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Canon EOS 400D

Digital camera - Viewfinder: Optical Viewfinder - LCD display - 2.5 in - 10.1 Megapixel
55 offers from £337.50 to £1,379.95


A review by the Ciao member daftks about Canon EOS 400D

published on 08.09.2007

Head to head competition with NIkon

Author's product rating:

Picture Quality	Good
Range & Quality of Features	Diverse
Ease of Use	Easy
Overall Look & Design	Good
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Value for money & most other things !
Disadvantages:	Lens kit not as flexible, viewfinder not good for left-eyers

Recommend to potential buyers:	yes
Overall rating:	excellent good average poor very poor

I am a Nikon camera user, but this is definitely one of the best SLR cameras around; NIkon and Canon have always been head to head with their visual range of products. The Canon EOS 400D is good for both amateurs and professionals, you may even say it is simply fool-proof, which is sometimes what Nikon isn't (the D50 certainly isn't at times anyway =s ) everything is just beautiful that comes out of it. Even the shutter clicking sound is beautiful.

Build
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The body of the EOS 400D is almost identical to the older version, the 350D, with some subtle changes, for example, the rubber placed around the finger grip and also on the back of the camera.
For those that want the quality of a good camera but light in weight to carry around, this is definitely the camera of choice; despite the fact that the most professional photographers may find the body just a little too small, for that problem, there is the BG-E3 battery grip which you can add to give your hands some extra space to hold on to and also to improve the balance of the camera.
A pop-up flash is built-in, which is used for fill-in light outdoors or as a last resort when light levels are low. There are a few rapid pre-flashes before a picture is taken, which causes a slight lag before the picture is taken, but that is hardly noticeable either.
EOS 400D uses the same E-TTL II flash system as previous cameras, which means it is compatible with Canon's comprehensive range of EX external speedlites. These range from the tiny Speedlite 220EX through to the powerful 580EX. However, older EZ flashguns do not support E-TTL, and are not compatible with this camera.

Display
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The display is a LCD screen, which is different the 350S's dual display. The LCD screen shows image settings, battery information and also exposure info, the screen is quite nice because it's not too painful to look at but yet it's clear, visible and relatively bright. Below the viewfinder, there is a proximity sensor that instantly switches off when you are looking through the viewfinder, this is helpful as it can stop light from the screen distorting the colours when you are about to snap a pic. Nice one, Canon.

The viewfinder though, is still typical of Canon's DSLRs at an entry level; its size is relatively small and still looks a bit away. Despite that, you can still confirm the focus pretty easily, and the autofocus is well-lit when it is selected, most importantly, for those manual shots, the exposure info that you sometimes so need is set out clearly at the bottom.

Menu
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There is the power switch =) and next to that is the exposure dial, where you can set the modes for different occasions with preset modes, such as portrait, macro, sports, landscape, night portrait, close-up, or full automatic. There are semi-auto exposure modes available such as shutter-priority, aperture-priority or full manual.

On the back of the camera ,there are controls for gaining access to its menu features, photographic controls are arranged around the screen; down the left side of the screen there are buttons for the menu system; display, playback controls, and delete. On the right are the exposure compensation, drive mode and directional controls. These are also quick access buttons for ISO sensitivity and AF (autofocus) modes when you are not in menu or the playback mode. Picture styles menu can also be accessed via the centre set of buttons. Which makes the job of navigating and finding the right exposures and settings in that split second to take that one picture much much easier.
However, the viewfinder, just as the previous 350D model, isn't quite suited for those left-eyers when it comes up to looking through the viewfinder.

Battery
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The EOS 400D uses a Canon NB-2LH lithium-ion rechargeable battery. This battery is smaller in size compared to other digiSLRS, but the life of the battery hasn't been scrutinised because of it. Which is good, as it overall does make the camera quite a bit lighter.

Lens
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The Canon EOS 400D is compatible with the entire range of Canon EF and EF-S autofocus lenses, but not the manual focus FD lens mount in the 1980's, as Canon has been in favour of the EF lens mount, which means that older FD lenses are not compatible with this camera.
The only problem I had with this is that it isn't compatible with other lenses that aren't Canon, which will be cheaper, whereas Nikon is.

Internal
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The EOS 400D takes CompactFlash memory cards, which fits into a slot beside the battery.

The EOS 400D is Canon's first camera to have a sensor cleaning system to remove dust from the sensor's surface, extremely useful when a tiny but annoying peck of dust sneakily went into the lens and you didn't realise until you have taken a picture of that beautiful scenery, and there's a black dot right in the middle of it. No more random black zits on your vain shots!

Shooting
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The autofocus system has been revised in the EOS 400D; it now uses a diamond-shaped configuration, which is exactly the same as those found on the higher level EOS 30D and EOS 5D cameras. Which is definitely an improvement on the old cross-shaped arrangement found on the 350D.
Each point glows red in the viewfinder when it is selected, or is highlighted as yellow on the rear display screen if your eye is removed from the viewfinder. There are 3 separate autofocus modes to select from : AI servo, AI focus and single shot. The three modes provide responsive focus performance for even the most challenging situations. Hurrah!
The images taken with the EOS 400D are virtually noise-free at ISO100 and ISO200, with only a gradual increase of noise at ISO400 and ISO800. Noise levels become more apparent at ISO1600 but, images taken at this sensitivity are still very usable.

The camera doesn't have a PC sync socket for use with studio flash. Adaptors are available that attach to the camera's hot-shoe.

Prices of the Canon EOS 400D range from:
cameras2u.om: £445.00
Jessops: £459.99
Ebay: ~ £ 260.00

Happy snapping! =)




Canon EOS 400D tech spec
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10.1 megapixels
2.5inch LCD screen
Nine point autofocus system
Sensitivity range of ISO100 to ISO1600
Shutter speed Range 30secs to 1/4000sec and bulb
DIGIC II image processor
Three frames per second continuous shooting up to 27 Jpeg or 10 RAW frames
EF/EF-S lens and EX Speedlite flash compatible
Integrated sensor cleaning system
RGB histogram display
Compatible with CompactFlash Type 1 & 2
Rechargeable Li-Ion battery

MASTERPIECE! 

Durability	Excellent
Reliability	Good
Size	Small
Weight	Average
Instruction Manual	Satisfactory

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