200. 20D crops are on the left side and 40D crops are on the right side
ISO 800
ISO 1600
ISO 3200
High ISO Speed Noise Reduction Test
The 40D has a new custom function that allows you to set noise reduction for high ISO. I have made some test shots comparing shots from ISO 800 to 3200 with noise reduction off and on. The following are 100% crops, the left side crops had noise reduction turned off and right side crops had noise reduction turned on.
ISO 800
ISO 1600
ISO 3200
New BG-E2N Battery Grip
40D can use and is fully compatible with the old BG-E2 battery grip. However, Canon has replaced the BG-E2 grip now with a new BG-E2N battery grip. This new grip can be used on the 20D, 30D or 40D.
Actually, from what I can see, there is no difference between the new and the old grip other than a provision for environmental seal around the battery compartment. There is no AF-ON on the new BG-E2N grip. The AF-ON button is only available on the new WFT-E3 wireless file transmitter grip. If you are keeping your 20D or 30D with the old grip attached, and you need a new grip for the 40D, then it’s fine to buy the new grip to go with the 40D. But if you have a spare BG-E2 grip lying around doing nothing, then you don’t really need to buy the new BG-E2N grip.
You can see the new and old grip together in the following shots.
In the old grip, there is no environmental seal around the battery compartment.
You can clearly see the environmental seal around the door of the battery compartment
Continuous Shooting buffer Performance
Canon officially quotes a 6.5fps continuous shooting performance of 75 jpeg or 17 RAW burst.
I have just bought a fast CF card today, a Kingston 8GB 266X Ultimate. I managed to shoot a continuous burst of 22 RAW burst before the buffer was filled and shooting slowed down. When I switched to jpeg, the 40D just continued shooting at 6.5fps without slowing down at all. It just went on and on and way past the official 75 jpeg burst. I decided to lift my finger off the shutter release anyway since I did not want to waste too many shutter counts. When I checked how many I have shot, I found out that I have actually shot 185 jpeg burst! And the buffer actually was not filled yet and I could have continued shooting at 6.5fps if I wanted. My guess is that, if you use a fast CF card, you can probably shoot continuously at 6.5fps until the card is full.
I tried the same test with my old Sandisk Ultra II 4G CF card, a relatively slow card by today’s standard. The 40D shot a continuous burst of 20 RAW before the buffer was filled and shooting slowed down, 2 RAW burst less than with the Kingston 8GB 266X Ultimate. Still better than the official specifications quoted by Canon though. When I witched to jpeg, the 40D just continued shooting at 6.5fps without any signs of slowing down. Again even though there was no sign of the buffer filling up, I decided to lift my finger from the shutter release as I did not want to waste too many shutter counts. I found out that I have shot a burst of 181 jpeg burst, and remember that was not the limit as I could have continued shooting.
Overall, I think this is exemplary continuous shooting performance with the 40D.
40D Gallery
I will post some sample shots from the 40D here. They have only been resized and sharpened. No other post-processing was done. I will add to this gallery later when I have time.
You can see additional sample shots at the 40D gallery here.
*** Update – I have now added a new 40D gallery processed with Adobe Lightroom, you can view it here.
Conclusion
Personally, I think Canon has done a good job with the 40D and has upgraded and added many new useful features. Image quality wise, I don’t think there is any significant differences between the 40D and 30D/20D. There is little difference in real resolution between a 10MP and 8MP sensor. In my opinion, Canon has managed to maintain the high ISO noise level while increasing the megapixel count. However, there was no major breakthrough in technology and the 40D is not lower in high ISO noise than the 20D or 30D. I have previously done some high ISO test comparing the 40D to 20D. You can see them here if you have not seen them yet:-
Canon 40D vs 20D high ISO test
Canon 40D vs 20D ISO 1600 Comparison
Overall, I think the 40D provide a nice feature upgrade over the 20D and 30D and at an attractive price. Whether it is worthwhile for you to upgrade to the 40D is something only you can decide for yourself. For me, I am really happy with the 40D. However, my 20D is still working fine and can still take great photos. So I will be keeping my 20D as a 2nd and spare body.
The World According to Roland 
Pingback: Review: Canon EOS 40D SLR at Imaging Insider
Thanks for the review. Very well done.
Thanks a lot for your review! I really appreciate your efforts.
Sascha
Great review,
As a 30D user i found this information very usefull, now as for the upgrade choice……Mmmmmm !
Thanks!
This is a very nice review. I just got my 40D and have not had the chance to use it yet. I also have a 20D but did not think the 30D was enought of a upgrade to go to it. The 40D added several features that I saw as a reason to upgrade. Plus my 20D is over 100,000 actuation so I know it will need a shutter soon.
Even though I have not used my 40D yet your review makes me feel like I am glad I got it.
Thanks for all the work you put into this.
Nicely done, well thought out review. certainly makes me want to upgrade to the 40D.
Thanks a lot for the detailed review!!
Roland,
Thanks so much for the review. It seems pretty “real world” and shows much of wnat the 40d can do.
I like it!
Cheers
Jules
Great review! Thanks so much for your thorough work.
I do have a couple suggestions. I believe that the word “not” is missing from this sentence (between does and really):
“Silent in Silent mode does really mean silent as in no sound at all.”
I believe that the highlight mode has the greatest effect when there is an exceptionally bright element in the shot that would otherwise be blown or lose detail (others have demonstrated this in this manner–oddly, they have also shown it brings out some shadow detail as which probably explains why it cuts both top and bottom ISO options).
The ISO comparisons all look great, but it would be more informative to have some 100% crops so we can see the grain and detail. I know you did this with the apples, but those don’t seem to be up at the moment.
I hope that this is helpful. I realize that I have put three paragraphs into criticism and only one on praise, but you really deserve a huge amount of praise for your kindness in helping us appreciate this new camera and for the amount and quality of your effort.
Kindest regards,
Steven
Many thanks for the comprehensive review. It was quite thorough and definately makes me want a 40D. I am currently using a 300D so it will be a major upgrade. Can you let us know what the price in Hong Kong is at the moment?
Nice Roland!
Would be easier to compare ISO images if they were side-by-side though.
John V.
nice
What happened to the pictures?
Hi Steven,
Thanks for the suggestions. I have corrected the mistake and added the “not”. It’s hard to proof read all by oneself 🙂
I did say I needed more time to experiment with Highlight Tone Preserve mode to make final judgment.
A lot of people are obsessed with high ISO noise and image quality. Although I totally agree that it is an important element and quality, but I didn’t want to concentrate too much on high ISO, I have done the comparison already, so that’s why I only posted resized shots at different ISO. Anyway, if there are great interest in the high ISO crops, I may do that later when I have time.
hi Des,
The street price of the 40D is between HK$8,300 to $8,800.
Hi John,
I know it would be easier to compare ISO images side by side, but I am limited by the layout of WordPress to not more than 500 pixels wide. If I put the pics side by side, I would have to make them much smaller in size.
I am sorry that some of you seemed to be having problems seeing the photos. This could be because this is becoming a very popular post and is putting a lot of train on my photo hosting site. The stat at my hosting site showed that my bandwidth has reached over 41,000 Mbytes and is growing very fast.
I am sure you will see the photos if you give it another try later.
Many thanks for such a wonderful review!
I do have an additional question. I’ve seen some of your amazing live music shots in the past. I usually take alot of concert shots as well where the lighting is very limited at times.
As it seems that the 40d has less iso sensitivity, but has improved autofocusing, which camera between the 30d/40d would you say would have the advantage for low light/concert type shots?
Thanks!
Hi Sam,
I really can’t tell you for sure at the moment. I’ll have to wait till I go to the next concert shoot and try out the 40D before I can give you a definitve answer. But my gut feeling is that, I don’t think the 40D will be any worse than the 20D for low light concert shoot.
Pingback: Le Canon EOS 40D et 1Ds MarkIII sont (enfin) lŕ !! - Page 42 - EOS-Numerique
I am thinking about upgrading from my Canon XT to a Canon 40D. However, I recently read a news piece on the new sensor configuratiob developed by Kodak, ‘High sensitivty pattern sensor’.
So before I decide to purchase the 40D I am interested to know whether Canon is likely to use this new sensor format in any model releases in 2008.
Damian
Hi Damian,
I doubt if that will ever happen as Canon makes all the DSLR sensors themselves. So they will not be buying any sensors from Kodak.
Thanks for the review, nicely done. The upgrade nonetheless is very minimal and offers features one would expect in the next XTi, not the 40D. Unfortunately, the competition has left Canon in the dust and they can’t even see it.
Thanks! Nice review, I received mine yesterday and plan to use it for astrophotography. I notice when you activate live view at night or with the lens cap on that there is a hot red pixel on my lcd. Is that normal or within tolerance or should I send the camera back for another?
Great review! Thanks for taking the time to put this together. I was particularly interested in the image quality differences with the 12-bit vs. 14-bit DIGIC processors.
Hmmmm. No photos, just red x for each one.
Nice review. I just wanted to see if you cared to correct the JPG buffer depth on the 40D; I think it’s 75, no?
