Upgrade to 40D - please help

As many of you will have seen in my previous post, I am contemplating upgrading my equipment and have taken on board the comments regarding whether to upgrade body or glass. I am reluctant to post on her because I always feel that to many of you out there who are professional or extremely experienced photographers that my questions are stupid or not worth answering but as a beginner, please understand that your thoughts, opinions and comments are invaluable when making a decision.

Anyhow, I currently have a 300D and a very small budget onwhich to make any upgrades. Having looked around on here and also speaking to other people it would seem that a 40D is possible going to fit the bill nicely for what I am wanting (airshows / horse shows as well as general stuff) and I would be very grateful if some of you more experienced folk out there could point out any good points or bad points. I am aware of the potential shutter problems with the 40D but is there anything else I should know. Obviously any purchase of one would be a secondhand purchase and I appreciate that brings its own difficulties but it is just a case of trying to do the best I can with a limited budget.

So sorry if this seems another, boring, pointless post from me - I promise you all I will learn as I go along and really do genuinly appreciate your advice and comments.

Many thanks

I had only 1 issue with my 40D - the shutter release button became difficult to use (issue with the contact in the switch I think) but Canon fixed it for me and I think my using a slightly too small camera bag may have caused the issue.

Other than this I haven't experienced any issues with it at all.

I've been heavily researching the 40D recently as I'm also planning on purchasing one second-hand and I'm yet to discover any problems that are related to the model as a whole.

I have one. Haven't had it for all that long, but I find it to be an excellent camera. It's small light and fits nicely in my smaller bag with a lens or two. I can't imagine worrying about possible failures with the shutter. It could happen, but I think most will never see a problem. Think about how many 40Ds have been sold worldwide compared to how many failures you hear about! People will always want to tell you about something that breaks, but don't often post when things are going well... Go for it. It's a nice camera if you don't need the video and such of the newer models.

I have two. No problems at all. Awesome IQ and performance. Can even handle a little rain Go for it!

Great 40D bargains out there - you will love the upgrade. Go to a store and put the 50D in your hands to see how it feels. If you like it - find a 40D hopefully with some kind of return policy.

Then, save for an excellent lens. Good luck ~

I have two and I love them to death. They are my favourite cameras in my bag, despite being the cheapest by FAR.

I wish it had AF microadjustment, but it seems to work well with all my lenses so I'm fine without it.
Many people harp on and on about the "low resolution" LCD screen, but honestly I find it to be a-ok. You can see an amazing amount of detail on it, despite the "low resolution". I don't find it any harder to see details on it than my camera with a high resolution LCD.

A lot of people also seem to have focusing trouble with it. I hate to admit it, but I used to be one of those people. It seemed to focus on things in the background instead of my subjects. I then learned that the 40D/50D/mark III have extra large AF sensors than usual, which are MUCH larger than the boxes in the viewfinder. So while you might think you have the AF point on a face, it might be half on a face half on the background. If there is a better contrast on the background, it might grab that instead. Once I was aware of this and shot accordingly, my keeper rate went up to a ridiculously high percentage, better than I've ever experienced, better than my Nikon 51-point camera could give.

Unfortunately, many people didn't seem to catch on and blamed canon for crappy AF instead of learning the new system, so they actually reduced the AF point sizes and now even have a spot AF mode to further reduce the AF point size. Which sucks in my mind... I've never seen such amazing AF performance.

So that's just something to be aware of. It behaved totally differently than my other cameras in that regard.

picturecrazy wrote in post #10466632
So while you might think you have the AF point on a face, it might be half on a face half on the background. If there is a better contrast on the background, it might grab that instead.

Would only using the centre AF point in tricky contrast shots eliminate that focus problem ?

I'm like you and have waited this long to upgrade my D30. I bought a 40D here, took 10 pics and It would not turn back on. It's at Canon now and i will post what happened. This is not to say the 40D is a bad choice, but there was another post here with the same problem as mine. The little I got to use it sure was nice.

I've bought a used one (Craigslist), took thousands of shots, now it's my backup.

40d issues?

Over 100K on 3 bodies with never a problem.

10-12 mp seems to be the sweet spot for a crop sensor--put this behind some high quality glass and the results are breathtaking

I own two 40D's -- and shot many thousands of images -- love them both!

I loved my 40D. The only problem I had was high ISO noise.

I have a 40D that I upgraded from a G9. I love it so much, with my 50mm 1.4 it does just about everything I expect it to do and more and have not yet begun to use it to it's fullest potential. I've had thousands of snaps with it in the past 15 months and just got the dreaded error 99 for a shutter failure, but I had no question on getting it fixed (I'm still waiting, impatiently, for it to be returned fixed after one send-back already tho). I would not even want to upgrade to a 50D. Well, maybe a 5D but the trade-in would be a drop in the bucket lol!

The 40D has an awesome reputation around here as a very capable and versatile camera. Even if you decided it did not meet up to your expectations, you could re-sell it in a heartbeat for no loss.

Funny that you are contemplating, because I JUST did a switch with another POTN user here with my T1i for his 40D. I shoot just for fun, and as I discover what types of things I like to shoot and what things I don't shoot too often, I find that the 40D might just be what I need. I don't use video, and if I needed to, I use my Canon P&S.

The 6.5 FPS and other small things made this camera ideal for what I shoot.

For your horse shows and such, I think you'll find that the shutter burst rate will help you out tremendously.