Canon EOS 40D

Reviewed July 2008

Test Photos

STILL LIFE PHOTO

This scene was photographed indoors with a flash in a room with subdued natural lighting.

This photo is taken at the widest setting of camera's zoom lens using evaluative metering mode. The picture appears overexposed and the flash was unable to light the whole scene adequately. When viewed at 100 percent in an image editor, there was remarkably very little noise in the photo. Objects in the photo, including text elements, were sharply rendered without any hint of jaggedness. Colors are muted but are faithful to reality. Detail outside the window is in soft focus due to aperture setting.

ZOOM STILL LIFE PHOTO

This shot tests the camera's zoom on the still life scene under the same lighting and metering conditions.

With the zoom at maximum telephoto, the camera produced a sharp and evenly exposed image with almost no discernable noise. Small details like the lettering below the mode dial were clearly rendered. Color fidelity was good.

MACRO PHOTO

This is a macro test shot. The test object is about 4.5 inches wide by 3.5 inches high.

This shot was taken at about two feet from the subject with the zoom used to get a close-up of the object. Even with macro mode enabled, getting any closer to the subject created focusing problems. Although the front of the object is sharp and nicely rendered, the depth of field falls off fast and the back of the object appears in soft focus. Colors in the photo are true to the scene and detail in the in-focus areas is well-defined.

This is an outdoor test shot taken in auto exposure mode. The house has lots of fine detail in the shingles and slate roof, as well as the architectural design of the doorway.

This is a RAW image converted to JPG. Elements in the photo are sharp and the colors are true. Exposure is very good, especially the sky, which would be blown out with a less adept exposure system. Displaying the image at 100 percent in a photo editor showed no noise in the typical places--the dark spots under the eaves. Leaves on the trees and icebreakers on the roof were exquisitely rendered.

ZOOM BUILDING PHOTO

Without moving from the spot that the building photo was taken, the image of the entrance to house was captured with the camera's zoom at maximum telephoto. Image stabilization was enabled and auto exposure was used. At 100 percent view in a photo editor little noise was detected, even in the usual trouble spots. Detail of the dogwood in the foreground was very sharp. Objects behind the tree were more softly rendered due to depth of field limitations. Color is faithful to real life.