Pingback: EOS 40D - Want One? « Collin’s Geek Rants
Hi Roland,
Great Review and I was lucky enough to see the photos before it they went blank.
It’s finally great to read something positive and productive news about Canon’s new 40D. I’m impressed with the results you have shown and am glad I have one soon to arrive in the next few days.
The pictures you took were they all at the camera’s default settings?
If not could you provide any in camera adjustments you may had made.
Have you shot any JPEG photos and if so what is your take on the in camera processing for JPEG?
Pingback: Top Posts « WordPress.com
great review roland. i can\’t wait to get my 40D (i can finally access your website using a proxy)
we dont have it in Malaysia yet…if its a good buy and the features are cool, I will get it….
Thank you very much for the review!! it is quite interesting to know all about the differences between those 2 great cameras!
I will definitely come back around when the photos you posted can be seen.
Thank you for sharing this!! 🙂
Hi … thanks for the review. Did you compare the sensitivity/exposure of the 20D and 40D ? I recently upgraded my 300D to 40D, and I found the pictures from 40D is slightly darker compared to picture from 300D, for the same light, iso, and setting. Did you find the same thing ?
Pingback: Canon 40D Review « Canon Blog
Thanks for the review. Very well done.
Certainly makes me want to upgrade to the 40D.
Thanks for taking the time to put this together.
First ever review done for 40D that are non technical and easy down to earth reading…
great job…
Tommy,
I suspect the difference between cameras on many of the other ISO comparisons showing up is due to the fact that older Canon bodies were over sensitive by about 1/3 stop. This has been well documented back to at least the 20D where indicated ISO100 was roughly equal to actual ISO125, and ISO200 = ISO250, etc.
This difference (if corrected) would make the 40D about 1/3 stop underexposed in ISO tests when using identical settings to a 20D/30D.
Excellent review/comparison!
As always, you dwelve deep into the matter and present the core / unbias facts.
The information is invaluable and your personal thoughts are very much appreciated. In a time and place when doubts are formed, it’s nice to know that someone of your calibur can provide realistic results with solid expectation and evaluation.
Thanks for sharing!
James Pan
Thanks for the sample pictures, especially those AI Servo ones.
Thanks for the review. I have clung onto my 10D ever since it was first introduced and now feel the irresistible urge to jump to the 40D. Being only an amateur (can’t get paid for my pictures) I can’t afford the Mark III so I guess I will have to “settle” for the 40D. However, by all accounts the 40D is much better than the 5D save for the 1.6x lens mag. Your review has made my upgrade decision much easier. ^^
the review is greatly appreciated, especially since i am looking for a new camera for an upcoming charity bike trip from germany to china. your review was highly informative and not of the typical kind, giving a straight-forward opinion. again, thanks so much. http://www.cyclingwithoutborders.org. Markus
Pingback: Comprehensive Canon 40D overview | In Photos dot org
Hi Roland. Thanks for the review! It’s great and very helpful. I’m waiting on my 40D. Might take a couple weeks to swim to Honolulu. Anyway, just a minor correction. You mentioned that FEC is among the new popup flash features of the 40D not on the 20D. Actually FEC works on the 20D popup flash as well. I need to keep it at +2/3 FEC to avoid underexposure!–Peter
Good Honest Review, I have upgraded from a 30D to a 40D and well worth it, just for the improved AF in all Conditions, and brighter and larger viewfinder
Pingback: Canon EOS 40D e o regresso ao activo «
Nice review Roland, thanks. I am also upgrading from my trusty old 20D (now sold) so looking forward to the new camera. However for me the 40D will just be an interim body til Canon finally release the 5D MkII (4D?). Which will probably be a FF version of the 40D, unless they finally go the whole hog and release the mythical “3D” body…
Hi,
Thanks for the excellent review.
One question:
When viewing captured images from memory card, when you zoom all the way in, does it show actual 100% crop on the lcd screen?
The 400d for instance doesn’t and it is quite an annoyance especially when I want to make sure I got the focus 100% right.
Best,
Erez
Pingback: Digital Camera Information » Canon 40D Review by Roland Lim
Thanks, that was what I was looking for – good job!
Great review! Thank you very much.
Is it me or I can’t supersize the ISO test shots. It would be nice to see 100% crop. Would you mind adding it?
Good review otherwise
Upload the photos to WordPress.com .. no bandwith issues here!
Great review and great camera. I wonder when this will be available in Malaysia. Otherwise, I will have to buy it when I’m next in Hong Kong. Can wait to use it for my next photo shoot in the Malaysian jungle.
Awesome review !!! keep up the good work. peace.
Roland:
Thanks so much. Great job. I was hyped when the initial 40d announcements broke and actually reserved one on Amazon. Then all th negatives and I canceled my order. I’m off the fence now and waiting for my new 40d. I’ve still got my old 10d as a back-up for a 20d. The 20d will now take a backseat to the 40d. There just wasn’t anything that made me even close to pulling the trigger on a 30d. My 20d has served me well, but it needs a breather.
Thanks again for taking the time to do such a comprehensive and worth while job.
Fantastic review. Thanks a lot!
nice write up of the review. im waiting for one here in canada to arrive for me to order. one thing to meantion that ive read the shutter noise on the 20d/30d has spring return were as the 40d is a mechanical up/down less noisey. just adding to what ive read. hopefully i be taking some pics soon since my g3 died on me with a lense lockup/damage
Great review
Hi Roland,
Thanks for a very informative review on the 40D- the effort that you put forward is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Robert
Pingback: Yamiya Photography » Post Topic » Canon EOS 40D Review
great review! im looking forward to upgrading into either the canon 40D or the nikon d300 🙂 thnx for the information regarding the canon 40D 🙂
Hi Roland –
Nei ho mah?
Thanks for the excellent in depth review.
You may have run afoul of the limits of your photo sharing service by the repetitive multiple exposures. The man on the bike, and the traffic sequence are no doubt the main reasons for the daily limits being crossed so quickly.
This was a good lesson for utilizing a first and last deployment of the images. We would gladly accept your comments as gospel rather than a depiction of multiple exposures of every photo taken.
Having said that, it was nice to see something of the 61m Kowloon bus route again.
Mgoi.
JMM
Hi JMM,
I moved all the photos in this review article including all the bike and traffic sequence and I still reached over limit and my Fotki account has been blocked again today.
The problem is that Fotki does not mention anything about traffic limit in their joining page, premium membership information page or terms of service page. Then when a problem happened then they tell you that this rule is buried deep inside a tiny sub-clause in their mountain of pages of help files.
8th paragraph under Live View, this sentence has two typos:
“This maybe the preferred mode to use if you are trying to shoot an insect or animal that may be scared away but the shutter noise.”
Should read, “This >>may be<>by<< the shutter noise.”
I’m an old-timer who has been shooting a 10D for years. The one thing that I am most interested in with this new generation is the potential effect of the 14-bit color channels. I (and others) have a chronic problem with bright, highly-saturated reds getting blown, and I’m hoping that 14-bits of color data may finally fix that problem. Does anyone know?
Pingback: Labor Day Photography News « Provocations & Pantings
did you notice any difference in the tonal range of images as a result of 14bit image capture in the 40D vs. 12bit image capture in the 20/30D?
Pingback: Photo News Today » Canon 40D Review by Roland Lim
Thank you for the review, clearly a lot of time spent getting all the facts I was after. Owning a 300D I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these!
Thanks.
Thanks for the excellent, comprehensive review. Couple of suggestions, especially in view of the bandwidth problem:
1. The long test sequence of the auto-focusing tracking can probably be reduced to 3 or 4 pictures with losing any useful information. (By my count there are 27 shots of the taxi).
2. For th 40D vs 20D comparison, it may be more useful to post “100% crops” rather than down-sized, full images, as the latter is unable to show the noise and other degradations at high ISO.
Really appreciate your effort and time. Too bad the 40D is not available here in Canada yet.
Well done, great blog and great posts!!!
Hello and Thanks!
would you say the center af is better/more accurate then the 20d? I sometimes feel like I miss sharp shots when I shoot at 1.4. if the af is better I’m going to order the 40d.
James
Great Review, so far I’m enjoying my 40d. But keep up the good work!
Feels like the whole DPreview gang is here đź‰
I really like your banner
Nice job
Is there a wordPress template that allows for wider photos?
Just asking, think there is a need for this kinda of template
Pingback: simeblog » Blog Archive » die canon eos 40d ist da!
Hi tommyleong,
Thanks! I am glad you like my banner. It is actually from a photo I took at Universal studio at Osaka Japan.
WordPress don’t really have significantly wider template. I template limits photos to 500 pixels width. There maybe one or two that goes slightly over around 530 pixels or so. But no really wide template unfortunately.
Roland,
Thanks – this review is very helpful.
Regards,
Leo from Hong Kong
I heard 40D added the IS (Image Stabiliser) on the body, is it true ?
Hi quah,
No, the Canon EOS 40D does not have body IS, nor does any other Canon DSLR. However, Canon has relased 2 low cost IS EF-S lenses together with the 40D, the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS and EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS.
It would appear that Canon still preferred to use in lens IS technology rather than in camera IS. they are now filtering the lens IS feature to lower price lenses.
