I couldn’t wait anymore and ordered my Canon 40D, which arrived even earlier than I expected! I haven’t gone all trigger happy and tested it just for the sake of testing, rather I’m just taking the pictures I would anyway. I will leave the reviewing and pixel peeping to others (and there are plenty of them around), but will just briefly give my first impressions:
- the 40D is slightly bigger than the 20D (meaning that the L-bracket doesn’t fit the new camera, so I’m in for a wait until the 40D L-bracket becomes available)
- the LCD screen is massive! The thumbnail in the info display is almost the same size as the full screen picture in the 20D
- the shutter seems to behave a bit differently from what I’m used to. It’s quieter for one thing, and it feels like it’s a bit more sensitive than the 20D. So far anyway, it seems like the picture is taken just a fraction before I would expect the shutter button to be fully depressed. No biggie, just a matter of getting used to.
- focus point selection can be assigned to the joystick – a boon for someone like me who keeps frequently changing it
- the ISO button has been moved – I keep pressing the wrong button every time I change the ISO now. I’ll get used to it.
All in all, I really don’t think there’s any major thing that is better than my 20D. It’s just the number of the small improvements which add up, but to be honest, I think the biggest reason I got the 40D is because… well, because I wanted it. I’ve had the 20D for three years and it’s the longest time I’ve ever gone with the same camera, so I just felt that I needed a new toy. Now I have to decide what to do with the old camera… keep it as a bad weather body or sell it while it’s still in perfect condition?
But, one more word about the 40D – the bottom line. Are the 40D pictures better than 20D? Only if I can make them so!