So I pulled the trigger on my upgrade. I’ve used the 350D for over 2 years now. I’m an “ok” amateur and never thought I would need an upgrade. I went the $$$ glass route, as suggested by many peers smarter then I, and it was well worth it. I got some great shots out of my 350D and 70-200L,24-105Ls. Recently, I’ve gotten the gear bug though, and with the used 40Ds coming down so much in price, I finally pulled the trigger.

Here are my impressions of 40D over the 350D for anyone else considering such a move

• The “feel” of the camera is much better, yet smaller then my 350D + grip combo. The 350 w/o the grip is too small for my hands, but the 40D fits just perfectly.
• The grip, the buttons, the locations, are just “right on” with this body, compared to being cramped in the 350D. I’ve seen people post that the 350D was a toy compared to the XXD series, and I kinda see what they are saying now.
• The “click” of shutter sounds better. The 350D has more of a slap, where the motorized up and down of the 40D sounds a lot beefier.Its wierd, but I really like the sound of the 40D shutter.
• In good light with 100 ISO, I can’t really tell a difference between two “internet sized” shots. At full zoom, you can see a slight detail difference, but there isn’t a huge wow factor in this situation
• In low light, the difference really kicks in. 1600ISO on the 40D is about equal to 400ISO on the 350D. Its THAT much of a difference. I took a well exposed shot at 1600ISO and it looks excellent. Wow!
• 6.5fps = Wow. That part is NOT going to suck for taking 1/80th pans of race cars. The keeper ratio was low with the 350D when trying for such low shutter speeds. With the 6.5fps, I’ll be able to nail a 4-5 shot combo of each car, where with the 350D i could get ~2 shots of “in frame” in.
• Haven’t noticed a huge difference in AF yet, but I haven’t done any AI Servo work with race cars yet. The 40D seems to catch a little faster then I was used to, but its not that much. Then again, most of those were in great light, so the 350D didn’t have much trouble and my amateur self never found the AF lacking with my 350D as I use the center point 99% of the time.

Not saying the 350D is bad. Its certainly a GREAT body, and at current prices ($350 used) its a KILLER deal for someone trying to get into DSLRs. Its just that the 40D really is a great step up and with the improved controls/format/performance allows you to enjoy photography more. I’m sure liking mine, and glad I pulled the trigger finally..

So my race car is in the shop. Since I’m the DIY type, it doesn’t happen that often, but after the ARRC wreck, I decided to have the car checked out by Trever, who is the one that built it. I looked it over at the house and it doesn’t actually look too bad. The only thing out alignment wise was the right front camber and toe. Looks like the upright got bent. The other 3 wheels where right in sync with each other and not even more a smidgen. The bottom subframe, which was 1/16″ away from the header looks to have maybe moved in the accident, hit the header slightly cracking it, and then moved back. Since thats a $$$ custom header, figured, lets have it fixed by folks that know more then I do.

Once Trever gives the car a thumbs up, I’ll be taking it over to the body shop to have the rear quarter panel dents touched up and sprayed over with red paint. I might take it home inbetween and see how much of the body work I can touch up to save money. We’ll see. Since I need new fenders and a new front bumper cover, I decided to go with a slightly different paint scheme for next season. I’m going to cover the hood and fenders with carbon fiber look vinyl, so I don’t have to paint. And then extend that vinyl into the doors with some kind of design. The front bumper will stay “factory black” as its just easier that way.

Also yesterday was about the nicest day in the last month or so here, so we went out to the dog park with a couple of our friends and out for some beers and pizza. They had $5 PBR pitchers which I couldn’t pass up I was actually pleasantly surprised at the taste of PBR being sober, as I usually reserve PBR for the end of the night once I don’t care about what I’m drinking.