I love that live view function. It seems like Live View zoomed all the way in gives me noticeably more accurate focusing than the AF system can achieve even on the high precision center point. Tripod only, obviously.
wcastleman wrote:
I updated my tests on autofocus tracking and low light autofocus. The 40D tracking autofocus significantly outperforms the 20D. Low light autofocus is also improved greatly (on a par with my 1D mark II). ISO 1600 image quality is better as others have noted.
On the 1D mark 3, you can move the zoomed in point around to any location in the whole frame using the "joy stick" button. So you can check focus anywhere, but not specifically at focus points. Very likely the same on the 40D.
Just a first felt impression, I received my 40D & Kit EF 28-135 f/3.5-5.6 IS lens today. On time as promised from Normancamera.com. Coming from a 20D, I'm a rookie and the 20D was my first SLR.
The larger screen! Ahhh!
The new menu navigation gives me no pain at all.
The power lever re-location is better much for me. Easier to locate, I can feel for it now instead of having to look first and fumble a bit. I always disliked it on the 20D and never felt at home with it.
It's a little larger than the 20D, welcomed by my large hands.
The shutter noise is much quieter. The sound is a motorized one with a light felt vibration. The 20D was a CLACK with a single pulse felt vibration. Much better to me.
The mode wheel is a bit easier to spin.
The stainless steel flash shoe is nice and will show less mileage than the black coating skid marks on other cameras.
The pop-up flash motorized sound makes me want to use the button to close it but one still has to push it down.
Live mode is nice to know it's available I guess. Focusing with it represents what is seen on my computer screen, so in-focus confidence is instilled when on a tripod, one less thing to worry about.
At first the improved view finder performance went un-noticed until I put the 20D back up to my face again.
The Kit EF 28-135 f/3.5 - 5.6 IS is a great value. IQ on what few function test shots I fired was good. TIP: If you have the kit lens get the EW-78C Lens hood. Meant for the EF 35mm f/1.4, it provides better coverage without blockage and and cost less. Fit is as if made for it.
I went to the 40D after reading of the changes and realized it met all my wish-list items I had for the 20D. Without comparing images after a few hundred or so, I have no regrets or disappointments so-far.
Sep 12, 2007 at 08:13 PM
Allen Maestas Offline • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
MickyD wrote:
you can move the zoomed in bit anywhere in the frame, not just AF points, however it will (I'm 99% sure) only focus on the active focus point.
I use manual focus, no need for AF at that magnification. Works awesome.
I was shooting some ISO 3200 shots just to see how noisy the images would come up and I am very surprised how good it performs at ISO 3200 with no noise reduction!
I ran the noise reduction via DPP on the RAW files and the images came out very clean and the noise was hardly noticeable at all even at 100% crop!
I also like the liveview exposure simulator so you can get a idea how your exposure will come out before you take the photo (Would be very useful when working with tricky light that may fool the meter) I can see this being useful when shooting landscapes on a tripod, as I could just have a quick check via the liveview before taking the shot (And would also act as a form of mirror lockup!).
I also tried manual focusing with the liveview and it works great!!
Played with it at the Canon showroom in Hong Kong this week and the shutter was much quieter than the 1Ds MKII and the 1D MKIII which was being fired next to me.
When in live view using the exposure simulator do blown highlights flash like when reviewing an already shot image with the info and histogram displayed?