Hi Roland,
Many thanks for your review.
Since the AF speed of the 40D is now some 30% more accurate with all 9 cross- type sensors etc, is AF still available when the lens max aperture is f8 (eg. 400 f5.6 lens with 1.4 tele-converter?)
Excellent review!
Thanks a lot, it really helped me decide on whether to get this camera or not.
All new body & features, 40D have some partly from MarkIII.
Very interesting review!.
I prefered it.
Pingback: Canon 40D Reviews and Resource Page | Photography Bay
Great review! For a potential 40D customer, I can’t read enough reviews, and enjoyed yours particularly – very well written, and flowed nicely. 🙂
I spotted one mistake though:
“I personally do not like using ISO as I always prefer to set it myself.”
I think that should have been “do not like using auto ISO” … doesn’t make sense otherwise!
That aside, a great review! 🙂
Hi David,
Thanks! I corrected the typo. A few readers have helped to correct a number of typos already. I have reread the article myself a few times and I still missed quite a few typos ;-P
Good information – thanks. One correction, the 30D does have a color histogram.
Hi Colin,
Thanks! Actually, I wrote that the 20D does not have a color histogram and the 30D cannot display color histogram together with luminance histogram at the same time. I have rephrase that sentence now to make it clearer.
Nice review. Well done!
Do you think the improvements in the focusing system will eliminate back-focusing, which I have found terribly annoying in the 20D
Pingback: Canon 40D Reviews: Digital Photography Notes
Thanks to everyone who read this review. I am going to try and answer all the backlog of questions today.
Hi John-Pa & Micheal Colby,
So far I haven’t really noticed a huge difference between the 14bit image from 40D and 12bit image from 20D. I will need more time and a lot more shots to be able to make any conclusion as to whether 14 bit really makes a difference.
Hi Terry,
So far, I am very happy with the autofocus on my 40D. Both the center AF point and peripheral points all focused well.
Hi robert sirota
Maybe I have been lucky all along, but I have never had any problem with back focusing on my 20D and 40D with all my mostly Canon and a few Sigma lenses.
Although you do read about back focusing on internet forums once in awhile, I think it still only affects only a small percentage of users.
However, I don’t think the problem of back focusing will be solved by 40D’s new focusing system. The problem of back or front focusing is really an inherent problem with the way autofocus works in both Canon and Nikon system. Otherwise, Canon and Nikon would not have to introduce AF micro-adjustment feature in some of their top end cameras.
To everyone else who requested 100% crops of the high ISO shots,
Although I have resisted to put it in the review, because I believed that high ISO performance is only one aspect of the camera and in real life, people do not pixel peep to view a photo. I will do some 100% crop and add it to the review later tonight due the the frequent request.
hope 40 D with its new and added features will be good and handy — as focusing system is quite annoying in 20D
Hi –
I am still using my 10D with mainly the 17-40L and the 70-200 L F4. Would you recommend to get the 40D as a replacement or go for the more expensive 5D?
I’m interested to hear you views on this.
thanks
Matt
Another question: how about the write speed on the 40D?
I am starting to get more and more irritated by the slow rate of the 10D. What can you say on this topic?
thanks
Matt
Hi Matt,
The 10D is really at least 2 to 3 generations older than the 40D, and things have progressed a lot since then. The write speed of the 10D can’t even compare to the 20D, let alone the 40D. I am only using Sandisk Ultra II cards at moment, and these are only medium speed cards by today’s standard. I have no complaint about write speed even after I shot a large continuous burst. I will probably buy one of the fast cards later to try and see if it makes any difference.
As to whether you should buy a 40D or 5D, there is really no simple answer to that question IMHO. If we take price out of the equation, it is the question of a 1.6x cropped frame camera vs a full frame camera. there will always be endless arguments as to which is better. But my personal believe is that, both cropped frame and full frame have advantages and disadvantages. I think it really depends on what you use the camera for.
In general, if you do portrait, wide angle landscape and shallow DOF photography, then classically, the recommendation would be to go for full frame. if you do telephoto shoot a lot that require more range, like wild life, birds or sports, then a cropped frame camera would give you more range and maybe the preferable choice.
However, the lines are getting really blurred nowadays and often the answer is not as simple as what it seemed. For example, there used to be no ultrawide angle lens for cropped frame cameras and if you put the EF 16-35mm f2.8L on the 10D, it became a 25.6-56mm full frame FOV equivalent lens. However, there are more than one choice of true ultrawide lens for cropped frame cameras. the prime example is the canon EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5. This lens has superb optical quality for an ultrawide lens with low barrel distortion even at 10mm and very good edge resolution. It has arguably even better optical quality than the EF16-35mm f2.8L II.
And if you really want to go for a full frame, then at least you should wait for the 5D replacement.
For me, I am going to keep using my cropped frame 40D and 20D and I will wait for the 5D replacement and probably get that one too. I won’t be giving up my 40D though after I get the 5D replacement. they will complement each other.
The high ISO samples are showing up one above the other instead of left and right for the 20D/30D vs. 40D
Can you confirm which is the 40D?
Excellent review, thank you.
Hi Jack,
I noticed it myself too just a short while ago. The formatting were not working out as planned. Anyway, I have edited it again and the left side crops were from 20D and right side from 40D.
What a nice review, thanks for sharing.
Hi Roland,
seem the 40d has more chroma noise than 20d on the 100% crop. i do admit is a excellent work/review from you.
Thanks for your terrific review. You really got to the heart of it, describing the major changes, and your experience with AF and IQ.
Most folks considering spending this kind of money on a new body can evaluate the button locations and general feel for themselves. You hit all the important stuff.
I’ve been enjoying my old D60 for some time now,, I guess i’s time to warm up the Mastercard!
Great work, thanks.
SS
WPB, FL USA
Pingback: Le Canon EOS 40D et 1Ds MarkIII sont (enfin) lŕ !! - Page 46 - EOS-Numerique
Pingback: Le Canon EOS 40D et 1Ds MarkIII sont (enfin) lŕ !! - Page 46 - EOS-Numerique
This revue was extremely helpful to me. Much more so then the typical camera magazine reviews with a bunch of charts.
I would have liked to see some closer action shots like a basketball game or a soccer game. At these distant moving shots it doesn’t quite convince me things are much better in the autofocus area.
The ISO noise shots are interesting BUT how about real low light situations? Like a dance recital or indoor shots with light striking from one direction only (window for instance).
I ordered my 40D two days ago here in Canada, Man I can’t wait.
Thanks for the review, finally somebody who doesn’t just repeat what the glossy from canon says!
Jack
In addition to my previous reply:
Can you tell us something about the CF2 card requirements in order to get that swift 6.5 frames / second ?
Thanks for sharing your findings!
Jack
Roland
One of the best 40D reviews around, people was searching for something like this, and will really help a lot before for future purchases.
Thanks a lot for your time, building this review, hope you still update it for references in the future If there are firmware updates.
Cheers from Mexico City
Thanks for your excellent work 🙂
I would like to know if there wasn’t any mistake in “High ISO 100% crop comparison” ? As Dracula said, it seems that there is more chroma noise on 40d 100% crops…
[Quote: Roland] […] seem the 40d has more chroma noise than 20d on the 100% crop. i do admit is a excellent work/review from you. […]
If you are right (what I presume), I will be looking for a 20d !
Whatever… have fun with your 40d ! Damien
Hi Jack,
Within the time I have owned the 40D, I did not have any opportunity to go to any ball games. Anyway, the sequences I shot were just used to demonstrate focus tracking worked rather than was better than 20D and 30D, which I never made any claim for.
There are some low light shots in the 40D sample gallery, you can check them out. I haven’t made any 100% crops for them though.
I am using Sandisk Ultra II (which is only a medium speed card by the standard of today) cards in my 40D and I have no problem shooting at 6.5fps.
Hi Victor,
Thanks! I will keep updating this article with new information when they become available.
Hi Damien,
There was no mistake and I did not mixed up the 100% crops. The left side were from 20D and right side from 40D.
Some people suggested that the 40D crops looked noiser because I had NR off. Anyway, I shot the 40D shots with NR off because that was the default setting. If I had shot the 40D shots with NR on, there might be people saying that it was an unfair comparison since NR was on in the 40D and it was not the native setting.
Anyway, I did the test and you have to draw your own conclusion. Perhaps wait for high ISO test at sites like dpreview.com before making any final conclusion.
Personally, I see no problem with the high ISO shots from 40D at realistic viewing sizes. 100% size pixel peeping is not what normal people would do when viewing a photograph IMHO.
Best review I have seen to date. Thank you. My 40D is on its way from Norman Camera.
Thanks for your hard work in putting all of this together Roland. I have both the 10D and 20D. Sports photography is a major part of what I do with the camera and am excited to see that the 40D appears to be much better at focusing on moving subjects. This problem is most prevalent with cyclists coming at me at 30kmh.
Thanks again.
