After a few days into having the new rig, it seems appropriate to write a bit more about the Canon 40D. There’ve been no great negative revelations, although I have found one little thing that I think is designed a little backwards.

The cable release port on the 40D is in the same location as on the 20D. However, on the 20D, the cable is run toward the back, while on the 40D, it is run to the front. For the way I use my cable release, routing the cable to the back makes more sense, but at the end of the day, it’s not a huge big deal.

OK, so the ugly is over; now to the beautiful. And there are two beautiful things tonight… speed and focus.

Tonight, I was photographing hummingbirds on the feeders. Everytime I hit the shutter release, I fired multiple shots — man is this thing sensitive! Quick, too. I was firing shots of those quick moving little dudes waaaaay quicker than I could with the 20D. Really, really impressive.

I’ve also played with live view. This feature has killer application for crazy sharp focus. I’ve played with using live view, and then zooming up the preview to 10x for some really sharp focus. I don’t know that I’ll use live focus outside of macro or astronomical shots, but the uses there just seem amazing.

More to come….