Canon 350D Vs 400D

[DB/GD]

Hi,

Just wanted everyones opinion really! I bought a Canon 350D about a month ago, i'm very happy with it but now am wondering whether the 400D is worth upgrading too or whether to use the extra £ for a decent lens? At the moment my zooms only 300mm so ideally would need a 500.

Really the only real advantage for me I see that the 400 has over the 350 is resolution and 9 AF points rather than 7. Would this be worth the upgrade with regards to taking good bird pics?

Im pretty new to DSLR's so any advice would be great!

Cheers

[greypoint]

8mp to 10mp is'nt a massive leap - anti dust, nice but not worth buying a new camera for - not sure about others but I tend to just set the centre focus point. All in all you might notice a bit of improvement using a 400D but you'd probably notice a lot more if you go for a new lens instead. ;)

[christineredgate]

The 350D is a great little cam,if it were me,I would spend the cash on a higher zoom lens.If you use the same lens on a 400d,you will only have the same focal length as with the 350D.But using a larger lens you will benefit from the extended range.

[Keith Reeder]

I agree - go for the lens.

[eastwood]

I bought my 350D a year ago and have fired over 30,000 shots. Then I bought the 400D recently. Both are great cameras, and as pointed out by everybody in this thread, the difference is not that big. If I just bought my 350D a month ago, I wouldn't border upgrading to the slightly better 400D. Go for a better lens! If you have the money to spend, wait for the upgrade 30D and see what Canon will put into it. According to the past experienc, Canon should upgrade it within 1 year.

[nigelblake]

Definitely better off investing in glass and waiting for Canons next upgrade where the resolution advantage will be more noticable.

3888 x 2592 pixels sensor size of 400D (12.96 X 8.64 inches at 300dpi ) as opposed to 350D's 3456 X 2304 pixels (11.52 X 7.68 inches at 300dpi) gives you just 1.5 x 1 inches of increased print size at optimum print resolution, but with current A4 or A3 standard paper sizes you really will not see the difference to any significant degree in the printed picture.

To try and put that in context, if you printed a 350D image at 270dpi the image size would be the same as a 400D image at 300dpi, the 30dpi difference is hardly perceptable to the human eye in most people at normal print viewing distances.

[DB/GD]

Hi,

Thankyou everyone for your comments! I'm definitely gonna go for the lens. The extra 2mp isn't really worth the upgrade, it's only 12.5% bigger at full resolution so I can always blow the images up in Photoshop by that amount if need be! Think it's better to wait and work out how to use the one i've got!

Thanks again, now to decide what lens to buy :h?:

[postcardcv]

Has anyone on here tried the 400D yet? I'm half tempted to one, but would like to read some reviews first...

[eastwood]

I have used this camera for about 2 weeks. Here are some of my personal experiece.
The daimond-shaped 9 point AF seems to have a better coverage than the cross-type 7 point used by the 350d. You can change from the centre point focus to 9-point by just one click. (instead of the 4 clicks in the 350D) so you can set it for tracking faster. Canon claimed that even in the AI focus mode, the camera can change to Servo if you track a moving object, but I haven't tried it out.
The camera setting display is large and easy to read, but then you have to press the button every time to see it. The 350D display, though much smaller, will show up once you activate the shutter. I find this much more handy.
I mainly print my photo with my HP3200, and nearly all 4X6, and occ. 8X10. So I have no idea what the 2 extra MP can do, but then greypoint and nigel has already mentioned that it is not a big leap.
The fps is identical in the two. Customer setting? I rarely use. Most of the time, I stick to the camera default.
I would also like to hear the experience of others so as to improve my knowledge on this new piece of equipment

[Gray_Wolf]

Yeah, I'd say going for the lens is a better choise too, though I don't have a camera yet... Also, someone told ME to go with the sigma lens, of whatever resolution you want.

My information may be TOTALY wrong, but then again my information may be totaly right.

Senceraly,
Brandon.

[chiltz]

I have just upgraded from the 300D to the 400D and yes you can see a difference - apart from what has already been listed the other thing I have found very usefull is the locking mirror when doing close up work. If I had just purchased the 350D I too would go for the "glass"
John

[UlfL]

Exchanging the 350D for the 400D would surely be a waste of money.

You can toggle between 1- and 7-autofocus points in the 350D just by pressing two buttons. Press the magnification-button on the upper right to activate the autofocus selection mode. Then pressing the SET-button will toggle the camera between center- and 7-autofocus mode. Very similar to how it works on the 30D (and others), and you do not have to take your eye from the viewfinder to do this.

Regards,
Ulf

[Quacker]

Exchanging the 350D for the 400D would surely be a waste of money.

You can toggle between 1- and 7-autofocus points in the 350D just by pressing two buttons. Press the magnification-button on the upper right to activate the autofocus selection mode. Then pressing the SET-button will toggle the camera between center- and 7-autofocus mode. Very similar to how it works on the 30D (and others), and you do not have to take your eye from the viewfinder to do this.

