Canon EOS 40D Announced!
Finally! It’s out – and it’s amazingly wonderous.
I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to upgrade my 350D to something a bit better to complement my lens collection. The amount of new features sounds pretty amazing:
- 10.1 megapixel sensors with DIGIC III processor.
- Much larger 3.0″ LCD. Loving this, since it’s about twice the size of my existing screen.
- 6.5 fps in continuous drive mode for up to 17 RAW images. Over double my current 3fps capability.
- 14-bit RAW files and sRAW will be nice. Need to confirm that the 14-bit is preserved when converting over to DNG as in my workflow.
- LiveView for previewing on the LCD. Kinda useless really but cool that it can be streamed through to a computer.
- Some basic weather-sealing – great! Unsure as to whether the camera will seal with the L series lenses like the 1-series cameras though.
Plus a load more features… auto ISO, wireless file transmitter support (super cool), quieter mirror, interface improvements… Can’t wait! Unfortunately… have to wait until November/December but with an RRP of £900 I’m waiting for the price to come down. Considering the guys in the USA are only paying £650 it’s a bit annoying really.
27/1/2009 1:39 pm
I am sort of following in your footsteps now Dave.
I got myself a 40D last year to replace my 400D, what a difference.
So far lens-wise I am trailing behind with the 17-85mm IS USM kit lens (annoyingly an EF-S), the EF 50mm f1.8 II prime (build quality stinks and although the image quality makes up for it I feel an upgrade to the USM f1.4 coming on), and my latest acquisition which arrived this morning: the Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 EX DC HSM.
This still needs some work as I have omitted a couple of L lenses (the total cost is already over £5,000 and I don’t wish to feel like I am over-reaching), but for the moment my target set-up is here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Target-Canon-EOS-40D-Setup/lm/R352O7RCMO7EEO/ref=cm_lm_pdp_title_full
We appear to be tripod buddies. How nice!
I placed a review of the EOS 40D on Amazon, somehow well exceeding double their word limit, which you might be able to find fault with:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B000V9H5J4/ref=cm_cr_pr_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
I am of course Rob “Yikes!”.
As far as the SanDisk Extreme range goes, there is an argument for using the IV series over the III series for some models. The EOS 40D is such a model, although it does slightly depend on the card capacity which I can only assume is a memory addressing phenomenon. If you link through to my Amazon profile you’ll see some comparisons on the reviews I wrote for the Extreme IV 2Gb and 4Gb models.
If shooting speed is not an issue, you can buy a Transcend 133x 32Gb card for about £35. I sold mine with my 400D but I am thinking of getting another to use in parallel with the faster cards. I am one of those people who will leave my fast card in the camera with a load of shots on it that didn’t NEED to be taken at high speed, then get annoyed when I quickly need to fire off 300 shots in quick succession and don’t have the space
24/11/2009 11:22 am
Hey Sayo,
Not noticed you’d posted on this! I really need to pay more attention to the blog comments…
I can agree with you that the 40D is a major, major upgrade from the xxxD range. I couldn’t go back to a 350D now, that’s for sure – in fact I recently sold it. And the 055XPROB is an awesome tripod. I took it to Iceland recently and it was ace.
In terms of your list, I have a few suggestions:
1. Go for the upgrade to the f/1.4 on the 50mm. You won’t regret it; I know several people who have made that jump. It’s worth it just for the improvement in AF speed.
2. I see you’ve got the 70-200 f/4 IS in the list. In my mind, you’ll regret it if you don’t go for the f/2.8 version. I know it’s loads more expensive, but that extra stop is really worth it.
3. Consider buying some stuff used. For instance, I recently acquired a BG-E2 grip (not the new version) for £65 delivered instead of £127 as it is on Amazon at the moment. It even came with two batteries.
4. Don’t bother with the ST-E2. The 580EX can be used as a master, and the 430EX is not too much more expensive as I recall, which would give you a double flash capability. You can always get one later on.
In terms of buying stuff, I buy quite a bit of used stuff now. There’s a great Canon photography forum which I frequent, which has quite a lot of UK users who sell. I’ve nabbed some absolute bargains on there and sold some stuff too, and those kind of guys tend to take very good care of their gear. Aside from that, I have bought a few expensive lenses (100-400, 24-105 and my 580EX/430EX) from a guy who imports from the States and offers pretty good discounts over store prices. You can find a thread on POTN which has his details, his name is Kerso.