Canon EOS 40D

Reviewed July 2008

Introduction

To go along with its weighty proportions, the 40D has a dense set of controls that can be initially challenging.

The use of three dials--a Main Dial, Multi-Controller and Quick Control Dial--can take some getting used to. In some cases, the dials' functions overlap, as is the case with the Multi-Controller and Quick Control Dial, and in others, they split functions--like navigating and selecting menu items--that typically are the province of a single dial.

While the unit's button controls are a generous size, their scattered placement over the body of the DSC requires more hunting for functions than suits my taste. There are buttons on top of the camera, to the left and right of the viewfinder and below the main LCD. What's more, while the controls with silver labels are easy to discern, those with blue characters are difficult to distinguish, especially in low light conditions.

After a suitable adjustment period, you can learn to cope with the control issues and that's when the fun begins. The 40D, which has an APC-sized sensor, allows you to produce great pictures with excellent color fidelity and clarity and with a minimum of noise. Moreover, it gives you great latitude in controlling the camera's focusing, metering and white balancing systems.

When you don't have time to fuss with settings, the bytecam, in addition to a full auto mode, has a number of pre-sets on its mode dial to address some common photographic situations such as portraits, landscapes, close-ups, sports, night portraits and suppressed flash shots.

In addition, you need not have your eye glued to the viewfinder in order to take a picture. You can snap shots using the unit's sharp, bright, three-inch LCD, much as you would with a point and shoot DSC. However, the allure of that feature is dampened by the fact that you have to turn off autofocusing to use it.

As might be expected, both RAW and JPG file formats are supported by the camera, as well as a compressed RAW mode called sRAW. To view and process RAW files, Canon includes its Digital Photo Professional software, which is good for lightweight editing and organizing photo files. For more extensive image manipulation, there's Zoombrowser EX, also packaged with the camera. PC and Mac versions of both programs are in the box.

A feature of the 40D that struck my fancy was its Tommy Gun sequential shooting modes--6.5 frames per second in high gear, 3 fps in low. Unlike some DSCs with sequential shooting, you can hear the mirror flipping up with every shot. It harkens back to the days of motorized film cameras and the thrill of hearing a motor drive whirring through a roll of Tri-X in seconds.

For professional lenssmiths on a budget and prosumers with patience, the Canon EOS 40D is a ticket to great photography.