Interesting to see that they quote "Early September" as being the date of availability. I wonder how close this price will be to the average figure we'll see in discount retailer chains over the next few weeks?
The WHOLE point was to say that there is a lot of mis-information about the camera being weather-sealed, weather-proofed on the web, and that NOWHERE on Canon's website does it say the CAMERA is Weather-your word of choice. A lot of people will end up with smoked cameras when they stay out in the rain to long. The sales pitch will be that the camera is weather-your word of choice again to the unwitting consumer. Looks like weather- word of choice again does not mean is.
This issue keeps coming up.
There are much more grades in water resistance standards than just sealing or proofing. Basically from an umbrella to a deep ocean submarine, there are many levels.
I don't believe Nikon has ever claimed the D200 is a weather proof camera either. As far as I know, they simply used gaskets to seal off the vulnerable areas of the camera body, and implied it was weather resistant. But it's not "officially" a sealed body. Notice that Nikon doesn't explicitly say anything about a complete weather sealing in their specs for the D200, probably because it's not quite as "sealed" as the D2X.
Canon is doing the exact same thing with the EOS 40D. They also sealed all the vulnerable parts, but not to same extent they did the 1D series. Like Nikon, they don't go as far as saying it's weather sealed.
I'm guessing the EOS 40D will be about as "weather resistant" as the Nikon D200, which is probably good enough for the kind of photographers who'd be using this camera.
40D competes better with the Nikon D200 which has
been selling well.
The 40D is a much better spec'd camera than the 30D in
every way: Noise, dust, fps, mega pixels, AF.
What's not to like?
maljo
Even the 20D was fairly weather "resistant" with respect to the body seals, as they were made in an interlocking baffle arrangement that would neatly stop drops of water. This didn't help with moisture, of course, and other areas (buttons, CF door etc.) were so weak that the baffles may as well not have existed. It sounds like they have just plugged the weak spots to make the camera more weather and dust resistant.
If I were to buy a 40D (I won't, at least for some time) I would still use a rain shield if I took it out in the rain (which I wouldn't be likely to do anyway). The moisture and dust resistance measures on the body are good news, though.
sivrajbm wrote:
The WHOLE point was to say that there is a lot of mis-information about the camera being weather-sealed, weather-proofed on the web, and that NOWHERE on Canon's website does it say the CAMERA is Weather-your word of choice. A lot of people will end up with smoked cameras when they stay out in the rain to long. The sales pitch will be that the camera is weather-your word of choice again to the unwitting consumer. Looks like weather- word of choice again does not mean is.
"Canon design engineers made the EOS 40D SLR's magnesium alloy exterior even more ruggedly dependable than its predecessors with upgraded dust and weather resistant construction, particularly around the camera's connection ports, battery compartment and single-slot compact flash memory card door."
Nowhere on Canon's website does it say that the flash, dial, buttons etc. are vulnerable (what ever that means in this context) or how vulnerable, exactly, any particular area of the camera is. As this is not something tested by at least most of the reviewers out there, we may just have to wait for user experiences. I agree that there may be lots of salespeople overselling the feature without being able to explain the specifics of it, which are pretty much unknown at this point. From what I've read the "dustbuster" feature is not the dust panacea some make it out to be, either.
In the end I think that the fact that salespeople may oversell a feature does not mean that the feature is worthless. If the camera is truly moisture and dust resistant, great. If I were running a camera company I would build those features into even the entry-level cameras. I would not buy a camera just base on these features, obviously, unless they were a must-have-- in which case I would have to look into an enclosure or a higher grade of camera.
Tentacle wrote:
Two additional things that stood out to me:
3 customisable pre-sets on the mode-dial
User-editable picture styles
And yes, the D300 will give the 40D a big run for its money. Now that Sony went CMOS (with an additional twist: ADC converters per pixel row) Nikon will no longer have to deal with the poor noise at high ISO and it will bump FPS to more than 6.5 fps. But the question will be: at what cost, because the 40D is priced very attractively.
Oh and don't forget the new motorised mirror return, for quiter operation, great for wildlife shooting.
As long as the AF improvements on paper deliver in practice this will be a super update, the best yet to the XXD series IMO.
BeeMan458 wrote:
"What would we have said about a camera like this only four years ago?"
... ...
When are they going come out with a 50D with more mega-pixels.
Best post on this thread yet!
You should have added
Why the 40D is better (or worse) then (insert Canon or Nikon model here)
Aug 21, 2007 at 10:02 AM
Allen Maestas Offline • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
ga1lyons wrote:
Attention non americans...
You see it pays to be nice to us and make trustworthy friends in the United States. So those of you who amazon will not ship to can have a friend ship it to you. But you dont like us so we cannot help you... especially you canadian guy. Thats right i saw you sharpening your hockey stick and curing your moose jerky.
I'm debating on going ahead and upping myself to the 40D. After a recent rent of a 5D though, i am trying my best to talk myself into a full frame. So i may be waiting on the 5DMII...Show more →
HAHAH
Hey Canadians, I got two on pre-order, and am willing to sell one if you make it worth my effort. Be looking for it on the Buy and sell forum after they start shipping.
