When I bought my new 40D on Sunday, the new battery grip BG-E2N for the 40D hasn’t arrived in Hong Kong yet. So I have been using my 40D with the old BG-E2 grip. My favorite cmaera shop just called me this morning and told me that the new grip arrived at their shop. I will go and pick up the grip tomorrow. Once I have had a chance to use it. I will write about my expericne of the 40D with the new grip.

I have played with my new 40D for a few days now since I bought it on Sunday, so it’s time to write about some of my initial impression on this new camera.

1. The viewfinder view is bright and is much bigger than the 20D/30D. Definitely a nice upgrade. It’s great to finally have ISO visible in the viewfinder at all times.

2. The Canon 20D makes a really loud shutter/mirror noise. The 40D is much quieter, the sound is very muted. If the 20D sounds like a gun, the 40D sounds like a 20D with a silencer on.

3. Autofoucs seemed faster especially under low light situation. Probably because all the 9 focus pints are now cross-type, all the focus sensors are much more sensitive than on the Canon 20D/30D. Previously, on the 20D, the peripheral sensors hunt a lot under low light situation, sometimes almost impossible to lock on a focus. On the 40D now, the peripheral sensors all locked focus instantly just like the centre focus point.

4. The 3″ LCD is positively a huge improvement over the tiny 1.8″ LCD on the 20D. It is probably not such a bit improvement over the 2.5″ LCD on the 30D though. Without comparing the high resolution 3″ LCD on Nikon D3 and D300, which I have not seen and are not on sale yet, I would just say the 3″ LCD on the 40D is bright and clear with good viewing angle.

5. The menu structure has changed

I took a similar shot with my new 40D and my old 20D at ISO 1600. I scaled the shots to 50% and cropped them for comparison here. The first shot is from 40D and the 2nd shot is from 20D.

The Nikon D80 packs high performance and high resolution into a body that is more compact and slimmer than previous Nikon digital SLR cameras. True to Nikon’s commitment to intuitive operation, the size, layout and operation of all buttons and controls are designed for maximum ease of use.
Includes 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 Lens / Uses F mount lenses / SD Memory Card Slot / USB 2.0 / 2.5-inch LCD / 3D Color Matrix Meter Up to 2,700 images per battery charge - High-Efficiency power systems featuring reduced power consumption and Real-Time Fuel Gauge with Nikon’s EN-EL3e Lithium Ion rechargeable battery Nikon 3D Color Matrix Metering II, plus Variable Center-Weighted and Spot Metering. Nikon’s 3D Color Matrix Metering II instantly and accurately evaluates brightness, color, contrast, selected focus area and subject-to-camera distance information, referencing the results against an onboard database of 30,000 scenes from actual photography. Vary the size of the center-weighted area reading and spot metering readings correspond to 11 focusing points 11-area AF system with Wide-area Center Segment and Auto-area AF functions 2.5 LCD screen ISO Sensitivity (Recommended Exposure Index) - 100 to 1600 In-Camera Image Editing with Retouching Menu Built-in Speedlight with Nikon i-TTL flash metering and two-group Wireless Commander option Shooting Modes - 1) Single frame shooting mode; 2) Continuous shooting mode - approx. 3 frames per second; 3) Self-timer; 4) Delayed remote mode; 5) Quick-response remote mode Images are stored on SD digital memory cards