Jim
http://jimlarsonphotography.com
Thanks for your excellent review. it really great to see the result….what a good news to all the canon user!
i think i will sell my 30d for this haha!
regards,
Robin
http://www.robinng.com/blog
Thanks for the informative review. I was thinking about getting a Canon Rebel XTi and now I have read this, I am wondering if the extra cost is worth going to the 40D.
I would appreciate hearing from you.
Thanks
al
Hi Al,
There is no doubt that the 40D is a much more featured full and better built camera than the Rebel XTi, but it is also almost double the price of the Rebel (at least the street price in Hong Kong is). So whether all the extra features is worth the money is something only an individual user can decide.
For me, I will choose the 40D over Rebel Xti any time, but that’s only my choice. Others may have different priorities and choose differently.
For some people, price may the the primary concern. Also the small size of Rebel maybe an advantage for some, but a disadvantage for others.
Sorry I can’t give you a more definitive answer.
Hi Roland –
Thanks for you elaborate reply. I have made up my mind and I’ll go for the 40D.
thanks!
Matt
I just purchased the 40D about an hour ago, was going to trade in my 30D however there was a small price difference between the 400d and 30d so i let the 400d go and my old 550 for the new 580II flash
I did a few test shots will all my lenses at the shop, the frame rate is impressive and the additional viewfinder space is really great. The body is certainly bigger, ideal for big hands.
The Highlight Tone Priority is the one for me, as i mainly do wedding shoots – i will see if there is any difference.
I will post images on both my blog sites the other being http:michaeltree.bigfolioblog.com. and http://michaeltree.wordpress.com
First wedding is next weekend.
Enjoyed your review Roland
Absolutely, this review is, in particular, at this point in time, what the people around the world are searching for. I’ve been trying to find this type of review for quite a while. You did a great job . . . Roland, and many many thanks for this.
Just one tip for anyone who couldn’t have seen the pictures, you may try to press the refresh button on your web browser. I’ve been in an up-country of Thailand where the internet speed is so poor, but I could have seen all the pictures simply by pressing the refresh button.
Thanks again Roland!
Sorason
Outstanding review. Best I’ve seen so far on the 40D.
Great Review!!!!
I have a question on your 100x crops of the high ISO shots, you say the 20D is the shot on the left? It looks like the shots on the left look better to me? Is it just me, or do you have the images confused?
I have the 20D now and am considering the upgrade. This is an extremely helpful review. THANKS!!!
Hi JimM,
No, the images are in the right order. 20D on the left and 40D on the right.
And yes, in those 100% crops, it does look like 40D has more high ISO noise than 20D.
You have to make up your own mind. I personally don’t pixel peep at 100%. I only added that section by popular request. If you view them at normal web size or print them out to even very large print size, you would hardly notice the high ISO noise at all. I have always maintained personally that 100% crops is not a realistic way of looking at a photo. that’s why I did not make any cooment about the crops on the main body of the review.
Roland, you are amazing! We cannot even buy this camera yet in the US, and nobody else has done a review except for parroting the Canon corporate sales pitch. Thanks for all your work. You have given a new sense of excitement to the wait for US availability.
Any thoughts on comparison with the new 10 FPS Canon sports monster EOS-1D Mark III? Three times the price, but what great possibilities for putting the soccer ball on the player’s head (or football in the receiver’s hand), or of getting enough light at night games with great ISO range and flash at 1/300th second.
Roland:
Thanks for your response on the Rebel XTi versus the 40D. I plan on buying a 40D tomorrow. There is no problem buying this model in Los Angeles. Also, Amazon.com is carrying the 40D in stock with a 28-135mm IS USM lens for the price of $1,499.99. Free shipping and no sales tax depending on location add up to a good price.
Also, Samy’s Camera has the same unit for the same price and it has no sales tax from September 6 through September 12.
Good luck to all of you.
Al
Roland:
In my haste to send off the prior message, I forgot to mention that I will be buying the 40D with the EF-S 17-85mm IS USM lens from Samy’s at the price of $1,599.99 as I prefer the 17-85 lens (with no sales tax).
Also, I have found out that the Rebel XTi with the same lens is priced at $1,149.99. So, the 40D is “only” $450 more than the Rebel XTi.
Thanks
Al
Roland,
Thanks for the very helpful review. A couple of questions:
You say the 40D viewfinder is larger and wider view than the 20D’s. Is it also brighter?
Is the 40D LCD brighter than the 20D’s, i.e., is it any easier to see in bright light?
Thanks again.
Glen Tepke
Hi Glen,
The viewfinder of the 40D is certainly large and bright. No problem seeing through it in any lighting so far.
Thanks for the report. It’s so fruitful.
Pingback: Canon EOS 40D High ISO Noise Reduction Test « The World According to Roland
The 40D is backordered all over the US. Samy’s in LA sold out within the first 1/2 hour this morning. B&H is sold out. Adorama had about 7 this morning but is probably sold out by now. Ritz is on backorder. There is a dealer on Amazon that is charging around $1,600.
I did managed to locate one this afternoon and will try it out this weekend. It is replacing a 1st gen Rebel so this will represent a major upgrade.
Great review and a great camera.
Roland,
Great review, I combed all over looking for hands on conclusions, yours has been the best. I picked up my 40D two days ago ( put a deposit on it the second day it was announced ). I bought the 30D a month ago but really haven’t been satisfied with it’s tracking or sharpness. I also had the 5D and was looking for something faster with image quality like the 5D. I think the 40D is it. I found out it doesn’t like being over exposured, it will let you know by puking out ugly yellow images.
I also couldn’t get the ISO expansion to work, if I had read your review I could have saved myself a lot of grief. After clearing my custom function ( I had chosen Highlight priority) I now can set my ISO to 3200. It’s as good as the 5D or really close to.
I was disappointed that the 20D images had better ISO but after downloading my 3200 images tonight, I say “I’ll take ’em”. What I found really helpful was your images for the the AF tracking capabilities, which is really important for my sports photography.
That alone is worth the upgrade from the 30D.
Great review.
I have a 300D and have been waiting for Canon to come up with a well priced replacement with more options such as spot metering etc etc. I also like the option of Live Review with mirror lock up, and I believe the kit 18-35 lens is a major upgrade to the 300D kit lens.
My 300D has a BG-E1 battery grip. Do you know if this will also fit the 40D?
regards
Peter
Hi Ruth,
I am glad that you found my review helpful. Have fun with your new 40D!
Hi Peter,
I am afraid the BG-E1 grip for the 300D would not work on the 40D. The o old grip that would work on the 40D is the BG-E2 grip previously made for the 20D and 30D.
Thanks for your reply Roland.
One more question about the new grip.
One of the differences between the previous BG-E2 grip and the new BG-E2N is that the BG-E2 has a button for AF-ON/OFF.
Do you see a beneifit in having this button on the grip? I am deciding whether to buy the older grip, which has the AF button, rather than the newer grip that doesn’t. Better to have more options than less?
Peter
Hi Peter,
Actually, the new BG-E2N grip does not have an AF-ON button. Only the new WFT-E3 wireless file transmitter grip has the AF-ON button.
Roland,
As has been well-stated, a timely and excellent review. I wonder if you could provide 100% crops of the key focus areas of the Bike and Taxi AI-Servo focus tests? Not all of them necessarily, wouldn’t want you running into bandwith issues again, just any that are interesting.
The reason I ask is that even at these reduced crops it seems the auto-focus is not actually tracking that well, in many of the shots the background appears sharper than the subject. It is hard to see at these small sizes but it appears that the text on the back of the bus, people at the bus stop and leaves on trees are sharper than the taxi’s registration plate and roof sign etc.
Similarly, in the 8th shot of the cyclist look at the background, this is where the tall green grass appears on the bank. In this first shot the grass is well-focussed and the bike’s spokes are not. In the next shot the grass is definitely more blurred and the bike and rider are sharper. Perhaps motion blur of either the spinning wheels or panning camera has played a part, and the large DOF doesn’t help, but your comments on these observations would be appreciated. No camera is perfect at tracking, not even the 1DmkIIN and certainly not the 1DmkIII, but with 6.5fps capability this is going to be a large factor for many 40D purchases I feel.
Personally, I’m not in the market for either, I rarely shoot action so the 5D suits style. Like many shooters though I greatly enjoy reading reviews of other kit when I’m not out using my own! 🙂
Keep up the good work.
Ben.
I have a 20D and an XTi. The 30D didn’t offer enough for me to upgrade the 20D. But the 40D is very tempting. Tempting enough that I now have one on order. You’ll see my 20D body on eBay as soon as the 40D arrives. I’m impressed with the large LCD panel, and the sensor cleaning function. The mega-pixel increase is great, but not a factor in my decision. I also like the large size of the 40D. In my opinion the XTi is to small for me to handle comfortably, but great as a back-up body.
John
Roland, thanks for your personal review, i’m very appreciate it.
One think i like to know : when Highlight Tone Priority (HTP) ON, is there any decrease of drive mode?
As for Nikon D300/D3 when they switch on the similiar feature (i’m forget the name), the drive mode become decreased, no more full 6 or something fps.
Please make a test shooting drive mode (high speed – 6.5 fps) with HTP On and see if the buffer/speed decrease.
