Canon Choice: 40D or 5D?

I'm trying to decide: 40D or 5D. I am guessing that for landscapes the 5D with its full frame is still the first choice. But could it be that the 40D competes well? Or are they cameras for different uses. Is the 40D the best for wildlife, action, sports, etc. Whereas the 5D is best for the studied landscapes?
I will be travelling light with one or the other and a point and shoot.
Any opinions, insights, thoughts or suggestions, most appreciated.


Tim Stenning
Forks, Washington

if I had the budget, I'd own both. 5D for landscapes, 40D for travel, journalism and wildlife. I shoot a wide variety of stuff so I coudl'nt really choose between them. for specialists, it might be an easier choice.

I'm struggling with the same issue. I'm leaning towards the 40D because I take more non-landscape shots so the full frame wouldn't be as useful to me. Plus the 5D has the live-preview LCD which might come in handy. And, I figure with landscapes you can always stitch together a few individual shots from the 40D to get the equivalent of the 5D. Certainly not as convenient, but doing so should cover about 90% of the landscape situations I'm in.

There are ultrawide lenses now available for the 1.6x, you know. That's no longer a factor. I think you are missing what the real importance is. If you mostly shoot at night, the low noise at high ISO would be important in the 5D. Otherwise, save the money and put it on the lens. The problem at the moment is everyone is thinking "camera" when they should be thinking "lens." Too many people get caught up in all the advertising etc. about camera bodies which are only incrementallly better than the models they replaced, and waste money on them instead of building up their line up of lenses. And a top notch tripod/head. Huge mistake.


Kent in SD



Kent in SD

I keep hearing the term "Live Preview", exactly what is this and how do you turn it on...

Thanks to all for the input. William--The live preview refers to the image being seen on the lcd screen. The 40D has the live preview, although, as I understand it, the 40 does not show variations in focusing as the previewing takes place.

I'm in Richard's boat: eclectic, although great landscapes are a priority. Regarding Kent's comments: I hear you.
I know I'll buy the 5D and two weeks later the 5D II will be announced. But I'm leaning to 5D.

Tim,
I would wait on the 5D or purchase a 40D, the upgrade for the 5D is scheduled for Nov or January. I have owned the 5D for two years now and I use it professionally. It is a good camera but has some issues that need fixing, it is the 1st generation of that model and it shows. The 40D is the 4th generation of that model and I think it is a better camera all-around. If the new upgrade of the 5D fixes some of the issues and includes all the new designs like the new processor, 3 inch LCD screen, weather sealing, and dust removal than the new 5D will be one of the best cameras around. (rumors are it will be 16MP and be less expensive than the previous version)

Try and stay out of the upgrade game, make a purchase that you can commit to for at least five years.

Good Luck

Carl--Thanks. OK then. I will love travelling with the 40D and look for the upgrade for the 5D pronto. In the mean time, I'll acquire some nice glass. (I'm wondering how one gets wind of a new model in the offing? Other than: "it's time". No doubt, It will be a totally genius camera.) Tim

Replying to Tim's quote bellow.

I am holding my 40D in hand and in Live view you can see all changes as you manually focus. In fact it can create a histogram based on current exposure values.

It is a marvelous tool for macro or studio work. I have been able to use it out doors on a tripod in bright Florida sunshine and I am amazed how easy it is to see the image. And with 5x or 10x box, which can be moved around the image, critical focus is a breeze. Quite frankly this camera is much more than I expected it to be. I have filed and sorted thousands of 5D raw files for a pro photographer friend and have printed some images for him. The 40D files are very close in quality... too close to call. The major difference being the color is better in the 40D files. The 40D raw images need very little adjustment when converting to tiff, if properly exposed, only a slight sharpening. Also ISO 400 is so good on the 40D you can use it as your standard ISO

P.S. Thank God for the spell checker on this site!!!

Reply posted by Tim Stenning on 09/19/07 at 6:19 pm EST

Thanks to all for the input. William--The live preview refers to the image being seen on the lcd screen. The 40D has the live preview, although, as I understand it, the 40 does not show variations in focusing as the previewing takes place.

Michael: Great input. Thanks. I'm psyched. I'm so glad I posted the question. I would much rather buy the most recent upgrades than buy something that will be superseded quite soon.

That bit I did (above) about focusing in Live View in the 40D I gleaned from a review in Luminous Landscape. The reviewer's point about focusing and live view went this way:

To quote: "What I don't care for in Canon's current Live View implementation is that autofocus is not available. The camera can be set so that the the top-rear AF-On button lowers the mirror and activates AF for an instant, but otherwise one has to manual focus. This may not be an issue when doing landscape style shooting, but for action photography it is an issue. Manual focusing is made easier though by the ability to greatly magnify the image on screen."

This was by Michael Reichman who reviewed the 40D. He loved the camera and compared it very favorably against the 5D.

Thanks for the info, have a good day everyone..

I bought the 40D in the kit with the 17-85 EFS lens. One of the salesman said the lens is comparable to the L lenses, but since there is an S after the EF (thus EFS), Canon does not call it L. The S evidently means that it is a lens dedicated to a certain few cameras and not to a broader range of cameras that the L glass is aparently able to serve. It is an Image Stabilized lens. So far it looks like a very beautiful camera.

I was going to get the 5D Mark II but the 40D and my current financial reality is looking like a more comfortable match. Since I have a 10-20mm lens, FF isn't as critical to me. Anti-dust and some weather sealing is. And for the cost of 2.5x a 5D Mk II (totally assuming retail of 3,500.00) the upgrade to a 40D will be quite significant for this 20D shooter that has just about worn out his shutter.....

I've just started shooting with the 40D. Fun. My problem now is getting the Canon Raw 2 file (CR2) into PS CS3.
I think I have loaded the new version Camera Raw 4.2. But still PS3 does not want to open the CR2 files.

CS3-problem! had the same problem, ended up converting files to DNG to be able to play with them in CS3. Anyone has a clue what's wrong with the 4.2??
Stein