I just recently received the 40D I had ordered. After playing with it a while, I noticed something annoying about mine, and wanted to see if this was common or if mine is unusual in this regard.
Line up a shot of something straight, like the edge of a building or something, such that the line passes through the centers of the leftmost, center, and rightmost focus point indicators. Then take the shot.
Is the resulting edge in the shot parallel with the top and bottom edges of the shot?
On mine, the resulting edge is canted at a slight angle, somewhere between 3 and 5 degrees, relative to the top and bottom edges of the frame.
On the other hand, if I use the top or bottom edge of the viewfinder to line up the same thing, the resulting edge is parallel with the top and bottom edges of the shot -- which proves that the alignment of the sensor and the alignment of the viewfinder itself are the same, as they should be.
I spoke with someone at the Canon service center in Irvine, and he thinks he might have been seeing the same thing on the 40D they have there, but he hasn't taken enough shots to confirm it.
So -- is this something that seems to be common on these or not? If not, I have 14 days to exchange the camera (though it looks like B&H, where I bought the camera from, will be closed for most of those, and they're currently out of stock in any case). The service center rep couldn't say whether or not this was something they could repair, as the primary purpose of the focus point indicators is, of course, to indicate focus, and not necessarily to line anything up.
I've used the focus points for shot alignment on my 30D as it lacks a screen with a grid. The 40D has such a screen as an option, and I intend to buy one once they become available. But it would be nice to know if this is a defect (however minor) in the camera or not....