Thanks for your attention 🙂
Pingback: Test du Canon eos 40D et comparatif avec 20D,30D,350D et 400D....vos réactions - Page 2 - EOS-Numerique
Your review makes me thinking of getting it! Keep up the good works. Thanks, pal.
Roland,
Thanks for the review. I had previously owned a 20D and went to a Nikon D200. The D200 was much better at focusing than the 20D however I feel the 20D had better color accuracy. Now With the new focus of the 40D, I’m contemplating another switch. Your thoughts on comparison of these two cameras?
Regards,
RWay
I also was a little disappointed in the high iso performance of the 40d vs. the 20d. It seems that most people either are choosing to ignore that or they just feel that the extra features and other improvements offset the noise performance. Improved AF , larger lcd (i have 20d), and viewfinder I think are what I find most exciting.
I have some quick questions about the 40D for anyone that can answer any of them please:
1. If I set high ISO noise reduction on, and shoot at 100-400, does anyone know if it will impact those shots? I know high ISO means 800+, but I fail to see why ISO noise reduction is an option instead of a default, and even as an option, why it is not set as a default to on. This leads me to thinking that it may affect lower ISO shots somehow, and should only be turned on if you are using high ISO, and not “in the ready” in case you do.
2. I have the same question for the long exposure noise reduction (see above).
3. I wanted to keep my physical manual pristine, so I am wondering where I can get a pdf of the manual for the 40D?
4. And this question can be answered by even fewer people I imagine…I have the 40D Kit (which comes with the canon 28-135 IS lens), and I also own a canon 28-135 IS lens independent of the kit. I have heard no one post in any forums about this so I will post it here. The kit lenses switches are flat (the AF/M for example), whereas the retail lens is not. They clearly were manufactured for the 40D package since they are different.
I am wondering if being newly manufactured, that the newer kit lens version incorporates any newer IS technology or better motor or anything better than the retail version? Is it inferior quality? I havn’t even taken them out of the box long enough to shoot anything before I noticed this very visual difference. Is the build quality of the newer lens better or worse? I am unsure as to why they made the AF/Manual switch flush, as now one has to use their fingernails and not their finger to swich between modes.
Sincerely,
???Puzzled???
One last question…and please someone reply on here to any of the 5 questions, so I can knock them off the list.
5. Where can I purchase the BG-E2N grip (I live in the USA), as I have seen it overseas but not here anywhere?
I am thinking that maybe canon is deciding to put an AF on switch on it, and hence the delay in even any kind of preorder. It is the only way to explain why there are scores of them floating around China, but not even a mention of them here in the USA.
If I cannot get this, I will get the BG-E2, but the one made from Opteka (it’s under $80) sold on Amazon.com. Will someone please let me know of the Opteka version, honestly, as opposed the the canon BG-E2. They seem exactly identical! And I would rather save $80 to get this grip if there are no issues with it, and if I cannot get the BG-E2N grip in the next month.
Thanks again everyone.
Racer –
I think the High ISO option is set to default “off” because when you use the function the camera takes extra time to process the image. I don’t think it affects the 100 to 400 ISO range.
Really great.
I’m always prefer Canon and this new camera is nice to. And what is a features of Digic III image processor?
Amazingly detailed review. I went to the local shop and checked it out in person. I have the Rebel XT and am now planning on buying this camera mainly from your review. I have about 35,000 shots on the XT and it is starting to act up.
Thanks again.
Great review my friend.
Although 40D seems to have more chroma noise, it also deal with better Hi ISO performance with better 3D appearance and color performance.
I think is better overall Camera from 20/30D but not a great improvement, specially when you take a snap shot from D300 specs.
I was hopping for something real new and amazing, but Canon never give us real amazing cams on their upgrades especially in 600-1100 euro league.
I will probably purchase this camera cause i’ m with my old EOS 300D for about 3 years, and have 5 L lenses waiting for something real good and most of all fast…
Have all of you a good day, from Greece.
Nikos.
Pingback: Canon EOS 40D Reviews · Shutter Fan
Pingback: HKCCF 2007 Showgirls Gallery with Canon EOS 40D & Adobe Lightroom « The World According to Roland
Pingback: Canon EOS 40D First Review from Bob Atkins & Roland Lim »
Great review Roland.
I am in the middle of deciding which DSLR to purchase Nikon D300 or Canon 40D. It is my first DSLR therefore i have no emotional/physical attachment to any brand (however, my previous 35mm was a Nikon FE2 35mm which I haven’t used for many years. My current digital camera is a Casio EXP700.).
Anyway put the price aside, can you advice which camera is better. Shoud I wait for a bit longer for the D300 release (but when?)?
Regards
Charles
Hi Charles,
The Nikon D300 is not available yet. Although on paper, the specs of the Nikond D300 is better than the Canon D40, but without any production camera, no one has tested out the D300 yet. So it is hard to say how good it is really in real life comapred to the Canon D40.
Also, the D300 is significantly more expensive than the Canon 40D, so even if the D300 turnes out to be better than the D40, you have to consider whether the extra cost is worht the difference in features and/or quality.
Pingback: Girls Love Gadgets | Canon EOS 40D’s early review roundup
Pingback: GadgetsPlanet.info » Canon EOS 40D’s early review roundup
Pingback: Warez Cat » Blog Archive » Canon EOS 40D’s early review roundup
Pingback: Promaxum Technology News » Blog Archive » Canon EOS 40D's early review roundup
Pingback: Canon EOS 40D’s early review roundup | Start Tech News
Pingback: Canon EOS 40D’s early review roundup | Latest Gadget & Tech News
Pingback: Canon EOS 40D’s early review roundup · TechBlogger
Pingback: Melastmohican’s Blog » Blog Archive » Canon EOS 40D review roundup
Pingback: Planeta IPLegal » Canon EOS 40D’s early review roundup
Pingback: Hostpundit - Hosting and Gadgets » Blog Archive » Canon EOS 40D’s early review roundup
Pingback: My Geek News: All the latest news, just for Geeks!
Pingback: Websites Reviewer » Blog Archive » Canon EOS 40D’s early review roundup
Pingback: » Canon EOS 40D’s early review roundupOnline Dating & Entertainment Reviews » Blog Archive
Pingback: Canon EOS 40D’s early review roundup · ringtel dot net
Pingback: BlogNerds.com » Blog Archive » Canon EOS 40D’s early review roundup
Pingback: » Canon EOS 40D’s early review roundup Tech Web Daily: Just another Tech News Blog
Pingback: Your Gadget Guide » Blog Archive » Canon EOS 40D’s early review roundup
Pingback: 设计界 » Blog Archive » Canon EOS 40D’s early review roundup
Pingback: Geek Island » Canon 40D Reviewed
Hi Roland
I don’t have any questions and I don’t have any comments.
The only thing I want to say is: THANK YOU SO MUCH for taking time andeffort in sharing your experiences with us all.
It’s a rare person who wants to invest his/her time so that others woul benefit.
Thank you again. All the best of luck for you.
Jouni
Oké nive review, though i cannot work with the way the range of street hotos are presented, would better to auto change them in a single frame, but perhaps thats just not possible.
The 100% bear crops would compare better if the size is equal, for me it would.
Would I find a bit disappointing, is that you appear to have post-porcessed all pics.
I reallly would like the stuf as it comes out of the camera.
(resizing apart), sharpning and levels, do it, but have the original at hand for best comparison.
why? I want to see if the extra time and effort you put into it, would be deemed likewise by me (and others). Time wasted at the screen is time not availebla for playing outdoors with the cam. 🙂
thanks for the card review and your point of view on full frame vs 1.6 cropped sensors
An interesting point, when considering the (rather sad) fact that Canon did not put an AF-ON button on the BG-E2N, is that in the custom functions of the 40d (C.Fn) there is a place to change the AE lock (*-button) of the camera (and the grip) into being the AF-ON button. This is C.Fn IV, 2.
One problem however, the reviewing zoom-button, which is the AE lock button, also changes, so it will make a very odd time of reviewing pictures, before you get used to it.
Got very excited when I found this and thought others might find it useful to know as well.
Hi grain,
Actually, I cannot understand why some people have this aversion to post-processing a photo on the computer. However, all I did for the 40D gallery photos in the review rticle was just resizing and applied sharpening.
Since I am a RAW shooter, I always shoot in RAW and really never shoot in jpeg. You have to remebr though, that even for jpeg shooting, all digital cameras actually shoot in RAW inside the camera and convert to jpeg inside the cmaera using the in-camera processor. The camera processor applies post-processing like sharpening, saturation and contrast in the camera just like you would do if you would do it on a computer anyway. the only difference is that, you have far more control doing these on a computer, and usually would yield better result than in-camera processing.
So even if I have posted jpeg shots from the camera, it wouldn’t really be “straight” from the camera without post-processing. The camera would have applied post-processing regardless.
Roland,
Excellent easy to understand review. I was thinking of upgrading from 10D to 30D but will go for the new 40D features especially since I want to use it for astonomical photography where the live view with magnification should really be good. I think the dust cleaning will be a good tool in Botswana next year too.
Peter
Hi Rolan, thank you very much for your review, I found it really useful as I still need to decided whether I should upgrade from eos 20d to the 40d or not.
