Canon EOS 40D 10.1MP Digital SLR Camera with EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Standard Zoom Lens
by Canon
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Canon EOS 40D 10.1MP Digital SLR Camera with EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Standard Zoom Lens
Customer Review: Not since the F1
Summary: 5 Stars
I suppose this review is less for professional photographers who are thinking about moving up to the next great digital camera and more for photographers who have been put off by the camera/cost issue when considering moving into digital media. In the past, I have always felt that I could get digital results at least as good as the most expensive digital cameras by scanning a slide or negative on a relatively inexpensive scanner. I have held off buying a digital camera until I felt I was buying a truly professional quality camera at a good price. Through the years, the list of reasons for converting to digital photography has become increasingly long, but until now (at least in my opinion) it has never included "professional quality at a good price." The 40M meets that need for me. It has many more features than I can imagine ever using, but in the end it is affordable and shoots at professional standards, and I think that counts a lot. But connection to the camera also counts a great deal.
I have used Canon cameras since I bought my first F1 in the mid-1970s. During this period I wrote industrial articles and always provided my own photographs (and needed a bullet proof camera). The F1 and a Pentax 4X6 were my primary work cameras. But I liked the F1 so much, it was also my primary play camera until the light shoe fitting finally wore completely out. I loved that camera so I replaced it with another Canon, the EOS ElanII, which I never much liked. I never felt "connected" to that camera. In fact, photography has been a bit of a pain since then. For the past 10 years I have seldom really enjoyed a photo outing, and had pretty much quit carrying a camera at all.
The first time I picked up a 40D, I felt the kind of connection I used to feel with the old F1. It feels like an extension of my wrist. I carry it like I carried the F1, in my hand and not around my neck -- ready to lift and shoot.
Intrestingly, I especially like the camera's weight. It is heavy; that's nice. I have always felt an SLR should be heavy enough to overcome any shutter shake. But, perhaps more important, the camera feels like a camera and not like a deck of cards.
I have checked out the many features of the camera but they are discussed in great depth by others in this venue who know much more than I do about the capabilities of digital cameras. As for me? I use the features and find them much better than my Elan -- but that ain't saying much.
On the other hand, I have always liked the lenses I purchased for the Elan over the years, and they work nicely on the 40D.
In brief, I have found much to like in this camera and some things to love. At the same time, I have found nothing I dislike. I am back to going on photo outings just for the joy of using the camera. For a person waiting for professional quality at a reasonable price? I think the wait may have been over with introduction of the 30D but is certainly over with the introduction of the 40D.
Customer Review: FIRST DAY OWNER . . . I'M STUNNED!
Summary: 5 Stars
As a long-time Canon EOS Elan IIe (film) owner, with lenses, I've waited to move to digital (till the quality and affordability met my needs / budget). I wanted to stick with Canon (yes my old AF lenses work with the 40D).
Did my research, went to my local camera store, checked my old lenses on the 40D, tried nicely to "deal" with them. They still couldn't touch Amazon's price for this kit.
In the four days (yes, only four) it took for the 40D to reach me (free shipping, incidentally), I bought and read David Busch's book dedicated to the 40D. Highly recommend it. So I was ready.
My camera arrived early this morning. Battery fully charged. I waited till later this afternoon, when the light is better, and took it shooting.
Nature stuff. Children on playgrounds. Birds. Animals. Speedboats on the river. A volleyball game. Portraits of my nephew's wife and their one-year-old daughter (no-flash shots and built-in fill-flash shots). Some with IS on, most with IS off.
Just basic stuff to see what the Basic Modes did on default. Looked at some histograms as I shot, but didn't make any adjustments. (Now that I've looked at the defaults, I will start tweaking the settings for my own preferences.)
Over 300 shots, in JPEG Fine only. No RAW (yet.)
Got home, plugged the CF card into the reader (both from Adorama, though after the fact I realized I could have gotten a slightly better deal from Amazon).
