Canon 40D?

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Maria
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Hi, we already have a 500d but need another camera ASAP.
I hate changing lenses when we are out. We will have our 100-400L on the new camera (which we want to more heavy duty than the 500d) and our 'macro' lens on the 500d, plus then we can both have one each, happy all round.

We need to get one within the next few weeks as we are off on holiday soon. But the question of what and where comes to mind. I have read on here that the 40d is a good one, heavy duty etc. My partners only concern is the lower 10.1mp than the 500d we have now. We crop everything almost so would this matter?

Is the 40d the best option? We only really want to go up to 400-500 though the lower end of that would be great. I know the 40d is not made by canon so used it would be. What is everyone's thoughts on used cameras? I am obsessed about keeping our things clean and dust free, it just worries me buying second hand when you see the camera on the floor for the pictures. Where would you recommend buying from? My partner is wary about buying a camera second hand without a warranty or anything.

The only ones I can find are the following:

- Amazon - Canon 40d

- Ebay - Canon 40d

- Canon 50d First picture on the 'Pics' link looks very dusty to me.

- Other Canon 50ds

I dont' know whats best or where to get it from so thought I would ask on here people that know.

Thanks. :help:
 
Check out and keep an eye on the for sale section on this forum as 40D's do come up. The 40D is a classic!!, Great camera if a little heavy for me.
 
plenty of decent, well looked after 40D's in the classifieds. I've bought 13 digital slr's in the past 3 years and never had any issues, they are generally very robust products. The real risk is if the seller is hiding anything, but there are ways to mitigate that by vetting the seller.
 
You may find:

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useful in comparing the features of different cameras. One thing that I think is often overlooked is the auto ISO handling. Different generations have different ISO limits, but on auto ISO, the 600D leads the 400D by 4 complete stops. Whether the images are still usable will be up to you but the info is there anyway.
 
daugirdas said:
Nothing wrong with ebay [for buying] as long as you are very careful and ideally collect and pay cash.
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But that's not great if you are miles from the seller! At least with the likes if amazon youve got great customer service and fall back should something go wrong.
 
The 40D is a great choice and a fantastic camera. eBay is perfectly ok as long as you use common sense.
 
travellingcello said:
If I were to choose between the 40D and 50D i would choose the 40D by the way!
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Why? I compared the two back to back and the 50d was better at everything, particularly high ISO which I what I needed.

The 50d is just a bit more unforgiving if you get things wrong.
 
lushuk said:
According to this site!

http://snapsort.com/compare/Canon_EOS_40D-vs-Canon_EOS_50D

"better image quality & colour depth" that's what im after................ if I was after one that is :)
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That's simply wrong! The image quality aspect defies logic, the IQ if the 50d is exellent still up to iso 1600, and still very useable at 3200 whereas the 40d was more like my 400d, you wouldn't want to push it past 400 iso. Colour and depth? That's entirely down to post processing and lens, so is a bit of a silly comment. And if by depth they mean dynamic range, the 50d has better dynamic range than the 40d, which that very link states?

I'll never know why people sit there quoting random and I'll informed sites about kit they've never tried and telling people they're wrong "because this says that" when there's someone offering advice who's tested the kit back to back in the real world.
 
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odd jim said:
That's simply wrong! The image quality aspect defies logic, the IQ if the 50d is exellent still up to iso 1600, and still very useable at 3200 whereas the 40d was more like my 400d, you wouldn't want to push it past 400 iso. Colour and depth? That's entirely down to post processing and lens, so is a bit of a silly comment. And if by depth they mean dynamic range, the 50d has better dynamic range than the 40d, which that very link states?

I'll never know why people sit there quoting random and I'll informed sites about kit they've never tried and telling people they're wrong "because this says that" when there's someone offering advice who's tested the kit back to back in the real world.
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Actually Jim, I did test out the 50D and 40D - I didn't end up buying either back then though.

ISO noise on the 50D put me off back then - noise was worse on the 50D at higher ISO's than on the 40D.

Oh I just noticed - you have a 50D.
 
odd jim said:
Why? I compared the two back to back and the 50d was better at everything, particularly high ISO which I what I needed.

The 50d is just a bit more unforgiving if you get things wrong.
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Also Jim sorry to be pedantic but the 40D is probably more forgiving if you get something wrong- the 50D packs a lot of pixels onto that sensor and if you get exposure wrong and try to fix it, you potentially end up with more noise and banding than on the 40D.

Also the 50D is actually slower on FPS than the 40D by a negligible amount.
 
Well you have very different findings to me!

How did you test the low light and noise handling at high iso? And if you did why did you quote a lame site and not just speak from experience?

Yes I have a 50d. Thats because I preferred it to the 40d after extensive tests! I could have paid less for a 40d but it couldn't do the job I wanted it to do. When I bought it I tested it against the 40d and 7d. There wasn't much in it between the 50d and 7d and was actually going to buy the 7d. However, a few month old 50d came up for a very good price , and the slight improvements with the 7d didn't warrant an extra £500 so it was a no brainer.

I tested the 40d in low light indoor show jumping, the differences between the 40d and 50d was night and day in both noise and low light AF speed. But then the 50d was set up properly and not using the factory settings. I can't see how you can say the 40d has better high iso noise than the 50d?! As I found, I couldn't take the 40d effectively past iso 400 but could take the 50d to 3200. I honestly don't think you could have tested them properly.

And the 40d doesn't have a faster burst rate. Canon admitted that their figures for the 40d burst rate are wrong, it is actually 6.3 fps, not that it makes much of a difference, so is identical to the 50d. That's quite a well known oddity.