Regards,
Ulf

Very impressive Ulf :t:

Did you already know that, or reach for the manual? - if it's the first one, I'm even more impressed :cool:

[UlfL]

Did you already know that, or reach for the manual?
That's how it works on the 30D (except that you use the small joystick), I got that from reading the manual. Afterwards I discovered that it works also on 350D. Nice. :cool:

[macshark]

Go for the glass. 400D is nice, but not worth an upgrade for someone who bought a 350D not too long ago, especially if there are some specific lenses you need...

[lammy]

Hi,

Just wanted everyones opinion really! I bought a Canon 350D about a month ago, i'm very happy with it but now am wondering whether the 400D is worth upgrading too or whether to use the extra £ for a decent lens? At the moment my zooms only 300mm so ideally would need a 500.

Really the only real advantage for me I see that the 400 has over the 350 is resolution and 9 AF points rather than 7. Would this be worth the upgrade with regards to taking good bird pics?

Im pretty new to DSLR's so any advice would be great!

Cheers

I bought a 350D recently but my son uses it more than me and said he needed a bit more than just the 300 zoom, so i bought a x2 converter for around £100 and he gets great results with this.
Hope this helps

Regards Lammy Snr.

[Millhaven8]

I bought a 350D recently but my son uses it more than me and said he needed a bit more than just the 300 zoom, so i bought a x2 converter for around £100 and he gets great results with this.
Hope this helps

Regards Lammy Snr.
Hi Lammy

What was the lens and what was the Tele Con - make etc

I am in the same boat !

[eastwood]

By looking up these threads in the forum, I also learnt a lot. Now I know how to set the 7-point focus in one operation. This is the samre with the XTi. Thanks UFL, I am still holding the same opinion as UFL, though, :Exchanging the 350D for the 400D would be a waste of money, especially when the 350D is a newly bought one. While I got the 400D, I still use the 350D quite often, and the count is now actually approaching 40.000 frames.

[StuartR]

I have just upgraded from the 300D to the 400D and yes you can see a difference - apart from what has already been listed the other thing I have found very usefull is the locking mirror when doing close up work. If I had just purchased the 350D I too would go for the "glass"
John

I know this is an old thread but I only came across it today!

Actually, you can lock the mirror up on the 350D. It is not as simple as a manual switch, you have to do it in software, but it works fine. I haven't got the camera with me at the moment but I think it's special function 7, first press of the shutter button locks the mirror, the second releases the shutter. I also seem to recall that switching the camera off and then on again resets it faster than going back into the menu system.

[postcardcv]

I've been using a 350D for about 18 months and got a 400D a couple of weeks ago...

For me the biggest improvement of the 400D over the 350D is the larger buffer size. Since I started shooting RAW I've found that the bufffer on the 350D is too small and I was often left waiting for the camera. I also like the 9-point AF system, the diamond of points does seem more flexiable than the cross of the 350D.

One of the selling point of the 400D is the larke (2.5") LCD, while this is great for reviewing images I don't like the lack of a monochrome display for camera settings. I turn the LCD off as I find it distracting, checking camera settings is fine as shutter speed, aperture and exposure comp are all displayed in the view finder. However to checkn on things like battery life and how much room you've got on the CF card you need to turn on the LCD... I got caught out by this the other day, the camers suddenly stopped firing, took me a moment to realise that the card was full!

Overall I don't think there is much between the two cameras, I doubt it's worth the upgrade if you shoot jpg, but for RAW the 400D does win out.

[DB/GD]

I've been using a 350D for about 18 months and got a 400D a couple of weeks ago...

For me the biggest improvement of the 400D over the 350D is the larger buffer size. Since I started shooting RAW I've found that the bufffer on the 350D is too small and I was often left waiting for the camera. I also like the 9-point AF system, the diamond of points does seem more flexiable than the cross of the 350D.

One of the selling point of the 400D is the larke (2.5") LCD, while this is great for reviewing images I don't like the lack of a monochrome display for camera settings. I turn the LCD off as I find it distracting, checking camera settings is fine as shutter speed, aperture and exposure comp are all displayed in the view finder. However to checkn on things like battery life and how much room you've got on the CF card you need to turn on the LCD... I got caught out by this the other day, the camers suddenly stopped firing, took me a moment to realise that the card was full!

Overall I don't think there is much between the two cameras, I doubt it's worth the upgrade if you shoot jpg, but for RAW the 400D does win out.

I upgraded to the 400D in the end, my Dad wanted the 350 so I sold it him so didn't really have that much to put on top. Really pleased with it as of yet! Just want to go out and photograph more now!!

[mothman]

Here's another vote for the lens option! I personally only use the centre focus point,and 2 mp is not a great leap best to wait for the next update,(450d?) in a couple of years time it is bound to have 12mp or more.

[numenius]

Hi, sorry but I don't speak good English I am Italian. I love to make photo to the birds but I don't have a powerful camera to be able for photo to the distant birds also in flight. I have a Canon Powershot A85 that I would like to add with a crystal vue 8x. Do you recommend me this or and better that buy a Canon S2 14x and then to strengthen her with a telephoto lens 2x? Is very expensive?

Thanks
Gianni