Using FastStone's free Image Viewer (which I wanted to try), I started sorting through my shots, comparing them side by side, tagging those I wanted to delete, batch renaming the ones I kept, etc.
I must have examined my first shot for five minutes, minutely examining the details. Stunned! STUNNED! At HUGE magnifications!
With every shot, I just kept shaking my head in amazement. Virtually FLAWLESS exposure! (One or two had slight clipping in highlights (on the histograms), yet still with incredible detail. One or two were slightly soft on the subject's focus (my fault). Incredible color!
Continuous bursts on the volleyball players and the speedboats and the bikers on bike trails were jaw-dropping! PERFECT focus! PERFECT exposure! At 6.5 fps! (Unheard of, even just a few years ago, at this price point.)
I'm fluent in Photoshop, but prefer to get it right the first time, in the camera.
I've yet to scratch the surface of the 40D's capabilities. Can't wait to get into the "Creative Modes" tomorrow. And then move on to "Custom Modes," etc.
I'm a semi-pro. Got my first SLR when I was 15. I'm 64. I've had 'em all, and loved 'em all.
But I haven't been so immediately impressed, FLOORED actually, by a camera system in my life.
Particularly at this price point, the 40D system is a remarkable achievement.
Customer Review: Best Camera yet
Summary: 5 Stars
I started taking photos at a very early age when black and white film was popular and later color slides. Now in the digital era, photo cameras have come a long way.
While I love sophisticated P/S cameras with lots of options to manually select your settings for your photo composition like the new Canon G9, the quality of the image never really satisfied me, you can see the difference between a 10MP P/S or 10MP DSLR in quality with the naked eye, it does not need a magnifying glass to differentiate the two and see the graininess of the photo from the P/S and the clarity of a DSLR photo. This becomes more and more visible the dimmer the lighting conditions get like under sunset or night conditions and your ISO speed has to move up to 400 and higher as high as 1600. Also the speed of a DSLR can be up to 10 frames per second, the 40D shoots at 6.5fps the XTi at 3fps, while a even sophisticated P/S may only take up to 2fps. If you take action photos like in a Formula One race or go to the Olympics this can be critical. But the lag of speed never bothered me as much as did the image quality.
I have tried many pro P/S cameras by now the Canon S70, S80, Canon SD900 (for its nice size), and lastly the G9. Neither really satisfied my taste. Last year I briefly had a Canon 30D, a very nice camera, but because of removable lenses, dust sticking to the sensor became an issue for me. Now Canon has developed a "dust shaker" technology that rids most of the dust every time the camera is turned on or off. The EOS integrated cleaning system, a very nice feature.
After being fed up with the Canon G9 and Canon now having a "dust removing" technology I bought a Canon 40D with Canon's 28-135mm USM image stabilizer lens. I really like the nice large LCD and all the new and improved functions. Now with a Canon DSLR you can have a "Live view" and see the actual image on the LCD before you shoot. I always liked a Live view in a Pro P/S camera seeing my image on the LCD before you take your photo, now you can have the very same with the Canon 40D.
Since digital cameras became 2MP I've been "upgrading" my camera every other year to the latest mode,l but in the last 2 years I had 4 different cameras. I hope and think that my new 40D will bring me the joy for many years not just 2, but at least 5 years. Yes it is heavy to lug around and carries a steep price tag of US$1500 including Canon's nice 28-135mm image stabilizer lens but the image quality I get in return is something I don't want to miss any longer especially on my planned RTW trip.
I recently took this camera on my trip to Honduras and returned with stunning images, that blow previous images from my advanced P/S cameras out of the water. I simply love the detail, colors and manual settings especially during sunset or action shots.
Customer Review: Great Camera
Summary: 5 Stars
I wanted to purchase a digital SLR. Many years ago I had purchased a Canon film SLR which was the A-1. I was very satisfied with it and now it is obsolete and you can't even find lenses that will fit. Long discontinued. I decided to stick with Canon. At first I was looking at the Digital Rebel XTi. Then Canon released the update to the 30d. I saw numerous raves about the 40d. Amazon had the camera with a kit lens, the 28-135 3.5-5.6 IS USM lens. I decided to upgrade my choice and bought this camera. I haven't regretted my choice.