I find that the EOS 20d gets a lot of dust on the sensor whenever I change a lens so one of the reasons why I was looking at upgrading my camera is the new sensor cleaning system. Did you get any chance to try it? Is it any good?
thanks,
Alex
Hi Alex,
The sensor automatic sensor leaning system seems to be working well. I have not noticed any problem with sensor dust so far and I changed lenses quite often.
Hi,
Just wanted to let you know that we’ve published an in-depth review of the Canon EOS 40D:
http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews_canon_eos_40d.php
Hi Alex and all,
here’s a heads up from me of another early short 40D review I stumbled upon. Some dust…. (which ultimately will be found anyway i guess on any cam)
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?p=1163962#post1163962
Roland,
For me it all about time, shooting loads of pics (lets say: slightly above avarage;-) ) means lots of PC-post processing time for me per shot. And as I want to keep that to a minimum, yet without neglect of quality, I am curious how the cam holds its own against other new generation cams. for exemple; Nikon pics tend to have this greyish layer which should IMO be postprocessed-out in every pic. (i dunnot know anything yet of the 2 new fullframe nikon though)
further I would like to know things Like is 40D any better than Sigma new cam with ‘triple sensors’, -claiming more sharpness-.
best regards,
Hi grain,
As I have said, the sample gallery pics were all just resized and sharpened with no other image adjustments (such as Levels, Curves or Saturation etc), so they really quite “straight” from the camera.
I have a beef with the 30D’s display of settings in the viewfinder. The green characters are not nearly bright enough in some situations. Are they brighter in the 40D viewfinder? (It would be awesome if they adjusted the brightness based on the exposure values being read by the TTL metering.)
if u put pictures side by side make it easier to compare it..
Hi Roland
Having just stumbled across your review I am mightily impressed with your effort. This year I have invested in two new lenses as part of my upgrade plan for my rather ancient D30. Next step was to be a 30D but your review has inspired me to go for a 40D which I believe will more than meet my needs. Thanks again.
According to your “High ISO 100% corp comparison”, the 20D is noticeable better than 40D, isn’t it?
Thanks, great review.
Only worried about the high ISO noise!
Will be hanging on to my 20D for a while still
Hi Roland,
I’m a bit new to much of this.
I moved from film(Olypus-Rollieflex) a couple of years ago and bought A Canon 400D and a couple of good Canon EF-s lenses.
What are the Major benefits of the 40D over the 400D for a keenish, non pro.?
Thanks so much for your incredible investment in time,producing your matierial.
Pingback: Canon 40D ÂżRuido o no? « Rango dinámico
Thanks for taking the time to write this review. It is really complete and helpful.
Pingback: » Canon EOS 40D’s early review roundup
mmm i have a canon 20d but the nikon d300 is starting to look good. come on canon nikon is kicking your butt .
Roland:
thanks for a great personal tour of the 40D. I have two questions:
1- ON autofocus in Liveview, you state “To use autofocus during Live View, you will need to have set AF to the center focusing point only. Simply press and hold the AF-ON button for a second or so until you hear a “beep”, then release the button again. The camera will lower the mirror to get autofocus and raise the mirror again after you release the AF-ON button.”
Can you verify or clarify? this seems to imply that one can only focus on the centerpoint – I can’t believe Canon have done that.
2- I got the impression (from another review) that remote shooting via PC is very much improved over the 30D. Any chance you review that difference if any?
Thanks,
ncyandre
hey roland,
im glad i came across your review, theres not really any good reviews out on the 40D at the moment other than yours. like richard austin in the previous comment, i would also like to know the advantages of the 40d over the 400d. As a college student, it took forever to save up enough money for a dslr, now im stuck between the beginner and the middle range model and im having trouble weighing out the advantages to see if its worth the extra $$$. also, i dont know if you mentioned it, in the US the kit comes with a 28-135 IS USM, which im assuming is alot nicer than the 18-55 that comes with the xti. The 28-135 also would compliment well with the 10-22.
thanks for your review
dave
Hi Dave,
I have previously replied to a similar question about difference between the 40D and 400D, read the reply here:-
https://rolandlim.wordpress.com/photography/#comment-751
The 28-135mm IS USM is obviously a better lens than the old 18-55mm kit lens, but the cheap 18-55mm kit lens is usually bundled as a kit with the 350D and 400D rather than with the 30D and 40D.
Canon used to bundled the 30D with EF-S 17-85mm IS USM and is still bundling the same EF-S 17-85mm as a kit with 40D in many countries. However, for some reason, Canon US decided to have a 40D kit that bundles the 28-135mm (from what I have heard, there is another kit in US that bundles the 17-85mm). In my opinion, the 28-135mm is a rather awkward zoom range on a cropped frame camera like th 40D. The full frame equivalent field of view focal length would be 44.8-216mm, and makes it a standard lens to telephoto zoom range. Unless you do photography that fits in to that zoom range, I don’t think it is a very good choice as a walkaround zoom.
The EF-S 17-85mm actually has a full frame equivalent of 28-135mm focal length and is a much more versatile zoom range for most people as a walkaround or general purpose zoom lens.
The EF 28-135mm was originally designed as a general purpose zoom lens for a full frame camera and has a zoom range that would work better on a full frame than a cropped frame camera.
good review not to over technical and very helpfull
You have done a fantastic review
I must say your logical reasoning is fabulous, do provide us with such review. It’s not too long when your reviews will be a benchmark.
I also recently bought a 40D (as I own a shop on eBid, Shutter Bug, which means I get my camera gear at cost price), I can really say it’s a fantastic camera. I sold my 30D to upgrade, and I’m delighted. I wanted to upgrade for the 6.5fps, as I do a bit of bird photography and my ratio to in / out of focus shots definitely decreased.
I’d recommend the 40D!
Heinrich
This is my first time visiting this blog and I have to say that Steven your review was the most comprehensive one that I have read. I don’t know why the don’t write the manual in the same manner that you explained all the features.
I am a bit overwhelmed, imagine I have been shooting with a D60 since it came out, and I a week ago I got my 40D. The difference in the appearance sp the LC it’s quite an improvement.
Obviously, I’m going to keep my D60, for one I doubt it if I could get a few dollars, and two still works and it has never failed on me.
Again, thanks for a great job on the review.
Great job Roland! Thanks so much. I wa sitting on the fence but after reading your relevant review, I just upgraded from my 20D to the 40D. I look forward to future reviews and more of your phootos!
Your review was of tremendous help. The 40D is slowly dropping in price(ÂŁ990 to ÂŁ700 since launch), so I shall wait a little longer. My only problem is which lens to buy.I cannot decide whether to stick with the 17-85 kit lens or go for a large 10x zoom from a cheaper manufacturer. I currently use a Fugi S9500 which in all fairness has no real faults.Interchangeability is not important to me, only sharpness of picture. Anyone have an answer?
Hi Dave,
I am glad you found my review helpful. personally, I think the Canon EF-S 17-85mm is a good lens that matches well with the 40D and has a good zoom range. If you want a larger zoom range, you would have to go with 3rd party lenses like the Sigma 18-200mm OS. If you primary concern is image quality then the Canon 17-85mm should be a better choice, unless you really need the use the extra reach a lot, then you should go with the Sigma.
Thankyou Roland for your response. I guess I already knew the answer but it was satisfying to have it confirmed by an independent party.
Pingback: Canon EOS 40D’s early review roundup at Photomania
Hi, Roland. Great review and tips. I just got one as an anniversary gift and am a little intimidated to be honest. I haven’t been able to find any info on which of the eight Image Quality settings I should choose as my default. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Brilliant review, very helpful for me BUT> I was almost ready to upgrade from my 20D to a 5D and now I am unsure what to do. Do I save a few quid and go for the 40D with the self cleaning device ( I don’t have an issue cleaning the sensor myself) etc, or get the full frame 5D to get the best from my L lenses. I would be keeping the 20D regardless.
I must applaud you for your review, though you must be quite tired of compliments by now!
Love your website (been reading through it accidentally for some time now), though I’m just an amateur, I find your tips great. Thank you.
By the way, if you’re ever going to teach photography, could I get an e-mail? (not that I think you’ll ever need to!)
I already have one ! and guess what ?????I’m so happy with it !
Great review Roland
I have a 40d and I’m really happy with it
I mainly use it for sport and the results are brilliant and I think it is a must have for amateur or semi pro photographers
Sorry everyone, I have been busy lately and also have been away from Hong Kong traveling in China. It’s almost impossible to find internet access in China that didn’t block wordpress.com. It’s only in one hotel I stayed at for one night that didn’t
block wordpress. OK, I’ll start replying to the backlog of comments now.
Hi Chas,
Thanks! Which picture setting you choose as default depends on how your personal taste. I personally just leave it Neutral or faithful as I would like to adjust how the image look (sharpness, contrast, saturation, color tone) during post-processing. If you are a RAW shooter, then picture setting in camera is irrelevant anyway, since you can always apply picture setting with Canon’s Digital Photo Professional during RAW processing. However, if you are a jpeg shooter or if you don’t do post-processing, then you’ll have to experiment and try out different picture styles and compare to see which one you prefer. It’s all a matter of taste, what looks good for one personal may not look so good for another. Or you can just follow what the names of the picture style suggest. Use Portrait picture style to shoot portraits, use Landscape pciture style to shoot landscape etc.
