James Kei’s Canon 40D Impressions

James Kei was one of the first owners of the 40D in Hong Kong, and he shares his impressions of the camera and some sample images, in this Canon 40D forum thread.

Some of the more interesting comments and posts in that thread are listed and summarized below.

• He bought the camera at a local Hong Kong camera shop for approximately HKD8980, or USD1150
• Size-wise, it’s very similar to the Canon EOS 5D, but lighter. The viewfinder is also dimmer on the 40D (to be expected, since unlike the 5D, the 40D isn’t a full-frame camera), but bigger than the viewfinders on the 30D and 400D / XTi.
• The LCD screen on the 40D is much larger than on the EOS 30D
• With the Live View function, the 40D is almost like a small point and shoot digicam. If you remove the lens and have Live View activated, you can see the CMOS sensor very clearly.
• The 40D handles high ISO noise better than the Canon 400D / XTi, but not as well as the Nikon D40x when it comes to ISO 800 / 1600 photos.
• Noise reduction on the 40D is turned off by default
• AF (autofocus) on the 40D is faster than on a 30D, and very similar in speed to the EOS 5D.
• James shared an excerpt from the 40D Owner’s Manual on Highlight Tone Priority. He also notes that when HTP is switched on, minimum ISO is 200.
• Automatic ISO feature works as advertised, in the ISO 400 to 800 range

He’s posted up a great variety of indoor and outdoor photos, which you can access by going to this 40D sample pictures gallery (to view the photos at the original size in which they were uploaded, click on the magnifying glass icon below a particular image).

You’ll notice that some photos appear twice. The one with the darker shadow area is the original (example, IMG_0081), while the version with the lightened shadows (example IMG_0081a) had been run through post processing in DPP (Canon’s Digital Photo Professional software) to boost up the shadows.

Both these images were shot with the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 lens – IMG_0035 and IMG_0031.

He’s also shared three photos comparing the size of three different 10 MP (megapixel) digital SLR camera bodies, the Nikon D40x vs Canon EOS 40D vs Canon EOS 400D / Digital Rebel XTi: Front view, without lens, rear view, front from above, with lens attached.

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Tags: Tamron 28-75mm for Canon