I use the 16-35L as a walk around lens on my 400D (XTi) with no problems. With the base grip. it has a very nice balance - noticeable less nose-heavy then the 24-70L
I also use an EW-83DII hood which is more compact than the original one supplied.
I use mostly long zooms and mirror 500/8 (russian). Photos are very good, with mirror lens better than made by 350D (contrast and sharpness), maybe sensor is better.
I don't think the OS version is shipping yet. It should make a terrific combination with the 400D though. I really liked the 18-125 and 18-200 as walkaround/travel lenses on my 20D, except for their lack of IS.
Just got mine today, seems very nice. I like the menu navigation on the LCD. My sensor has a couple little dust blobs though. AF seems as good as the 5D IMO in low light, I haven't tried AI servo yet. Off center points may not be as accurate.
I've only had the 400D for 3 days and I have had limited time with it, but here are some of the shots I banged off this weekend. The body is very light and I wish Canon would allow you to see a preview through the LCD for shooting on weird angles.
My experience from using the 400D is that it requires some seriously good lenses. I had old "standard" lenses from my EOS 100 and 50QD days and apart from my EF 50/1.8 (still really good) and EF 100 Macro (not USM, okay but nothing more) they give extremely soft pictures with *a lot* of CA. Now I bought a Tamron 28-75 and within a week or so an EF 70-200/4 IS USM. They seem to be on par with the camera body.
Yet another 300D user's first impressions with the XTI.
Despite brief fiddling in stores, it was surprising how small it felt with my old lenses on it compared to the 300D. Keeps giving me second thoughts about the 30D but I know this will also be easier for me to take places so I keep trying to convince myself it is okay. It almost feels like a bump on the back of a modest lens like the Tamron 28-75. Throwing the flash onto it will seem even more awkward. I have plans for a 70-200 f2.8 in the future and this will probably seem like a postage stamp on a car in comparison. Even my wife commented that it seemed pretty small.
The battery is very small in size compared to the 300D's battery.
The 1600 looks cleaner than on the 300D but I'll miss the 3200 (H) mode in the firmware hacked 300D.
Lowlight autofocus is faster and more robust. This was a major item for me.
Picture quality is very nice. LCD screen makes for beautiful previews. The nose prints seem a lot more noticeable. I guess I spent a lot of time looking at the status LCD instead and the nose prints occured below that display. Now nose prints obscure important status information.
The renamed and moved "Info" button from the 300D threw me off briefly until I realized it was just the "Disp" (Display) button.
The dust cleaning really worked. I had a small dust spot on the sensor in my first time shooting. Turned it off and on again going through my first clearning cycle and the dust spot was gone. I'll count myself as luckier than some that had sticky dust but that is a nice feature in my mind and I was skeptical after hearing about problems from other people. I've never had dust problems despite a lot of lens changing but it is reassuring.
After getting a good deal from Dell, it I think it is a smart upgrade. Perhaps I should have jumped on the 30D deal but it was a smart time to upgrade. I like the heuristic of always skipping a generation.
I read a lot about the importanca of size. I went to the store to handle the 400D in comparison with the 30D and I must admit that the 400D felt too small to hold comfortably.
Then people argue that the smaller size is better for travel, but is that really true It's 17 mm less wide, 12 mm less high and 9 mm less deep than a 30D - what difference does that make when traveling - that you can bring an extra pair of underwear??
It's more weight than size, and it's not so much the room in your travel baggage as in the waist pack or daypack or whatever else you're schlepping around Tuscany all day...
Get a (battery) grip. I find the 350D/400D awkward without it. But, when you need to travel small & light with an SLR, the grip-less 350D/400D is great. Makes me wish for the time when Canon is able to cram in a FF sensor into the small body since the 50 1.4 is very small, light and sharp and a great focal length (on FF). I really enjoy using it on my 5D, whereas I almost never used it when my dSLRs were 1.6 crop.
My copy of the 400D is not as good as my 350D when it comes to image quality.
And thats the most important in my opinion. 400D may have all the feature in the world but the images are not as good as on my 350.
I tested them both with the same settings, same lens, same spot, same time, same lightning.
Nice review Dave - glad you like it with the base grip - makes a world of a difference!
I'm playing with a 16-35L on mine at the moment and it balances very very well as a complete package and it makes a nice companion to the 1DMkII
Nill and I joked once about buying a camera body to suit a lens and the 400D/XTi almost qualifies for this! - why carry around a spare 'good' lens when you can hang a nice camera body on it at relatively low cost and save swapping lenses on your other camera!
Of course, I had to add an 'L' bracket too.... a word of warning - it is VERY difficult to open the rubber flap on the side of the 400D/XTi with the current RRS bracket - NOT good.....
It's 17 mm less wide, 12 mm less high and 9 mm less deep than a 30D - what difference does that make when traveling - that you can bring an extra pair of underwear??