Hi Dave Richardson,
Thanks for the kind comment. Now, that’s a very difficult question that I think only you can answer for yourself after weighing the pros & cons. However, personally, I wouldn’t buy the 5D now, although it is still a great camera, it is reaching the end of the product cycle and a new replacement should be coming out soon. So, I would wait for the 5D replacement than buy the 5D now. But that’s just me. You may have a different choice.
Hi Kirsty,
Thanks! I am glad liked my site and found it helpful! Btw, you can always email contact me from the “About&Contact” page or go straight to the Contact page at the right sidebar.
Hi Joie,
Yes, it is a great camera and I am glad you are happy with your 40D.
Hi olliee,
Thanks! Enjoy your 40D!
Hi, very nice test. I just get my 40D after a 300D and first remarques :
– it is a little too big and heavy, it was a problem for me with when I tested the Nikon d200,
– it seems useless to buy a fast card (66x of the sandisk ultra II doesn’t change significantly the speed),
– The rotative button on the back is sensitive and can make unwanted correction but can bea easily disabled by on off switch.
– It’s a nervous camera compared to my 300d
Not a revolutionary change in the design
For the 5D, it’s 2.5x the price but I understand the doubt… The little difference is expensive : for not professionnal, I cold this a Japonese ‘LUXE’ : only for professionnal , well equiped in lenses people or rich people considering the life-time of a such model.
IR RC-1 remote controle seem not compatible
En francais
– Un peu trop gros et lourd, comme le Nikon D200,
– Inutible d’acheter une carte mĂ©moire tres rapide pour le Canon 40d, une sandisk ultra II de 66x semble manifestement suffir,
– Le bouton rotatif arrière peut causer des erreurs involontaires, heureusement facilement dĂ©sactivable par bouton marche-arret,
– Design vieillissant,
– Je pense que le prix du 5D en comparaison le limite aux professionnels ou tres riches (ou tres Ă©quipĂ©s en objectifs inadaptĂ©s au petit format) releve du LUXE compte tenu de la duree de vie de ce modele.
– TĂ©lĂ©commande rc-1 semble incompatible.
best regards from France
Pingback: EOS TRULY. A CANON SHOWCASE. « A Moment Lived. A Journey Shared.
Pingback: Fotog Friday: 20D Meet 40D? « Provocations & Pantings
Hi Anton,
Great review , lots of info for the likes of me.
Thanks.
Dave
Great review! 🙂
In your high ISO testing with noise reduction; wouldn’t it be more interesting to use a dimly lit object with a very slow shutter speed?
Pingback: CANON 85MM 1.8 FOCUS TEST « A Moment Lived. A Journey Shared.
Very nice review…Thanks a lot !!
Best Regarts from Hamburg…
Ive took some picture on my EOS 40D
I’ve found that sRAW images looks much better than JPEG(Fine – lowest compression) images in terms of sharpness and contrast, when viewed on my 19″ Dell LCD screen (resolution 1280×1024) (images viewed in Zoombrowser, fit to screen). Even though the resolution of sRAW is supposed to be 2.5MP, it looks much better than the JPEG images of 10MP. (Quality vs Quantity)
Great comparison.
Very detailed.
Thanks for the great review!
Mike
Thanks for a great review
Itake my hat off to you for being so helpfull to so many.In the times we live there are not many givers.Congratulations.Your work is excellent and your love for what you do excells.Ive been totally speechless for weeks now just reading looking and being like spunge.You must be a very humble man reading between the lines giving all your time and energy.Thank you Roland.
God speed for 2008,
Regards Louis Downunder Australia
Thats a great review. Thanks for that.
I got my 40D for a month now and have taken close to 2000 shots around Singapore on that. There is a problem of Underexposing images by atleast 1-stop. Not sure why, but I have read reports on the net that it seems to be problem with Canon Eos 40D. Some of my pics are at
http://picasaweb.google.com/p.harikrishna
All images are taken by 40D, however, the album titled : “Orchard on X’mas night” was not spruced or adjusted in any way and as you see, the images are slightly underexposed. I am planning to take to the support again to see if there is a problem with the camera.
Did any of your tests show any such issues?
Regards
Hari.
Hi Hari,
Thanks! I am glad you liked the review.
As for your under-exposure problem, personally, I haven’t encountered such problem. However, I have looked at your Orchard on X’mas night gallery. most of the shots in that gallery were night shots. I think the problem is generally with metering mode in cameras. The conventional way that exposure meters work is by metering exposure for 18% gray, but in real life, not everything is 18% gray obviously. Even with the advanced intelligence of modern matrix metering, the camera meters are still not as smart as the human brain and often cannot get the right exposure. Night scene being one of the difficult scenes for camera meters to get accurate exposure. So often, one has to experiment with exposure to get good exposure in different situations. If you find that your night shots were consistently under-exposed by 1 stop at night, then you should add +1 EV next time when you shoot under similar lighting. You can also look at the histogram as a guide to see how you should adjust your exposure.
I hope this helps. Have a great New Year!
Hi Louis,
Thanks for the really kind comments. I am glad you found my site useful and liked my work.
Have a great 2008 and I hope the new year will rekindle your passion for photogrpahy!
Hi Roland,
Many Thanks for your elaborate reply. I tried increasing the EV by +1 (and +1 again) and it worked pretty well. This is working in the day time as well as night time and the photo histograms are well balanced now unlike before when they were consistently oriented towards the darker side. I am not sure if this indicates a problem with the camera itself which is consistently underexposing. I am planning to take it to the Canon service centre for a checkup.
But Thanks to your help, I was able to happily click away new year in Singapore and with good memories of it now.
Wish you a happy new year and have a grand time in 2008.
Regards
Hari.
I already have the 40D and came across your review. It was very informative and ended any questions I might have had regarding my camera selection. I think I will look for a used battery grip. Thank you, Health & happiness for the New Year to you & your family!!!!!!
Tom
Hi.
Great review – it was really usefull. I just have one question.
I’m new to slr photography but I’m going to be studying photography next year, and thought I might as well get a decent camera. (going for the 40d)
I’m really interested in star trail photography and want to know how to extend the exposure time to multiple hours? All the specs I’ve seen say the max exposure time is just 30 seconds? I don’t know much about dslr’s so it might be a stupid question, but any help would be much appreciated.
Tom Collins
Hi Tom Collins,
Thanks, I am glad you found the review helpful!
In practically all SLR or DSLR cameras, there is a B mode which you can use for long exposure. All you need to do is buy a electronic cable release. For the Canon 40D, there are 2 Canon cable release that you can buy. the cheaper one allows you to manually set the exposure for as long as you like, but you have to time the exposure yourself. Say you to set an exposure for 3 hours and 45 minutes, you’ll have to use the cable release to open the shutter, then after 3 hours and 45 minutes, you will have to manually release the cable release to close the shutter.
There is a 2nd more expensive cable release than you can buy, it has a built-in timer than you can use to set the exposure time for up to 100 hours. The built-in timer can also be used for self timer, interval timer. Read the link below, you may find it helpful:-
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/tc-80n3.shtml
Roland
Hi Roland,
Great review helped me a lot to get to grips with the 40D having upgraded from Olympus E20. I live in Cyprus and have been persuaded to come out of retirement to undertake some studio work. I have followed all the flash instructions but using a Wein Sync hotshoe adaptor with my Metz 45CT5 I cannot get it to fire in any mode, I was told not to use the sync cord connection on the camera as the voltage might be too high.
Could you please advise what I am not doing as I want to use this flash which worked perfectly with the E20. Hopefully I will have no trouble with the new studio lights when they arrive from China.
Keep up the good work,
David Sherwill
Pingback: spencer tan's weblog · Buying a 40D?
So I broke down and finally bought one of these the other day and I am so impressed with it.
Easily the best review I have read of the 40D
I have read days worth of reviews and this review tells me all I need to know. Other reviews have too much fluff and this one is very in depth about what I care about in a camera.
Great work. My 40D is on order now!
Hi… I used a 10D, a 20D and now have a 40D that I have been using for a while. Here are a few points worth mentioning….
1. The “quietness” of the shutter does not last. Initially it is a nice soft “cluff” noise, BUT after putting a few thousand frames through this body, the foam damper which the shutter comes up against during an exposure, gets pressed enough times for its “springyness” to get lost. The result is less damping of the shutter noise, which turns into a loud “clack” a la 20D.
2. I have always loved the color and light handling of the 10 and 20D cameras – I think its even better than the 1D MKII that I have. I have to say the 40D is nowhere close. Sunlight on skin for example, on the 10D and 20D was never a problem, but the 40D seems to have trouble handling bright light with shadow. You get color smears almost, instead of a smooth color graduation. It seems like the ability to handle subtle color changes just isn’t there any more.
