Canon 40D Review by William

 

I decided that I really wanted to get more into photography this year. I made a pact with myself to enter photo's into contests and all that jazz as part of my deal with myself to spend money on this camera. Which was a lot!! Not going there at all.

 

 

 

The Canon 40D was what I ended up deciding on, not to new, not to old. Good prices on it all around, except on Ebay. I grabbed mine off my favorite parts store online, NewEgg. Brett and I have a lot of eggs invested in the company.

The 40D is a SOLID camera. 10.1 megapixels on the updated version and a wide choice of combo lenses to go along with it as a packaged deal

You can see my old camera is irritatingly screwing up pictures. I love it though, its the best point and shoot I've used, its a Canon SD750 if your wondering. It's fussy sometimes. So, sorry for the fuzzy pictures.
You can see it came packaged pretty well in that box.  Lets look inside shall we?

I grabbed mine with a EF 28-135 1:3.5-5.6 IS. That means, if you don't know, this is an Image Stabilized lens with a focal length of 28 to 135. Since this is not a Full Format camera, we can include the digital factor of 1.6. So the lens really is a 45-216. Digital factor rocks! A small telephoto lens was just perfect for me! The 1:3.5-5-6 means that the lens opens up biggest f-stop of 3.5 while at 28, and 5.6 at 135. It's not a constant, which is something that you get with a bit cheaper lenses. This was a combo deal though, I was not worried, and I can purchase more lens's later.  For those out there who understand magnification power instead of focal length, this is a 1x-4x power lens.

The body came nicely wrapped as well. It weighs 6 lbs by itself without the lens. Whoa! This bugger sure makes your shoulder sore after carrying it around all day.

This camera really comes with everything you need software and all! Everything is well packaged and easy to use. In the package there is even a video out cable, you can hook this buddy right up to the TV and show everyone a slide show right from the camera! That is awesome, though I will never probably use the feature.

I read though the manual as quickly as possible trying to learn all the features of the camera, and boy there are more then I could ever learn. However, I wish sometimes that I had purchased the newer model, which did away with all the fluff features that no professional photographer uses. However, just a camera will not improve your photography skills, but it sure helps! In my photography class, which had already been half gone when I purchased this camera, I got to learn about what all the different modes do, and how to use them. I was so excited about photography again that I signed up for the rest of the classes!

If you have some camera skills or no skills at all, this kit is really simple to use. Getting the strap on the camera is the hardest thing to do, you have to think about that one a little bit. Almost all camera's have an automatic feature, and for any newbie photographer this setting will get you though just about anything you need. As well as a program feature, which is like full auto, but you have more control. The IS, image stabilization, helps with hand holding, so you can use slower shutter speeds while hand holding. Let me tell you, it works! I tried it out in manual mode. Amazing the difference. The auto focus works good as well, its quick and accurate, unlike the SD750, which in the last picture above everything is out of focus, because it focused on my feet instead of the desk! For the average joe photographer, I do not suggest this camera, there are cheaper camera's out there for you. This is a professional grade camera, one step under the top line of Canon cameras. The XSI series would be a much better choice for your average person, and for less then half the cost of this camera. About a week after I purchased mine, the price went down as well, of course, but that is alright. I love this camera and take it everywhere.

I'm reviewing this camera on a 10 scale tonight. giving it a 9 out of 10. This camera does all that I would ever want it too, but there are just to many useless features that don't need to be on there for professional photographers. My teacher even talked about it in class. A newer version of this camera got rid of all those features and just has the main ones on there that professional photographers use.