Hands On: Canon EOS 40D

It's like meeting an old friend for the first time.

By Jack Howard Posted October 2, 2007

Don't think for a minute that the new Canon EOS 40D is simply an incremental upgrade to the 30D. Although the 10.1-megapixel EOS 40D has a virtually identical hand-feel to the 8.2 megapixel EOS 30D it replaces, it shows improvements over its predecessor in several ways.

Apart from the bump up in resolution, the 40D has a faster burst rate -- both in frames per second and total frames before buffer slow-down in both RAW+JPEG and JPEG-only capture. It also features live view with autofocus on that big, bright 3-inch, 230,000-dot LCD. Menu navigation is improved, again thanks to that bigger LCD. And the 40D has three custom settings modes on the dial, tons of custom functions, highlight-priority exposure, and a dedicated rear autofocus button. These upgrades make the EOS 40D a very worthy successor to the 30D.

The battery grips are interchangeable on the 40D and the 30D. The brand new BG-E2n that comes with more weather sealing is backwards compatible with the 30D and even the 20D, and the older, less weather-tough BG-E2 introduced with the 20D way back in 2004 will still clamp onto the 40D.

When it's time to look through the viewfinder to make your shot, the 40D feels just like its predecessor. Same shutter button feel, same grip, same eyecup. There's only a brief break-in period necessary to relearn the shooting feel of this camera if you're upgrading from a 20D or 30D -- it feels virtually identical.

However, reviewing photos and tweaking the settings when the camera isn't up to the eye does require some adjustment, as the buttons that used to sit left of the LCD are now along the bottom rail of the camera. This makes room for that bigger LCD. In addition to the 30D's side buttons (playback, trash, jump, info), there's also a dedicated Picture Style button for quick adjustments on that bottom rail. And there's now a dedicated AF button on the thumb rest. The positioning of this AF button is ergonomic enough, but it does require an adjustment for thumb-focusers who have been using the AEL button in the past. And if you can't adjust, just swap the AEL and AF button operations via Custom Functions and you're good to go! You will most certainly want to do this swap if you are bringing an older BG-E2 grip to mate with the 40D; otherwise, you've got no rear focus button when shooting vertically. (Do keep in mind that the new BG-E2n is more weather-tough than the older grip, though!)

NO SURPRISES, JUST ROCK-SOLID PERFORMANCE

There's nothing overwhelmingly "new" about the EOS 40D ($1300, street, body only). It uses a 10.1 megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor that similar to the one found in last year's EOS Rebel XTi, though Canon claims some improvements to the microlens design and light sensitivity. Here, it is also matched with the higher-performance Digic III image-processing engine. The 230,000-dot, 3-inch LCD, highlight priority mode, and Live View mode were all unveiled in March 2007 with the Canon EOS 1D Mark III. (But there is an Autofocus option in Live View mode with the 40D.) Despite the fact that it shares a lot of its heritage with its EOS stablemates at either end of the cost spectrum, you'd be silly to think of the 40D as either a just an upscale XTi, or down-market Mark III. It's a rock-solid high-end enthusiast/entry-level pro camera that's built tough enough for almost anything you can throw at it.

Next Page: In the Field Performance

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