New camera time - Canon 40d
My trusty Canon 350d has taken quite a battering lately, it's been to Malaysia, Thailand, most of Europe, and the States, and in all that time, it's been dropped, forced to work in the rain and heat, and never missed a beat. Until March, when it started rejecting frequent lens swaps, and completely refused to work with the horrible 18-55 kit lens Canon supply that had a zoom range I needed to use for work. Time for a new machine, and some more glass to go with it.

I bought a Canon 40d from Dixons in Ballincollig, which included the beautifully smooth 17-85 IS Lens, for a very paltry sum indeed, I can't post the price here as it was a special discount for being in the MINI Club, but the price, coupled with the Canon Cashback discount, meant that I was paying the same price as it would cost me to import from Kea Photo in Hong Kong, but with a local warranty. This brings my collection up quite nicely, consisting of :
350d Body and Battery Grip
40d Body, Battery Grip on order
Canon 18-55mm Kit Lens
Canon 50mm 1.8 Prime Lens
Canon 75-300 4.0 Lens
Sigma 10-20 4.0 Lens
Canon 17-85mm IS Lens
Too many filters, remotes, and tripods
Canon 430d Flash, soon to be upgraded to a 580.

The 40d is much sturdier compared to the 350d, has a much faster burst mode, more realistic white balances, and is producing sharper images than the 350d like for like. As a photographer, I need to recreate exact colours and palettes in my work, and this allows me to do it with ease, with less editing of levels and saturations. Also, I'm keen to break into HDR photography, and this is the ideal springboard to make that happen. It feels like a well balanced and rounded body, and all the controls are just in the right location, as if the designer asked me what I wanted. I can't see myself changing this body for quite some time ... or at least until Canon develop a prosumer full frame to compete with the Nikon D700! And then the missus will probably divorce me.

And here's the 350d doing one last good portrait shot of my new 40d, using my Canon 50mm 1.8 lens.

Labels: Electronics