3. You get a very sharp picture from this camera, true, but the tones of the colors in general are very metallic, and not warm and natural at all. It’s like shooting with a Fuji Finepics – the same hue and tone to the colors. It’s like they have overpixeled this chip at the expense of certain other things, like the tonal handling. Any type of Auto setting is a problem.
4. If you choose “NO Flash” auto setting, it actually gives you the best results with this camera, believe it or not, EXCEPT it mostly shoots at ISO400 in this setting EVEN in bright sunlight. You can’t force an ISO change in this mode.
It’s an OK camera, but I would actually rather have a new 10D, anyday…!
I’ve finally worn out my old T-50 after 30 years (yes some of us never grow up and get a real camera until necessity strikes) I took the plunge and purchased the 40D.
I absolutely love this camera, and have taken over 2,000 images in just the first four weeks, but reading your review makes me so sadly aware of my lack of real photography skills!
When I get tired of taking all the easy shots, even though I am very good at composition, I guess I better get to the camera store to take advantage of their free classes. Its about time I learned all what you folks are talking about.
Thanks for the information.
Hey Roland,
Thank you very much for putting out such a fantastic review of the 40D. I have enjoyed reading it very much.
If I may, I would like to suggest that you do a comparison between the 40D and the new XSI (450D).
I have a number of friends that are somewhat disabled and that are concerned about the extra weight of the 40D especially with some of their longer lenses. One of them is having a hard time carrying his 400D with lenses like that but he really needs the larger LCD. Of course, the fantastic 6.5 frames per second might pull him over to getting the 40D.
It would be nice to know how the 40D does at shooting jpeg’s and Raw files together. The Canon 400D can only shoot a few photo’s before the camera locks up and that is using a Sandisk Extreme III card.
Anyway, thanks again for such a superb review.
Michael
Hi Michael,
Thanks! I am glad you have found my review helpful.
The 40D review was done with a camera I bought. I have no intention of buying the 450D myself, but if I can get someone or Canon Hong Kong to loan one to me, then I maybe able to do a review and comparison with the 450D.
Thanks again!
Very instructive review Roland. I upgraded from a 350D to a 40D a few months ago, and I am very happy with it. I particularly like the safety shift in Tv and Av modes, which the 350D (or the 450D, for that matter!) lacks. Good for sports shots.
Some food for thought: over the past week I tried a a pinhole setup on my 40D. I made a 0.5mm hole on an Al film stuck over a body cap with a bigger hole, and took a few picts at 20 sec and 30 secs. I made sure there was enough light to produce well exposed pictures, but they all came up extremely noisy, pretty awful, to tell the truth. I did have the noise reduction on, which means the camera takes an additional 20/30 sec for processing a black image after taking the actual shot, but still…. No amount of Photoshop or Focus Magic could improve them. I wonder whether you have made any experiments of this sort. Collecting light over a long time does not seem to be one of the strengths of CCDs! Should I go back to the pawnshop and get back my old film camera for the pinhole setup?
Cheers.
Cheers, Chuck
Hi Chuck,
Thanks! I am glad you’ve found my review useful.
I have never tried using the 40D or any other DSLR as a pinhole camera. However, I have used the 40D for long exposure shots up to about 30 seconds with a normal lens (not a pinhole) and long exposure noise reduction off and the images were not noisy at all.
Canon DSLR have been know to be pretty good for long exposure shots with little noise. So my guess is that your pinhole shots might be quite underexposed and that would explained why the images would be so noisy.
By the way, the Canon 40D uses a CMOS sensor, not CCD. Canon was a pioneer for using CMOS sensors for DSLR and have been doing so a quite awhile. The other camera makers like Nikon, Sony etc are all now catching on and using CMOS sensors instead of CCD for their new DLSRs.
Hi Roland
Great review, have decided to get the 40D, and has you, keep my 20D as a spare/second camera. What is you take on the 5D?
Hi Roland,
Top review,still very relevant sometime on.
How are you getting on with your 40D, any new gems of information?
I am now thinking of up grading to a 40 from 20D.
However – do you think that this is wise at this point in time ?
As always Canon is progressing and I can’t help but feel that a 50D is right around the corner ,especially with the 450D and its 12 MP sensor.
But on the other hand with cash back offers at present the value that the 40D represents is hard to beat.
Tito
Hi John,
Thanks! I am glad you liked the review. Yes, I have kept the 20D as a backup/2nd body. The 5D is a very fine camera and it’s heavily discounted these days and you can get it at a good price. However, the problem with the 5D is that, it has been out for a long time (it is in fact the oldest DLSR in the current Canon DSLR lineup), and is surely due for replacement soon. The only question is how soon and that’s a question only Canon can answer. There has been numerous rumors flying all around for the past year regarding the 5D replacement. Unless you are not worried about buying a camera that will be replaced soon, then I would definitely wait a bit longer for the 5D replacement.
Hi Tito,
Thanks! I am glad you have found my review helpful.
Canon usually stick to their 18 months product cycle timing for the xxD range and it is unlikely Canon will come out with a 50D any time soon before March 2009. If you look back at recent history, it was not the first time that Canon released a lower end xxxD model that has a higher resolution than the current xxD.
Canon announced the 30D on 21st Feb 2006. It has an 8MP sensor. Canon then announced the 400D on 24th Aug 2006. It has a 10MP sensor. At that time, a lot of people were saying that surely Canon would release a 40D very soon and would not wait till the usual 18 months product cycle. Their reason were based on the fact that Canon would not allow a lower end 400D have a higher resolution sensor than the 30D. Well, we all knew what happened. Canon stuck to their 18 months product cycle and did not announced the 40D until 20 Aug 2007.
Of course Canon can change their mind, product cycle, marketing strategy, but I think their main problem does not lie with the 40D right now. If they were to replace any camera real soon, it would have to be the 5D.
So in my humble opinion, I don’t think Canon will replace the 40D real soon and it should be safe to buy the 40D now. Unless you can wait till next year then surely the 50D will come out soon then. But there will always be something new, so if you keep on waiting, you’ll never buy anything.
Pingback: Canon EOS 50D Review « The World According to Roland
I’m experiencing trouble with my 40D and Sandisk Ultra II 4gb memory card. After 8-10 JPEGs in continuous burst, the burst slows down to three fps or even comes to a complete halt. The LCD screen tells me it is “busy”. This should mean that the buffer is full. According to your test, this isn’t possible. Do you know what’s the problem?
Best regards, Matthijs
Hi Mattijs,
Do you have High ISO noise reduction on? If so, it would greatly reduce the maximum burst . It’s documented on P. 156 on the manual.
Hi, I just read a lot of your review, specifially the buffer speeds. I have only just noticed that i can only shoot a maximum burst, at any given file size, of 6.5-7 frames untill it slows down to around 1.5-2 per sec. RAW or Jpeg, and even small, and i’m using sandisk extreme 3.
Any ideas why?
Hi Paul,
make sure you have turn of “High ISO noise reduction” in the custom menu. On it on, your duffer size would shrink significantly.
Hey Roland I just got in your page and it’s very, very good, you are awesome!
I’m a university student and I’m doing a work about photography, we have the EOS 40D in campus, but for some (unfortunate) reasons we aren’t allowed to take them in the afternoons, but I need pictures of the camera.
So what i’m really asking is if I can borrow some of your pictures of the EOS 40D (not the ones you took with the camera, but the ones you took of the camera) for my work.
Of course i’ll give you credit for them.
Thanks for your time!
Michael
Hi Michael,
I have sent a email to you.
Roland. Very informative and well done. I really appreciated the time and the effort that must have gone into this review. At least I know what camera I will be going after now. Thanks a lot.
John.
Hi Roland,
Another happy photographer here after reading your review. Ive been looking around for a while for a really in depth review of the 40D, and couldnt find many, so splashed out and bought one anyway (yet to arrive). Having read your review, it would seem that the 40D is definately worth the extra money, and will be a significant improvement on my 400D.
Thanks very much!
Ben
Pingback: Auke Rensen Fotografie | Lees/schrijf snelheid compact flash (CF) kaarten
just got a Canon 40D to start learning photography. this is a great review with lot of pictures. it helps me a lot. thanks
Hello Roland,
I came across your 7D review as it was referenced on the Fred Miranda site earlier this week. I found your review very informative and if I was in a position to purchase one I would largely based on your real world comments. I own a 30D and have been considering an upgrade. After reading your 40D review, I have decided to go with the 40D which will eventually become the backup to a new 7D or even the Mark IV.
Thanks again for the effort you put into your reviews.
Regards,
Harry
Hello Roland
Very detail review and lot of info, I am in the process of upgrading my 350D to a newer and better body my choices are a used 40D with a 3yr extended warranty for about $650 or pay $1100 for a new 50D any help will be appreciated. I am happy with my 350D but like to have a bigger LCD and better ISO, I mostly shoot my kids indoor and on holidays
Thanks,
K Raj
Hi K Raj,
The 50D is obviously a newer and nicer camera to use compared to the 40D. However, there won’t be a big difference with image quality between the 2 cameras. The choice is difficult, but I am afraid it’s a decision only you can make for yourself.
nice review, liked also the article about the noise reduction