It's not the kit opinions that bother me, it's people trying to tell others they're wrong by quoting rubbish web sites when their own opinion is well formed from experience (and that site you quoted is rubbish!)
 
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odd jim said:
Well you have very different findings to me!

How did you test the low light and noise handling at high iso? And if you did why did you quote a lame site and not just speak from experience?

Yes I have a 50d. Thats because I preferred it to the 40d after extensive tests! I could have paid less for a 40d but it couldn't do the job I wanted it to do. When I bought it I tested it against the 40d and 7d. There wasn't much in it between the 50d and 7d and was actually going to buy the 7d. However, a few month old 50d came up for a very good price , and the slight improvements with the 7d didn't warrant an extra £500 so it was a no brainer.

I tested the 40d in low light indoor show jumping, the differences between the 40d and 50d was night and day in both noise and low light AF speed. But then the 50d was set up properly and not using the factory settings. I can't see how you can say the 40d has better high iso noise than the 50d?! As I found, I couldn't take the 40d effectively past iso 400 but could take the 50d to 3200. I honestly don't think you could have tested them properly.

And the 40d doesn't have a faster burst rate. Canon admitted that their figures for the 40d burst rate are wrong, it is actually 6.3 fps, not that it makes much of a difference, so is identical to the 50d. That's quite a well known oddity.

It's not the kit opinions that bother me, it's people trying to tell others they're wrong by quoting rubbish web sites when their own opinion is well formed from experience (and that site you quoted is rubbish!)
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Well actually I didn't quote the rubbish site - someone else did!! Look again!

Perhaps I didn't explain myself properly though - for me I came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth buying the 50D over the 40D. It wasn't for me a significant enough difference compared to the cost. (if I were to be given one or the other i would of course choose the 50D).

The ISO noise advantage with the 40D though was up to around ISO800 if I remember correctly - anything higher didn't really impress me on either model.
 
Couple people have said use and don't use ebay.

There is nothing wrong with ebay if you do the right, simple things.

It doesn't matter how far you are from the seller at all.

ALways use paypal and that way you are protected by ebay buyer protection. If there's any issues their customer service is great and problems will be solved. Always look at feedback, especially negative feedback. You really won't loose out.

I don't get why people are so afraid of ebay, common sense will lead you to a safe and happy purchase.:thumbs:
 
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travellingcello said:
Well actually I didn't quote the rubbish site - someone else did!! Look again!

Perhaps I didn't explain myself properly though - for me I came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth buying the 50D over the 40D. It wasn't for me a significant enough difference compared to the cost. (if I were to be given one or the other i would of course choose the 50D).

The ISO noise advantage with the 40D though was up to around ISO800 if I remember correctly - anything higher didn't really impress me on either model.
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My apologies, don't know why I thought you quoted that!

I get relatively noise free images at 1600 and I use 3200 quite regularly. It's worth noting that the cr2 files from the 50d are tailored around conversion in Canons own DPP so unless you covert in DPP you arnt getting the best out of it. Process a high iso image in Photoshop / ACR / lightroom and the files are nowhere near as clean as if you did the exact same process in DPP. The same is true of the 7d as well.
 
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Oh no it was me that quoted the "rubbish site" lighten up odd Jim I was just pointing out some different opinions to the op who asked the question, its surely a bit like your "forget ebay" quote, ive had over 400 transactions with no bad experiences! But surely there is no need to be disrespectful to posters trying to assist the op with different points of view, but maybe there is :) anyway if I offended you by quoting rubbish im sorry, but I never said anywhere said you were wrong! Just take pictures its great! and the 40D does a great job!
 
lushuk said:
Oh no it was me that quoted the "rubbish site" lighten up odd Jim I was just pointing out some different opinions to the op who asked the question, its surely a bit like your "forget ebay" quote, ive had over 400 transactions with no bad experiences! But surely there is no need to be disrespectful to posters trying to assist the op with different points of view, but maybe there is :) anyway if I offended you by quoting rubbish im sorry, but I never said anywhere said you were wrong! Just take pictures its great! and the 40D does a great job!
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Lol sorry, didn't mean to come across a bit narky! I got a few things wound into one for some reason, and it's true what you say about eBay, but I was just tying to say there were easier ways...

I'm in a bit of a funny mood this eve, where's that bottle of red?!
 
Big swallow Jim gulp gulp ah that's better! no problem, Im new here and just and I love my photography as a semi pro, and hate the thought I would upset anyone by trying to add a opinion, anyway friends again? :) Happy clicking .........
 
lushuk said:
Big swallow Jim gulp gulp ah that's better! no problem, Im new here and just and I love my photography as a semi pro, and hate the thought I would upset anyone by trying to add a opinion, anyway friends again? :) Happy clicking .........
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Of course! And welcome to TP! don't worry we're pretty hard skinned around here...
 
I've used 50D and 40D for lots of different things and I always reached for the 50D as the primary camera. 40D was always the secondary camera. Uses ranged from motorsport to theatrical performances in fairly low light conditions without flash. Its the better camera.
 
Hi,

Having used both the bodies mentioned I would be inclined to go for the 50D, it takes a bit more effort in the post processing side to sometimes get the best from the 50, but in my opinion it is a superior body to the 40, the af micro adjust is just one advantage.

I occasionally borrow my dads 40 (sold my 50 to fund a holiday last august), and it just doesn't feel right, I much prefer the 50D.

On used prices, whether it's worth a 100 more than the 40D, well that's a tough one, if I had it spare then I would still have the 50, if I didn't, well..........

Mike.
 
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