I am a rank novice and know little about digital photography but this camera will help you immensely with its many program modes. The wonderful thing about digital photography which has been mentioned many times, you take a bad picture you erase it. And its so true. Study your manual and experiment and you will be taking wonderful photos before long.
The 40d is bigger than the Rebel and much studier. It's body is magnesium alloy which makes it heavier but its not objectionable. This is a "crop camera" with a focal factor of 1.6. This helps with telephoto but wide angle hurts as it magnifies your focal length by 1.6. It accepts both EF and EF-S lenses.
I will give you an example. I bought the camera in November 2007. This February a co-worker and friend asked me to come to their daughter's wedding just to take snapshots. They had hired a wedding photographer. I said I will but I didn't know how the pictures will turn out as I was still learning how to use the thing. No matter they said, we have a photographer hired anyway. I took the camera, the 28-135 kit kens and a 580EX II Speedlite. I let the camera and the flash make most of the decisions concerning settings and using techniques I had remembered from my film SLR days I made about 175 various shots. Never done a wedding in my life. To my amazement the majority of the shots were great. So much so the parents of the bride told me that my snapshots were on par with the professional they had hired. No not all were good. There were lighting miscues. The reception was under florescent lighting and I overlooked that fact with camera settings. Post processing helped a lot.
All in all I am very pleased with this camera and would recommend it to anyone who is in the market for a digital SLR camera that is not a full frame camera. One other point, if you have a Nikon or a Canon camera look into DxO post processing software. It matches the particular camera body and particular lens to process the image. It is a great program especially if you shoot with the RAW format.
Bob James
Customer Review: Just a great camera!
Summary: 5 Stars
There's really nothing more that I can add to the already excellent reviews...except to just echo what just about everyone is saying -- this is a great camera. In fact, in the sub-$1000 range, I don't think you could possibly buy another one. I checked three or four of the leading photo magazines and e-zines....and they all rave about this baby. And I have to say, I agree.
I use to shoot for fun with my old Canon AE-1, which started back in high school in the late 80's. That camera eventually broke a few years ago, and I gave it away to someone who could fix it. Since then, I've tried to scrape by with a few cheapies, but they were not the kind of camera that made you really want to go out and take pictures.
Then I started borrowing my uncle's now-fairly ancient 10D, and the love of picture taking came back.
The 10D-40D series are cameras that makes you want to take pictures. That was probably the main reason I purchased the 40D over the Rebel 450D -- this one just feels so much more sturdy in the hands. The higher resolution on the newer 450D (12mp vs. 10mp) really doesn't make a lot of difference for what I want to do. The features on the 450D would have been plenty for my amateur photography, but it just didn't feel as nice to shoot with it. If you are on the fence about 450D or 40D, my advice would be to go to a camera shop (or even a Best Buy, which usually has both on hand) and 'feel' them out for yourself. When I did it, the feel just wasn't there for 450D.
This is a great kit deal too with the 28-135mm lens. Don't mess around with any kits selling you the ultra-low end 18-55mm kit lens, and please don't buy the 40D and then drop another 170 bucks on a cheapie lens. That's like sticking a Mazda Miata engine inside a Corvette. But the 28-135mm is no cheapie. This is 400 buck lens going for 150 less in the kit. The USM (ultra-silent motor) and IS (image stabilization) features make the 28-135mm a very nice, very versatile lens for starting out. The expense is not that much more than 18-55mm, but it's totally worth it in the long run. So if you are just starting out, this is definitely the best kit to go with.
As always Amazon shipping is amazing. I ordered the thing on a Monday morning, added standard shipping (8 bucks extra), and the thing was at my doorstep the very next day. Unfortunately, I ordered my CF card through Newegg (which has a pretty good shipping reputation!), and so I had to wait another 2 days before that arrived.