Canon EOS 40D

Canon has taken a while to refresh its popular 30D SLR for keen amateurs and semi-pros, but here it is. The 40D is a big, serious camera, one that will instantly appeal to buyers who don’t need the full-frame power of the EOS 5D but have outgrown the entry-level 400D.

One of the 40D’s biggest selling points is speed. A continuous shooting rate of up to 6.5fps is now possible, for up to 17 shots in RAW, along with a top shutter speed of 1/8,000 sec. The 30D could only manage 11 RAWs at 5fps, so sports and wildlife photographers take note. Canon is also trumpeting the more sophisticated Digic III image processor with Live View, which enables you to see what’s happening in front of the camera on its LCD.

Despite its power, the 40D is easier to use than the 30D. Usability improvements centre on the generous 3-inch LCD, which can also give a constant display of the ISO setting, and the menu system is more legible and logical too. The Live View function certainly comes in handy, particularly in a studio environment. It enables you to set up a still life or model shoot, for example, without having to keep squinting through the viewfinder. Being able to call up a live histogram of the scene you’re about to shoot is also very handy, though the histogram could be bigger and easier to read in sunlight. Another neat trick is the ability to zoom into the Live View image, which helps make manual focusing more precise.

While the headline megapixel count isn’t that impressive these days, the camera wins you over in other ways. A new Highlight Tone Priority setting is a real boon when shooting weddings, or trying to capture cloud detail in bright landscapes. Meanwhile a new AF-ON button provides a separate control for maintaining the autofocus – so you can keep AF on while composing a scene with Live View, for example. The mode dial gets three new custom settings too, so this is a camera you won’t outgrow for a long time.

Canon’s SLR sensors have a good reputation for minimising noise and the 40D is no exception – even with those extra megapixels. Ugly digital grain is hardly noticeable at lower ISO settings and can be worked around at 1,600 and beyond. The Digic III processor helps here, as the colours are wonderfully smooth and punchy, even in Standard Colour Mode.

For keen amateurs who’ve built up a Canon lens system, the 40D ticks all the boxes and certainly has enough imaging improvements to justify an upgrade from the 30D. The competition from Nikon is keen, but for Canon diehards this is a fantastic buy.