drdane
Sep-21-2007, 02:56 PM
I was holding off posting this -waiting for a Canon tech to get back to me on some noise reduction test images I emailed him 2 weeks ago! G-r-r-r-r-r! Just called and his cohort promised I would hear back tonight - we'll see.
Anyway, I LOVE this camera! Please bear in mind that I stepped up from the original 300D Rebel I've been using for the last 4 years, so I'm easily impressed:D !
You're gonna love the screen, Saurora! My eyes aren't great at small close things anymore, and the menu comes in Reader's Digest Large Print!:barb I don't even need my reading glasses to make out what it says. The downside of the larger screen is that it's hard to keep it from getting greased by my nose when I'm oogling through the view finder - but I can live with that:D .
It feels hefty, solid and sm-o-o-o-th. Everything that moves feels well-made, with the exception of the CF door, which feels like it's a bit light for the number of times I'm gonna be using it. The shutter has a nice sound to it, for what it's worth.
I don't know if the earlier models had this feature, but I really like the in-camera flash control, which offers a 4-stop range. I know it works with the Flash Exp Lock (using whatever meter mode you have dialed in), but I don't know if it works without FEL.
The mirror lock-up works great, but the command is buried under the custom function menu. You can get around this by incorporating six of your most-used functions under the last menu heading on the right (My Menu - pg 164 in the manual). I can't find my manual at the moment, but I think that is correct.
NOISE TESTS
One of my main reasons for upgrading was to have less noise than the old Rebel, and that was the first thing I tested. I shot an OOF gray card with both cameras during daylight hours at each ISO, processed them identically, and compared the two. Fortunately, the 40D was the undisputed champ, with somewhere around 50-70% less bad stuff than the 300D. The effect was very noticable from 400 ISO on up.
I also wanted to find out what the 40D noise reduction would do. More OOF gray cards, in poor light this time. There are two types of NR: Long Exposure, and High ISO. For each type, I shot a set of images without, and a set with the respective NR feature turned on, and compared.
The Long Exp NR helped significantly, and is most noticable from about 4 minutes and up.
The High ISO NR (on my camera, at least) did absolutely nothing! I repeated this several times and got the same result. This is what I'm awaiting word on from Canon - I want to see if theirs does it, too - and what they're going to do about mine.
The downside of the NR function is that it takes a time equal to your exposure time to process the darn image! So if you have a 20 min exposure, like I did - shooting star-trails, you're gonna hafta be VERY patient if you want to take the shot, and you won't be able to take very many. I didn't know this when I tried it, and was scratching my head while the little light was burning for 20 min after my shot! It wasn't mentioned in the manual (B-O-O-O-O!). A friend later confirmed that, yes, the 5D does this, too.
THE KIT LENS
I'm happy with the lens so far - no rattles, and it hasn't once fallen off the camera. For $200 it was a fine upgrade from my measly 18-55 Rebel kit lens, which did rattle, but to be fair, it never fell off the camera, either! I haven't got around to testing lens sharpness other than by taking pictures, and I'm happy with what I've seen so far.
I'll post a photo later if anyone is interested - looks like I'll have to reboot to get Inet Explorer to work, which is the only way I can access my site - but that's another story.
I hope this is helpful, and I will follow up on the High ISO NR thing when I hear anything useful from Canon. Oh, yeah, if anyone lucky enough to have one of these in their hot little hands would be willing to test the High ISO NR themselves, I'd appreciate hearing what you find, and maybe Canon would as well.
Blessings,
Dane
Anyway, I LOVE this camera! Please bear in mind that I stepped up from the original 300D Rebel I've been using for the last 4 years, so I'm easily impressed:D !
You're gonna love the screen, Saurora! My eyes aren't great at small close things anymore, and the menu comes in Reader's Digest Large Print!:barb I don't even need my reading glasses to make out what it says. The downside of the larger screen is that it's hard to keep it from getting greased by my nose when I'm oogling through the view finder - but I can live with that:D .
It feels hefty, solid and sm-o-o-o-th. Everything that moves feels well-made, with the exception of the CF door, which feels like it's a bit light for the number of times I'm gonna be using it. The shutter has a nice sound to it, for what it's worth.
I don't know if the earlier models had this feature, but I really like the in-camera flash control, which offers a 4-stop range. I know it works with the Flash Exp Lock (using whatever meter mode you have dialed in), but I don't know if it works without FEL.
The mirror lock-up works great, but the command is buried under the custom function menu. You can get around this by incorporating six of your most-used functions under the last menu heading on the right (My Menu - pg 164 in the manual). I can't find my manual at the moment, but I think that is correct.
NOISE TESTS
One of my main reasons for upgrading was to have less noise than the old Rebel, and that was the first thing I tested. I shot an OOF gray card with both cameras during daylight hours at each ISO, processed them identically, and compared the two. Fortunately, the 40D was the undisputed champ, with somewhere around 50-70% less bad stuff than the 300D. The effect was very noticable from 400 ISO on up.
I also wanted to find out what the 40D noise reduction would do. More OOF gray cards, in poor light this time. There are two types of NR: Long Exposure, and High ISO. For each type, I shot a set of images without, and a set with the respective NR feature turned on, and compared.
The Long Exp NR helped significantly, and is most noticable from about 4 minutes and up.
The High ISO NR (on my camera, at least) did absolutely nothing! I repeated this several times and got the same result. This is what I'm awaiting word on from Canon - I want to see if theirs does it, too - and what they're going to do about mine.
The downside of the NR function is that it takes a time equal to your exposure time to process the darn image! So if you have a 20 min exposure, like I did - shooting star-trails, you're gonna hafta be VERY patient if you want to take the shot, and you won't be able to take very many. I didn't know this when I tried it, and was scratching my head while the little light was burning for 20 min after my shot! It wasn't mentioned in the manual (B-O-O-O-O!). A friend later confirmed that, yes, the 5D does this, too.
THE KIT LENS
I'm happy with the lens so far - no rattles, and it hasn't once fallen off the camera. For $200 it was a fine upgrade from my measly 18-55 Rebel kit lens, which did rattle, but to be fair, it never fell off the camera, either! I haven't got around to testing lens sharpness other than by taking pictures, and I'm happy with what I've seen so far.
I'll post a photo later if anyone is interested - looks like I'll have to reboot to get Inet Explorer to work, which is the only way I can access my site - but that's another story.
I hope this is helpful, and I will follow up on the High ISO NR thing when I hear anything useful from Canon. Oh, yeah, if anyone lucky enough to have one of these in their hot little hands would be willing to test the High ISO NR themselves, I'd appreciate hearing what you find, and maybe Canon would as well.
Blessings,
Dane