Canon EOS 40D Digital SLR

My new camera arrived today! Yay!

I bought the Canon EOS 40D 10mp Digital SLR body and a Canon 24-105 EF f/4L IS USM lens to go with it. Note that the photo on the right shows the camera bundle including the EF-S 17-85mm lens … I didn’t get this, I bought the camera body (no lens supplied) with the 24-105 lens separately.

I thought long and hard about what lenses to buy – I take a lot of photos, so it’s going to get some good use. I like both nature and wildlife photography and also scenery and architecture – so I need both wide angle and good zoom.

My old SLR is a Pentax MZ-10, it came with a 28-80 lens and I later bought a 70-300mm zoom, which has been good for wildlife photography.

Given the 1.6x focal length equivalent of the digital SLR sensor, I need approximately 17-50mm to replace my old 28-80 and 45-190 to replace my 70-300. Ideally, I’d like something a little wider than 28mm – better for landscape and architecture shots (particularly indoors!). I’d also like something a little longer than 300mm.

Based on the reviews of Canon’s lenses from excellent sites like Fred Miranda, and given that I wanted high quality lenses to go with my camera … I picked out a few lenses for my shortlist.

The Canon EF 70-200mm lenses get the best reviews, and would be very nice – but they are a bit big and heavy for what I’m looking for.

The Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM is pretty much my dream lens right now, but it is huge (I’m not lugging a 1.4kg lens around South America – although I have been very tempted), and over $2,900 RRP, it’s a little expensive to justify.

I decided on the Canon 24-105 EF f/4L IS USM as my main lens – 38mm equivalent is not quite wide enough and 168mm equivalent is not quite long enough, but the quality and build of this lens (and the fact that it’s not too large or too heavy), make it a good compromise as my walk-about lens.

I have ordered some other lenses – but they won’t come until closer to Christmas. I’ll talk more about them when they arrive.

The other nice thing about the 40D + 24-105 f/4L combination is that Canon have a $500 cash-back offer until the end of the year for buying this lens with this camera. That will certainly help pay for some of the accessories I need (I’ll be getting some 8GB memory cards!).

I decided to get the camera as soon as I could, so I could start practicing with it and learning how to get the best out of it before we leave – I don’t want to be disappointed with my photos!