Taltos Photography
Let me begin with a disclaimer. As there are as many "professional" photographers in the neighborhood as Nikon and Canon makes cameras, I'm going to write this from my personal experience with the camera and not from any "professional" level.
That said, owning a Canon 5D and 1DMark II, one might ask why buy the 40D? Curiosity for the most part. I read a lot of reviews on the camera which seemed feature packed and was interested in the 14 bit images. I have taken a limited number of shots with it, but from what I have seen in Lightroom, it holds it's own with the other two cameras. As long as I get everything right on my end the 40D produced crisp images with color closer to the the actual subject than my 1D. I don't claim to be the smartest guy on the planet and in that I may not have the 1D set well. I also didn't notice a huge difference in image noise between the cameras. I spent quite a bit of time comparing shots taken at the same settings with all three cameras using the same lens, 24-70 f2.8 L and same subject.
The 6.5 fps rate is more than fast enough for what I do. The 5D is rated at 3 fps, so the 40D seems like a speed demon. At the 6.5 fps setting though, I found the write time to the CF card stopped me for a few seconds to finish its job. I wasn't using a fast card though and would want to if I had to shoot faster than the normal wedding moves.
I absolutely love the 3" LCD. Although I think the LCD on David's D300 is sharper and produces better color. It is far better in my eyes than the 5D's LCD, which I have never been impressed with.
The weather sealing Canon added to this one makes the body feel tight. Although slightly smaller than the 5D body, it has a real solid feel without being heavy.
I also like the mode dial having 3 custom settings options. I have one setting to shoot B&W right now and will explore different settings for the other two.
Live view seems to have gotten to be a big thing. I found it nice when taking a macro shot. Live view requires manual focus. I can hold the camera in a more comfortable position, achieve focus and get a great shot with it. If you push the magnify button, the image in the LCD blows up giving you a much better look at your focus. I haven't used Live View mounted on a tripod yet.
Oh yeah, AF. I found a couple of dark corners in the studio here. Low contrast, low light. I used One Shot, the center focus point on all three cameras and the same lens. The 5D hunted for a bit and finally found focus and locked. The 40D hunted, found focus, and locked maybe slightly faster then the 5D. At least it seemed that way to me. The 1D Mark II hunted and never did achieve focus.
It might seem that I'm slightly hard on the 1D Mark II. I really like it and have really enjoyed using it. It's fast, shoots great, and I'd be hard pressed to sell it. I think all three cameras have their strong points and their quirks.
There are other features to the 40D that I haven't gone into here. Having had it for a short time, I have only mentioned what I have experienced with it.
So, once I got over the stigma of the 40D being labeled a "Prosumer" camera and realized all the features packed into this thing along with the IQ, I think I'll keep it. For the money, I'm pleased.
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