The 40D in-body NR is better than you can do with Noise Ninja in some ways. It'll clean up chroma noise without leeching color away as Ninja tends to do. The improvement is obvious on fine detail.
The effect on luminosity noise is actually rather subtle, but so much the better because the chroma noise is more annoying.
I've said it before, but I really like Bob Atkins reviews and articles. He doesn't seem to have an agenda, and he doesn't appear caught up in his own ego. Just seems like one of the guys.. Yet his articles cover all the basis and don't feel dumbed down.
I received my 40D yesterday from Ritz shipped. I updated from a 350D I had been using for almost 2 years. What a difference this thing makes. Not that I'm a huge Ken Rockwell fan, but as he says, a great camera gets out of your way so you can take pictures. That's what this thing does for me. I can make changes so fast that I don't need to take my eye out of the viewfinder. And speaking of the viewfinder,. this thing is like a picture window! Another thing I noticed was that even when shooting at 6.5 FPS (wow!!!) I can still see through the VF. The "Blackout time" is very short. It is like looking at a movie reel, MUCH better than the 350D.
I do have one question regarding weather sealing. When those initial pictures were leaked out, everyone speculated that there was some type of sealing based on the design of the flash hot shoe and the buttons appeared to have recessed rings around them unlike prior models. However now all I hear about is that the battery door and CF card door have sealing only. This seems to be based completely on dpreview's preview, and in that case I'm guessing it was noted mainly because these were obvious implementations that you could clearly see.
What is the deal with the hot shoe and the buttons then? Why did everyone stop talking about them? Isn't it a bit of a coincidence that everyone thought it would have seals and then it does, but in different places?
Basically if you have a pop-up flash, weather sealing goes out the window. Little things like buttons don't matter much anymore. Why it was initially a big deal I don't know either.
I never even thought of the pop up flash. If I thought it would help I would just tape it up. I don't think I ever used it on my old camera. On a side not though it is impressive how it pops up compared to the 350D. On the 350D it springs up like a jack in the box. On the 40D it comes out smooth like the gun from Robocop's holster!
therock wrote:
If I just could find a 40D in stock. B&H will not take pre-orders and says maybe next week. They will not even let any more email notifications be added to the list.
Who's got them in stock with a rep as good as B&H?
check Norman Camera. Very reliable family-owned shop in Michigan. I prefer them to B&H, all other things being equal. They had some of the 40D kit in stock last time I checked.
I received my 40D this afternoon and it feels rugged and yet familiar. The larger lcd is nice. I'm not sure why people are dwelling on lcd pixel counts, vga screens etc. If you are trying to make exposure judgements based on what the photo looks like on the lcd, you're wasting your time. The biggest improvement to me making it worth the upgrade from a 30D is the new autofocus system. I took my 40D out of the box and tried to take a photo of it with my 30D. I aimed the center focusing point on the raised black canon text on the black lense cover that ships on the camera only kit and my 30D couldn't lock focus, not enough contrast. Aiming at the 40D lettering on the camera and the 30D locked on every time. I did the same test with my 40D shooting at the low contrast black lense cover and the 40D locked on istantly using the same lense. that's impressive
Edited by george malamis on Sep 07, 2007 at 01:30 AM GMT
Edited by george malamis on Sep 07, 2007 at 01:31 AM GMT
UPS showed up at 6PM so did not have too much time to take many images. Like everyone said so far, very good build quality, and I like the LCD. Very easy menu. Yes, there is noise at ISO 1600 if you go to 100%. I was using a 24-70 at f/2.8 and it was fairly dark outside when I shot. The noise wasn't too bad, I can and will have to live with it but I rarely go to an ISO that high. For the price, I really think it is a very good camera. I upgraded from the 20D to 40D but also have a 1Ds and mkIIn but wanted to upgrade the 1.6 crop body.
I had no problems using Lightroom 1.1. I went through DPP via batch process, image transfer settings, and transferred the images to Lightroom as 16 bit TIFFs. I found them when I checked Transfer From Disk, they were right there. I could have sent to CS3, or any CS for that matter if I wanted to. Transfer time for 45 images was about 5 minutes, enough time to get a cup of coffee.
I have more to learn about the camera, but so far it's a keeper.
I ordered mine from Profeel Inc in NY (profeel.com). Their reseller rating are very good. I normally order from B&H but last week the 40Ds were not in yet. I called Profeel last Friday and had my UPS tracking # Tuesday, camera arrived this evening. The price was $1299. They were very nice on the phone and told me that they would have one to ship to me this week, they did.
Stunnaz wrote:
Hi guys, how does the shutter sound on your camera? Does it sound like the mp4 file posted on page 1 of this thread? My shutter doesn't sound like that... but the camera seems to function okay. I don't know if something is wrong.
mine sounds so weird as compared to my 20D. It sounds positively electronic and not mechanical like the 20D - the 20D reminds me of my old film camera - the 40D is a bttt. Very weird indeed.
Also the pop up flash sounds motorized instead of spring loaed.
[Stunnaz wrote:
Hi guys, how does the shutter sound on your camera? Does it sound like the mp4 file posted on page 1 of this thread? My shutter doesn't sound like that... but the camera seems to function okay. I don't know if something is wrong.
Sounds different then anything else I own. Quieter than the 20D for sure but it's not not a metallic sound. I do like that it isn't very noisy, good for wildlife.
Thanks guys, I don't think anything is wrong with my 40D. It does have a different sound than what I'm used to... and what I expect a camera to sound. Coming from a 400D, so far what amazes me the most is the shutter speed and the large buffer.
ttt. Very weird indeed.