Hong Kong based Roland has written an awesome review of the new Canon EOS 40d. If you’re a wp.com blogger you’ve probably already seen (or ignored) it but I wanted to pick up on it anyway.
I currently shoot (semi-professionally) with an old (think 6 years) Canon EOS 10d - 6 megapixels, slow write times - and a variety of lenses. When I heard the rumours about the 40d I got all wishful. Wishful that I could afford one. Now I am glad that I can’t afford one. I don’t want it. That’s not quite true. If I could afford it (like I had ten thousand pounds spare) then I would have one tomorrow. As it i, much like the rest of the world I would struggle to raise the money. Yes, it’s gorgeous. Look at the 3″ screen (below) and apparently it has live preview - something that compact cameras have had for years.
Then I read Roland’s excellent review (probably the first in the world and one of the most in-depth) and I saw one word that put me off. CMOS. Yes, it’s actually four words, you get my point.
I am absolutely scratching my head though. The CMOS sensor is all well and good, 10 megapixels or whatever, but it’s not full frame. You still have to take into account the 1.6x crop factor. For most people that won’t make any difference at all. What you see in the viewfinder is (essentially) what you get on the image.
But that means that my 50mm f1.8 Canon lens is actually an 85mm when connected to my 10d (or the 40d). My 19-35mm lens is actually 30-56mm and my 70-300 comes out to 112-480mm. I have nothing that will work as a wide angle.
I could go and by the Canon EOS 5d (12.7 mp full frame) but that’s retailing at £1599 in the UK right now and I can afford that even less than the 40d.
I know that Canon used the CMOS to keep costs down but surely economies of scale apply? If they started using the full-frame sensor from the 5d in the lower range then surely the cost of the sensor would come down and the price of the camera would too?
Grr! As much as I want to upgrade I will not be buying a new camera until Canon put the full-frame sensor in a reasonably priced body. And don’t tell me to buy a Nikon! I would have to change all my lenses. And anyway Nikon suck…
3 Comments
hey!
why do you say nikon sucks? all my photojournalist friends are all praise about nikon. i use a canon for my not-so-demanding street photography. i don’t know quite what got me into a canon….. probably bcos i heard a canon lens is great?
anyway, my friends aren’t geeks, but since u r one, i want to know why you think nikon sucks!
*sigh* - http://trentadams.ca/2007/02/24/new-camera-nikon-d40/
;)
;) I know. :o) It’s funny, 230 reads and only two comments. I’ve 16 emails calling me varying from “Canon fanboy” to “idiot”, “wanker” and “c***”.
I’ll post some of the more entertaining ones later.
For the record, it was supposed to be an inflammatory comment and I don’t believe it. Nikon or Canon - horses for courses each do the job admirably and each has their faults.
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