JohnnyGCanon wrote:
I ordered mine on Amazon today. Estimated ship September 24th they said.
I hope it's delievered sooner. I've been patiently waiting to upgrade my camera - passing on the 20 & 30 - now I can't seem to wait another day. I hope the BG-E2N becomes available for preorder soon - would like them to both come in the same shipment.
I'm surprised ... I thought it would be another 20D -> 30D upgrade. I'll still have to see the hands on reviews and see if ISO hasn't suffered for more MP. But the brighter view finder, focusing screens (supported), 14-bit raw, and improved auto-focus sounds interesting.
I was excited about live view when it came out earlier since I shoot macro a lot, but I don't know if will actually help when hand holding. I find my head helps a lot to steady the camera.
Sounds good on paper though, there's enough upgrade to make just about everyone take note IMHO.
brad_s wrote:
I hope it's delievered sooner. I've been patiently waiting to upgrade my camera - passing on the 20 & 30 - now I can't seem to wait another day. I hope the BG-E2N becomes available for preorder soon - would like them to both come in the same shipment.
Yeah the butt whippin from the wife will go easier if I get one box from Amazon instead of two!
racoll wrote:
What would we have said about a camera like this only four years ago?
What would we have said? We'd have said that it has less resolution and a worse build than the 1DS. :P
Seriously, this looks like a nice step for canon. They seem to be providing some new, innovative features. It almost makes me wonder if some people from Olympus have started working for Canon, and I mean this in a good way.
As for me, while I certainly appreciate Canon adding features, I'll kind of with the Op on this camera. The 14 bit and replaceable screens are the only new things that really stir my excitement a little. If the live view was coupled with a swiveling LCd then that would get me juiced as well. Some of the things that I'd like to see would be a tighter spot meter, a stop or two more of exposure compensation, better auto exposure bracketing options, auto WB that works under tungsten (yeah, I know fat chance), among other small tings.
Yeah, those buttons look more like the 1 series from those pics. I'd suspect that they do have more sort of sealing. Still, unless the flash and the lens mount are gasketed this will provide a good deal less protection than a 1 series.
wheaton wrote:
Look at this comparison of the DIII the 40D and the 30D. It looks like to me that the 40D has the same hotshoe and button seals as the DIII.
As far as weather seals, To me it looks like the 4D has much more in common with the 1D(s)III than it does with the 30D.
But I have never used a 1 series camera so I don't really know what weather seals look like. 1series owners what do you think?
I shoot a lot of events. Formal balls, luncheons, etc... I also sell prints from these events, mostly in the 4x6 - 5x7 range; a few 8x10's. For those small print sizes, I don't need an 8 mp image (shot with a 20D). I do however need RAW.
sRAW would allow me to shoot files half the size as regular RAW. That would save hard drive space (an event can easily be 500 photos x 8mb, plus exported .jpg's), processing time (computer could import and load smaller files faster, as well as quicker uploads to my web-host), but still give me the adjustable properties desired in RAW.
My 20D is great. I'm ready to retire it to a back-up camera, and if I buy based on my needs for event photography, sRAW would sell me the 40D.
In looking at the images further. The buttons on the top of the 40D look like the unsealed buttons on the 30D while the top 1D buttons look just like the back 1D buttons.
alfarmer wrote:
Everyone's hyped about the 40D, but they JUST came out with the 30D for goodness sakes! Why the heck do they need a 40D? What the heck are Canon thinking? Makes absolutely no sense to me, so hopefully someone can shed light on this confusing product announcement...
ALF
Canon is getting hammered by Nikon in Japan, and needed this update urgently. As others have said the 30D was the waste of time; the 40D is IMO a very good upgrade. Read the white paper if there is one and you'll see there are lots of changes whose total is greater than the sum of it's parts. Every new feature or enhancement is of use to me; 6.5fps great news, bigger brighter VF great news, 10.1MP great news, digic III great news, 14 bit great news, 3" LCD and even better live view than 1D III (boy that sucks) great news, dust buster great news, 9 x-type AF points awesome news - maybe we can now get away from just using centre point, metering works in 2x dimmer light good news. Some sealing good news.
If anyone finds this camera a waste then I'm not sure what they expect from Canon. We always want more, but you can get a 1D III if you want more.
Now whether the D300 will rain on Canon's parade I'm not sure, but as it stands now this camera equals or surpasses the D200 in most aspects IMO except maybe sealing and a a few other areas.
Only major omissions for me are absence or built in wireless flash control, and I'd have liked a few extra AF points for a bit more coverage.
I'll be picking up one when I go to the US in October, that's for sure.
As a birder this will be a great compliment to my 1D II and even a 1D III assuming I get one. I might wait for 1D III n or 1Ds III instead.
We can probably expect 5D replacement announced for PMA and probably 400D as well. It bodes well for 5D II IMO.
16.4MP (same pixel density as 1D III), same AF as 40D but keeping 6 extra points (will they be x-type?), 14 bit, 4 fps, ISO 100-3200 + ISO 50 and ISO 6400, improved VF, anti dust, further tweaking of live view? It's great that 14 bit will on all Canon's soon and maybe even 450D (I assume).
I wonder what they'll leave off 450D compared to 40D? It'll be 4fps IMO, and get most of the stuff, but will it also have live view? I assume it won't get 9 x-type sensors, or interchangeable screens, but improved VF. It'll stay at 10.1MP with emphasis on IQ and noise.
Sure it will. The new 6.5 fps shutter is made out of pure unobtanium, and with the EF mount, 2 Qt. low dispersion glass blender pitcher attached in place of the kit lens, it will even crush ice..... Perfect for photos and cocktails at the beach.
I don't think it makes any sense at all for Canon to seal the compartment doors only and then use words like "weather sealed" or "weather proof." What are they thinking here?
Estimated ship September 24th they said. 
