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In the field, it performed very well with everything we shot, from moving-subject macros to telephoto shots of landscapes. Autofocus feels very responsive, and the sound of the shutter firing away at 6.5 frames per second is very pleasing, especially at this street price!
We tried using Live View in the field while chasing a fiddler crab across a salt marsh, but quickly reverted to eye-finder tracking for this photo opportunity. We see Live View mostly being used in the studio, for macro shots, in semi-controlled situations such as a stake-out of a prairie dog hole, or for trying to improve the odds of an over-the-crowd "Hail Mary" wide-angle grab. Autofocus can be activated during Live View, though only by pushing the rear AF button on the camera itself, and it does black out the live preview for a split second until focus is achieved. This limits some potential remote applications, as focus must be pre-set if you're not actually in physical contact with the camera, but rather viewing on a computer monitor. In a nutshell, Live View works best when quick switching of focal distance isn't a priority and you aren't tracking a moving subject.
Don't expect miracles from Highlight priority mode. It isn't going to magically expand the dynamic range of your shots and keep detail both inside a cave and outside the sunlight entrance at the same time. What it can do though, for example, is to increase detail in white uniforms on high-contrast days on the soccer field when you're exposing for optimum skintones, which is important for a lot of photographers.
Multiple-source image high dynamic range (HDR) photographers might be disappointed with the relatively limited Auto Exposure Bracketing settings of the Canon EOS 40D. Like the 30D, it offers just 3 shots at up to +/- 2 stops, unlike the 7-shot sequence on the EOS Mark III, or the 5-shot sequence of the lower-priced Pentax K10D. Since HDR photography is gaining in popularity, a three-shot bracket is an unfortunate oversight. If Canon had a bigger autobracketing sequence combined with the blazing burst rate of the 40D, they'd have a great feature set for the HDR photographer.
Yes, this camera is for the Rebel XTi owner looking to move up in toughness and burst rate, but it's also tough enough and fast enough to serve as the backup body for a Mark III-toting journalist. And, of course, it's just right for the legions of shooters out there who've been happily making killer shots with the 20D and 30D for the past several years. All in all, it is a heck of a lot of camera for just about .
We've been running the 40D through our battery of lab tests and will have a Full Lab Test posted online by next Wednesday.
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