I've been using Canon DSLR cameras for a long time. In fact, I've used almost every model the company has produced since it launched itself into digital DSLRs with the 30D. So you might say I'm jaded.
In any case, I've had a chance now to play with a 40D for a few days. Here are my initial thoughts on this latest consumer-level DSLR from Canon. Since I have more negatives to report than positives, I won't hold it against you if you look at this as a curmudgeon's review of the 40D. In fact, I'll even put "curmudgeon" in the title of this thread.
Pros:
- Very low noise in photographs. I'm surprised to see that a 1000 ISO shot can actually be usable.
- Snappy operation.
- Reasonably lightweight.
- Menu reorganization is nice, although I never minded the menus of the older model cameras
- Dust cleaning exists, but I'm not sure how well it works.
- The new external flash hotshoe is not painted. On previous "xxD" models, it was painted black, and the black paint always scraped off.
- The ISO setting is displayed in the viewfinder, and the addition of a single-purpose ISO button on the top of the camera means that you can change ISO without taking your eye from the viewfinder.
Cons:
- Insufficient standoff of viewfinder from back of camera. Result: you get to smash your nose pretty substantially into the LCD whenever you take a picture. That's not cool! Switching to a 1-series camera after using this is a HUGE relief from the standpoint of one's nose. Canon must have had this profile in mind when they designed the camera:
- The camera insists on reminding you that it is "cleaning the sensor" every time you turn on the camera and turn off the camera. Who cares? Just do it, I say.
- One time the camera locked up for no apparent reason. The top LCD showed info, but the camera refused to snap a picture when I pressed the shutter button. Reading around the net suggested that others have had this problem, not only with the 40D but with earlier "xxD" cameras. I had to pull out the battery and reinsert it to get the camera to work again. Firmware, you say? It is 1.0.5, the latest at this writing. Grrr.
- It's really uncomfortable to take a picture in vertical orientation when there's no vertical shutter release button.
- The battery technology of the 40D has been used ever since the ancient D60 and D30! I guess you get about 600 shots with it, but I've found these batteries to lose their useful life fairly quickly.
- The LCD on the back of this camera must be about 3 inches wide and tall. It is so big that I am tempted at times to use it to watch movies rather than take pictures with the camera. The LCD eats up more than half of the back of the camera.
- Other than for shooting wildlife or using telephoto lenses for other long-distance subjects, I find the 1.6x crop really constraining. I don't like it. It gives me claustrophobia.
- There is a "direct print" button on the back of the camera that I will never, ever in a thousand million years use. If I had 20 dollars, I would bet it all that no more than .00009 percent of the users of this camera will ever touch that button, much less use it.
- There is no dedicated button for changing image quality settings (Large to RAW, for instance). See my point above. Would you rather have a "direct print" button or an image quality button? Would the person at Canon responsible for the "direct print" button idea please stand up? Thank you--you're fired.
- Somebody at Canon must have looked at a Nikon camera some time ago and thought a joystick on the back of the camera was the way to change focus selection points. The trouble is that Canon's tiny, very plastic joystick is not only cheap feeling but also difficult to use. Positioning one's thumb in order to select one of the diagonally-placed focus points could very well cause muscle cramp--and will almost certainly take you so long that you'll either miss the picture you intended to take or give up on the idea altogether.
- The mode dial is a bit too easy to change inadvertently. You might take several pictures in "M" because the last time you used the camera you were in "A," but in removing the camera from your bag, the mode dial was changed as you scraped the camera on the side of the bag. Result: cursing and improperly exposed shots.
There you have it. As I delight in and curse the 40D, I may add more thoughts to this thread. Feel free to add your own. Insults accepted.
