Check out Ken Rockwell's 40D review. . .

Ken seems to have went from:

1. Specs - AMBIVALENT TO IT
2. Specs + Toying with it - SORTA HATES IT
3. Using it in real world situations - LOVES IT

Which is what I like about the 40D. I use it and feel confident when shooting with it. I do my part and it does what it's suppose to do. The result.....GOOD PICTURES. Which is why I bought the damn thing in the 1st place.

This sums up my feelings.

"The 40D just gets out of your way better and faster than its very similar predecessors with almost identical specs. The 40D just feels and works better. The 40D excels at the things for which there are no specs, but are immediately appreciated by anyone who spends all day with a camera stuck to their face.

What became immediately apparent is how fast, smooth, quiet and refined the 40D is compared to my 5D or the 20D or 30D. Even if it felt the same, the 3" LCD screen alone would be enough to justify the 40D to any full-time shooter.

Actual photographers, whom I'll define as anyone who makes at least a few hundred shots every day, at least 5 days a week, every week, will LOVE the 40D over the previous 10D, 20D or 30D. For them, it's a no-brainer. (see also Is It Worth It?)"

This also sums up my feelings:

"Screw my stupid upcoming comparisons of noise and resolution which are mostly of interest to people who prefer to talk about cameras instead of use them. If you use your camera enough for this to matter to you, then run, don't walk, and go get one or two 40Ds."

"Except for the various full-frame-advantages of the 5D, the noise levels of the 40D are visually identical to my Rebel XTi and the sharpness at ISO 200 is pretty close to my 5D. Who cares? Most photographers don't, but people who waste all day talking about it on the Internet do. The biggest technical quality differences between cameras are your ability to adjust the color and contrast to fit your scene and your artistic vision of it."

...jm2c (I'm sure when the DP Review comes out we will all question Phil as well)

Glad I purchased this camera and love shooting with it with the 50mm f1.4. Would recommend it.

I also agree with the 3 custom settings and custom menu settings comments. This is probably one of the most overlooked features of the 40D..imho. Once I got these dialed in, it makes it much faster to shoot in certain conditions that you know you will run into.

Whats so bad about this review? Whilst i'm no review critique if someone on the forums wrote exactly the same about how good it is to use, specs aside, they'd get praised surely...

mcmadkat wrote in post #4048291
What an absolute load of crap. One second he likes it, next he hates.

Get back to your Nikons and let us shoot in peace.

very helpful that was ...

anyway. this might not be a very consistent review, but he makes some good points nonetheless: about the awkward photo reviewing process, about the fact that canon's LCD have always been worst that Nikon's (and although it is 4 times better than on the 30D), it is still not up to Nikon's, Stupid power switch design, about the awkward DOF preview control, the idiotic Auto ISO function design, the pointless sRAW format for this range of product (very good arguments i think) etc.

However I agree, he has omitted to mention the useless weather sealing "upgrade" and pointless non-customizable print button, which is unthinkable when you want to make an objective review.

"one second he likes it, the next he hates" ... well maybe that what happens when the 40D excitement fades away: You get objective and realize that the 40D is nothing more that an incremental upgrade (as always with canon), which is far from being perfect, and certainly not innovative or ground breaking in any respect.

Amazing -- I clicked the 'Please Help KenRockwell.com' button, only to learn he's full-time from doing that site sine 2004.

I'm full of sh*t - I should start a site, too.

In the first part of the review he brags about how much improved the LCD is over the 30D and 5D and even says that's reason enough to upgrade to the 40D. Then on his Sept 25th update page he rants about how horrible the LCD is and how it smears text and is not as sharp as his Nikons. So which is it Ken?

Jon_Doh wrote in post #4049005
So which is it Ken?

The one where he didn't use the camera in the field and the one where he did....

Jon_Doh wrote in post #4049005
In the first part of the review he brags about how much improved the LCD is over the 30D and 5D and even says that's reason enough to upgrade to the 40D. Then on his Sept 25th update page he rants about how horrible the LCD is and how it smears text and is not as sharp as his Nikons. So which is it Ken?

Whats so confusing, compared with the older Canon models its far better and compared with the Nikon equivalents its naff.

Think he needs to re-read and re-edit his review down, aside from that its fine, seems people just want dig at it because its KR..

can anyone make sense of this statement?

When I read in a review words like "hate it", "crappy", "screw this..." it gets tossed in the shredder. That would be a review that a 13-year-old would write. And then he turns around and bashes people that discuss photography on forums. What a hypocrite. There have already been countless mini-reviews by our members that are way more professionally written than Rockwell's drivel. Which is really too bad because if he could grow up gramatically, he might actually have something worth reading.

His reviews are always entertaining, and he sometimes brings up some interesting points.

The guy is so obviusly ADHD and at times I'm convinced he's hypomanic, that's why he's all over the place. Some meds might do him good.

ken rockwell is always sarcastic and, as mentioned, writes like he has ADHD or even schizo or something. But entertaining in any case. i always have a good laugh from his writeups... especially when he's bashing something.

petiot wrote in post #4048469
very helpful that was ...

anyway. this might not be a very consistent review, but he makes some good points nonetheless: about the awkward photo reviewing process, about the fact that canon's LCD have always been worst that Nikon's (and although it is 4 times better than on the 30D), it is still not up to Nikon's, Stupid power switch design, about the awkward DOF preview control, the idiotic Auto ISO function design, the pointless sRAW format for this range of product (very good arguments i think) etc.

However I agree, he has omitted to mention the useless weather sealing "upgrade" and pointless non-customizable print button, which is unthinkable when you want to make an objective review.

"one second he likes it, the next he hates" ... well maybe that what happens when the 40D excitement fades away: You get objective and realize that the 40D is nothing more that an incremental upgrade (as always with canon), which is far from being perfect, and certainly not innovative or ground breaking in any respect.

What's strange is to read the predictions on what spec's that the new 40D would have from many of the major players (Bob Atkins, etc.). No one predicted that it would have Live View, a digicIII processor, a 3" LCD screen, a much brighter viewfinder, all cross focus points, etc.---all of which I consider a major upgrade. When the camera was announced, joy was heard throughout the land. Ah! Finally a major upgrade in the XXD category! Then, in a brilliant strategic business move three days later, Nikon announced their future line-up way in advance, camera's with even more bells and whistles and higher price tags. If their reason was to stop Canon users from upgrading or Nikon users from switching, the strategy worked and happiness of the 40D spread to disgruntlement. Seems you can't please all the people all the time!

irish1 wrote in post #4050450
If their reason was to stop Canon users from upgrading or Nikon users from switching, the strategy worked and happiness of the 40D spread to disgruntlement. Seems you can't please all the people all the time!

Here let me edit:

If their reason was to stop Canon Forum users (who don't even own the camera) from upgrading (to cameras they don't own) or Nikon user from switching (which doesn't happen often either), the strategy worked and happiness of the 40D (by Canon Forum users who don't own the camera) spread to disgruntlement. Seems you can't please all the (Forum) people all the time!

It's amazing that with all the bad forum press Stores seem to have a tough time keeping these is stock....lol

Wait until the D300 comes out and these same non camera owning people start to review it.

Notice that very few people who own this camera HATE it.

I own it.

I HATE

That I don't have 2 more just like it with more Glass attached.

I just find his writing style simple. Not siimplistic but simple. And as someone else mentioned he writes like a teenager and doesn't seem to put much thought into what he writes. Maybe that's due to poor editing, I don't know. I do chuckle at some of the things he writes though.