Canon EOS 400D
About three months after I bought my 350D, Canon announced that they were just about to release the 400D. I was a little bitter about the whole deal. Yesterday on my way home, I popped into the Bullring Apple Store to see the toys and drool everywhere, and was rather surprised to see a 400D sitting there on the side hooked up to one of the demo models. I couldn’t resist playing with it to find out what I’d missed out on.
A list is probably in order to convey the advantages and disadvantages that I found over my 350D:
Advantages
- An upgraded 10.1 megapixel CMOS sensor. The extra 2 megapixels would probably make quite a bit of difference, although I have plenty to be getting on with.
- The larger 2.5 inch screen is very nice, with lots of viewing area to see the photos you’ve just taken.
- It still fits quite nicely in my hand.
- I like the power indicator on the top, so that you know when power-saving mode has been enabled.
Disadvantages
- The 9-point auto-focus almost annoys me in some respects. I found it really difficult to navigate the AF points, and in this respect I feel that 7 is plenty for me. I tend to use the AF quite a bit, especially scrolling through the different points to get quick focusing and the extra two spoiled it for me.
- The 2.5 inch screen is very nice, but unfortunately the small status display LCD above it has disappeared in this new model. I use this on the 350D pretty much all of the time and to lose it would irritate me. I know that you can bring up the status on the screen, but that entails pushing buttons from what I saw, and not just glancing down at it.
- Also with respect to the screen, larger screen means smaller battery life (or so I’ve heard).
Unfortunately I didn’t have the time to get into a fully fledged review of the software, menu structures and soforth. But, on an initial glance, I feel a little better about the whole thing. The 350D is a great camera in its own right, and I’m lucky to have one. The next two things on the list are a flash gun (which I’m getting for Christmas - the Speedlite 430EX) and a nice tripod. After that, I’m pretty much out of ideas - although if someone just wanted to get me the Canon f4L 100-400mm I’m not going to say no… but that may be wishful thinking.