Love my NEW Toy!! : )

Well I’ve had my Canon 10D Digital SLR for a couple years now and really like it. Over the past few months however I’ve been getting the itch to upgrade and I finally pulled the trigger. I stepped up and bought the Canon 40D and WOW, what a camera!

Seems like they really soaked up all the feedback on the 10D, 20D and 30D and worked hard to add some exceptional features into the 40D. While I have yet to learn all the new bells and whistles there are 2 features I’m REAL excited about.

The first is that I have the option to shoot all photos in high format .jpg AND RAW format at the same time. So every shot I take is in high resolution .jpg AND also RAW. This allows me to review and use the photos quickly in the .jpg format and if something looks good I can revert to the RAW format where I have a much bigger file that can be used and manipulated easier/

The other feature which really excites me is the live image function. When shooting close up stuff, it is often hard to tell if the images are in exact focus. Well with the live view option, the large 3" display shows a live image and I can blow it up 5X and 10X to be absolutely sure the image is in focus. This function is manual focus only which is fine. This has saved me tons of time shooting images only to find out later they are slightly out of focus. THANK YOU CANON!

The past 24 hours the Mayflies have been pouring off the trout stream next to the house so my home is an up to the minute hatch indicator. So playing around with the camera this evening I managed to find several Mayflies sitting on my plants and siding and shot some photos.

Looking forward to many more days in the field shooting with this camera : )

Dr Fish,

It is truly amazing how fast DSLRs have evolved in just a few short years.

Enjoy!

I’m about to do the same thing. I’m using a Nikon D70s and I’m about to upgrade to a D300.

Dr. Fish,
Great camera. The $800+ price and the not waterproof caused me to choose the Pentax line. The Canon d40 is no doubt a “professional” quality instrument as is evidenced by your sample photos.
I too got a “toy” but of another variety. Actually, it’s NO toy at all but a tool for business. The Iphone. Worth every penny of it’s cost. AND has a great 2 mp camera on top of all else.

Mark

I checked these out on http://www.dpreview.com/ and they have a really good rating. I’m looking to get a Nikon D60 in the future hopefully. Can’t wait to see some pics from your new toy!!

If you haven’t checked out that website, it is really good for learning more about digital cameras on the market.

Dr. Fish, I recently purchased the 40D also. Last February, as a matter of fact. And you are right, it is a fantastic camera. I also especially like the live view mode for macro photography. You can make sure the exact spot you want to be focused is perfect. Actually for that, auto focus wouldn’t be that useful. I also keep mine set to capture Large/RAW as the default. The other thing I like is the speed of the camera, and the ability to take more shots continuously.

Fast Frame Rate!!!
I did a little experiment, the other day, with my 430EX flash. I wanted to see how many pictures I could take continuously with my flash. I set it at a high ISO (1600) and took 137 flash pictures in 72 seconds (ok, obviously not in RAW mode either) of my little boy at about 10 ft before the flash couldn’t keep up. That is a rate of about 1.9 fps for 72 seconds. Next time I’ll charge the batteries before I try it. :wink: Obviously the 1600 ISO helps a lot on that, but the short flash to subject distance is also a key factor.

Under more normal shooting modes, like an ISO 200 and RAW+Large jpg, I can shoot about 13 frames before I have to wait on the flash. Now, if I bounce the flash off of my 14 ft ceiling, that is a whole different deal. That uses nearly a full power flash each time, and I have to wait about a second between shots. Still not bad though.

Here is one of the pictures from that run…

In this picture, the little flower is about 1/2" across in size. Just took this one yesterday, in fact.

Sorry for the images issues. It seems the image hosting site have been using is becoming more and more unreliable so I have to move everything to another one. Guess I’ll give Photobucket a shot.

Yes, the 40D does sure have an amazing shooting speed. On my last trip I was shooting Sailfish jumps with one of the 70 - 200mm Canon White Lenses and wow was it amazing.

Here are a couple of the shots I took

No doubt Pentax makes a great product and I was a huge fan of the old Zoom 90WR. Their new waterand shock proof models are very nice and the compace size is great but for most of what I do, I need to have the full size DSLR and lenses.

As for the iPhone, I’m seriously thinking about picking one up whn the new updated model comes out. Just need to find out how it will work with my email.

You’re going to love that camera. I have the 30D, and I’m tempted, but I’ll probably wait for the next upgrade. Now get yourself some L glass, and post some pictures.

Those are some great shots Dr. Fish! Thanks for sharing those.

Hey Dr. Fish, I just now saw those mayfly photos. Those are great shots too. What macro lens are you using?

You guys and your 40d’s make me sick!!

I’m so jealous I can’t stand it. Hey, if either of you (Dr. Fish or tlerm) would like to trade your 40d, I have a slightly used, but still very useful soul I’d offer up… :wink:

Now that you’ve divulged that you own the latest and greatest–we expect much more pictures. BTW, very nice pictures from both of you and tlerm–nice experiment. Good info

Wild One, I waited a long time for this camera. The 40D replaced the SLR that I purchased in the summer of 1988. No kidding. So I feel I was a bit overdue for an upgrade. And boy did I upgrade. Part of the reason that I waited so long though was that I would not have been happy with the DSLR’s until recently. I actually did not realize how much they had improved until I played with my BIL’s 30D last Christmas. After playing with his camera for a few days, I was in awe, and the decision was pretty much a foregone conclusion.

I did manage, however, to play this one fairly well. My wife was very much on board from the beginning (she likes my pictures), but I said, “But, honey, you don’t realize how much this costs.” You see, she wanted me to have it almost as much as I wanted it. It really wouldn’t make much sense to buy this great camera and not buy a macro lens. And I really can’t live without a super-wide zoom (10mm-20mm really kicks you-know-what BTW)… and flash… and super-duper polarized filter… remote release…

And then… the camera is even better than I imagined! WOW sums it up! :smiley:

For the macro work I’m using a Canon Ultrasonic 100mm Macro lens. I’ve been very happy with it.

Thanks a LOT! You already had the knife in there, but you just had to give a little twist huh! :wink:

That Sigma lens looks nice. I’m a big fan of the Sigma lenses. Great glass (IMO) for a bit cheaper than a Canon or Nikon usually. My buddy let me borrow his Sigma 18-125mm and I was just amazed with it’s versatility.

Come on guys more pics, pics, pics!!! :cool:

Tamron also makes some great lenses. I have a fish eye super wide angle lens that I love from Tamron. It’s their 17 - 35mm and it’s awesome. It allows me to get real close and yet still get what I need into the shot.
http://www.tamron.com/lenses/prod/17_35mm.asp

You ask for more pics so here are a couple and these were taken with my Canon 10D

I live to fish but taking photos is a lot of fun as well.

Just one more taken with my Canon 10D and 50 - 200mm zoom lens off the Queen Charlottes on an amazing trip.

DANG!! I’ve heard good things about Tamron too. I agree that taking photos is a great way to spend some time too.

Although my photos suck, sometimes I’d rather take pics than fish.

Sorry about that, but it is quite a change for me moving from the film age to the DSLR age. I’m still giddy about it.

I feel kinda silly posting pics after Dr. Fish’s fantastic shots, but here’s a couple from tonight of a weather system that just moved through. More in the future.

Tim -

Even though I ( recently ) entered the digital photography world way down the equipment scale from Dr. Fish and you, I know how you feel. SO MANY advantages over film, and so easy to do interesting things with the images captured with the digital process and the software available !!

Great photos from both of you. Thanks, guys.

John

P.S. Ryan - I do owe you a “Thank You,” also, for the motivation you provided a while back !!