Upgrade 1000D to 40D?

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mattsnoise

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Matthew
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I've noticed that there are both new and refurbed Canon 40D's going rather cheap on ebay of recent and am wondering whether it would be worth investing in one.

I'm looking to upgrade because I feel I've exhausted what the 1000D can offer me in terms of quality - I've recently photographed in early evening as the light is going and grain at higher ISO's is obvious, what I'd mostly like is a wider range of settings and a better quality of settings - from what have gathered, the 40D is fairly similar in terms of specifications but possibly edges ahead in terms of build and picture quality.

Can anyone comment on this???

Thanks, Matthew.
 
It's a big step up, I've had both.

There's everything from feel to functionality thats miles ahead. I'm not sure that you would find the camera takes hugely better pictures but of the two camera's I sold the 1000D first, it seemed a little like a toy camera to me.

I'm not plugging anyone on here but there is a great deal for a very low mileage 40D on TP at the moment. If I had the spare cash I'd genuinely buy it as a spare camera to replace the 40D I sold.
 
The 40D is a big step up...faster shooting, larger LCD, top LCD, ISO 3200, mirror lockup etc.

However...high ISO performance is not really any better and the camera is big and heavy...it really is more a semi-pro camera. Fabulous nonetheless, but I'd try one for feel first if I were you :)
 
Hi matt, i would'nt have thought you have exhausted the 1000d, but more like you are limited to what will work for you when you loose the light, i see that you only have a 18-55 kit lens which is f3.5 open wide which is why you are struggling in low light, i think you will be best investing in some faster glass, for example the canon 50mm f1.8 (nifty fifty) which can be brought for a mere sum of £50-£60 on here and is a great piece of glass, also the tamron 17-50 f2.8 is a corker and is super sharp. Dont get me wrong the 40d is a great body, but image wise to be honest there wouldnt be alot in it, the main advantages are the size,weight,faster fps,higher iso capabilities. If you fancy trying out a few faster lens then maybe we could meet up,you could also try out my 40d to see how it feels for you, im only in kingswinford and i was actually in bridgnorth last saturday.

Andy
 
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Andy - great proposal that I'd love to take you up on, ironically I left for uni last weekend and am now based down in High Wycombe during term time. If the offer remains later in the year it would be great to give the lenses a go and see whether I can get a better quality of image from the 1000D.

Generally, are you more likely to get a sharper, noise free image with a wider aperture and lower ISO so you're not at risk of 'straining' the camera by requesting a high ISO???? or am I barking up the wrong tree in terms of an explanation there!?
 
mattsnoise said:
Andy - great proposal that I'd love to take you up on, ironically I left for uni last weekend and am now based down in High Wycombe during term time. If the offer remains later in the year it would be great to give the lenses a go and see whether I can get a better quality of image from the 1000D.
Click to expand...

I'm in Watford with a 40D that you are welcome to test against your 1000D.
 
got an idea - does anyone have a photo shot in dim/ dark conditions at high ISO that they could stick on here so I could visually compare????

thanks!
 
thanks chaz for pointing those out - i get the feeling its not even comparable and i'll echo one of the replies you got on that thread that you can get that sort of noise at ISO1600 with the 1000d - if i had the budget i'd seriously upgrade the body but i'm looking at what is really a cheap fix :)
 
mattsnoise said:
Andy - great proposal that I'd love to take you up on, ironically I left for uni last weekend and am now based down in High Wycombe during term time. If the offer remains later in the year it would be great to give the lenses a go and see whether I can get a better quality of image from the 1000D.

Generally, are you more likely to get a sharper, noise free image with a wider aperture and lower ISO so you're not at risk of 'straining' the camera by requesting a high ISO???? or am I barking up the wrong tree in terms of an explanation there!?
Click to expand...

The offer is there buddy just drop me a pm when your back up this way,Faster glass will out perform the likes of your kit lens with ease, yes you may still have to raise your iso a little, but if your shooting in dim/dark conditions faster glass is only the real option or a tripod and use longer shutter speeds, not wise for moving subjects though......

Andy
 
thanks - will do


where I've found my camera struggles at high ISO is when photographing people at an event which is invariably in the evening as the light is going. In this case I can start the evening with a low ISO and gradually up it to keep up with the declining light and so across an evening the quality of the photos deteriorates because the camera can't handle the higher ISO's - noticeably from 800 up

I've just been out this afternoon with the camera and have aimed to take photos with lower ISO's - not going above 400 and then being more flexible with the aperture even though its more difficult to change and I have to say that the photos have come out clearer compared to similar conditions on other days where I've moved the ISO instead because its easier and quicker to change.
 
To be honest, there's no crop camera around that can produce noise free images at ISO 1600. I believe the best available is the D90 which can just about manage ISO 1000 noise free. It's more a case of can you live with the results? Take a look at DXOMark sensor scores, where sports is the score for clean images (the score is the effective maximum ISO the camera can produce clean images with):

http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/en/Camera-Sensor/Sensor-rankings

Full frame cameras are much better in this respect. My 5D blows away the crop cams I've tried!
 
To be honest, those tests just show to me how little difference there is between all the crop sensor models!
 
*just to clarify a crop sensor is one that isn't a full frame sensor like you get on the 5D's and upwards?*
 
Of course any full frame will perform better in terms of noise simply because of the size f the sensor. I think the picture of the dog is a bit extreme it looks very dark and noise looks alot worse in dark conditions. The 40D can produse pretty good images at 800-1000 as long as the exposure is half decent.
 
I happily use my 40D up to ISO 1600. With good noise reduction techniques, you can get fabulous images from ISO 1600.

I would also go up to ISO 3200 if the situation requires. Results at ISO 3200 are a bit variable. The other day I took a test shot at 3200 and I had to check the exif to tell if I was looking at the right shot. It had just a smattering of chroma, and some very faint bands, but basically looked very good.

But banding and chroma are easy to remove. If you want to be able to up the ISO confidently, I recommend investing a bit in a good NR program. I use topaz denoise 5, which is very good at removing all types of noise, chrome, luma and colour banding.


Here's an example of an image at ISO 3200 with my NR techniques:


To get that, I have applied a light luma reduction, chrome reduction and banding reduction to the whole image, then selectively applied a much stronger chroma and luma reduction to just the background.
 
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