Canon 40D Samples

First published on: Monday, 6 April 2009

This page is a collection of photo samples taken with the Canon EOS 40D digital SLR camera, plus related image galleries, user pictures and other examples that I’ve come across in forums, online communities, blogs and related websites.

This should help in determining if the image quality of the 40D meets your expectations.

Bear in mind that the majority of these photos are re-sized, and may have gone through post-processing, retouching or other edits. I just thought that it would be interesting to see, at a glance, what Canon 40D owners and users are shooting with their camera.

Full-sized images, where available, will assist with judging the image quality.

Attribution is given by linking to the source and where available, the author’s homepage or photo gallery.

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Kurt’s Big Beautiful Jumping Spider series was shot with the 40D (camera information is available when you click on the images, which will take you to the relevant Flickr page), Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5X Macro Lens and Canon MT-24EX Macro Twin Lite Flash.

Great Blue Heron capturing a fish

Nice action sequence in this one, photographed with a Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens mounted on the EOS 40D.

The full gallery is on FrozenShutter.com.

Gary Jacobson, the photographer, notes that compared to the Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM, the Canon 100-400 lens is more ideal for handholding, and better suited to those who require zoom fleibility.

Flower macros

In a forum post on DPReview, Jeremy shared 10 close-ups of flowers.

An EF-S 60mm f/2.8 USM macro lens was mounted on the 40D to shoot the images.

You’ll get a good idea of the kind of background bokeh and degree of subject isolation you can expect with this lens.

Birds from the San Francisco Bay Area by macshark with a 400/5.6L

Macshark used the Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L IS USM for this series of bird photos.

The following birds were featured in the post:


  1. Greater Yellowlegs.

  2. Willte.

  3. Eared Grebe (Black-necked Grebe).

  4. Snowy Egret.

  5. American Avocet.

  6. Hooded Merganser.

  7. Bushtit.

  8. Lesser Goldfinch.

  9. Song Sparrow.

  10. Black-crowned Night Heron.

See more images at Macshark’s bird photo gallery.

Red-tailed hawk portraits by SouthernComfort with a 100-300/4.5-5.6

SouthernComfort mounted a Canon EF 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM Telephoto Zoom on the 40D for this series of bird photos.

SouthernComfort called the lens “cheapo” in the post, but I think the results he obtained are outstanding, in terms of bokeh (creamy-snooth) and sharpness (have a look at the 100% crop).

Sandhill Cranes by MtnTrekker with a 100-400/4.5-5.6L

MtnTrekker used the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Telephoto Zoom lens for this image series on Sandhill Cranes.

Miscellaneous bird pictures by Rodrigo Mendoza with a 100-400/4.5-5.6L

Rodrigo Mendoza used the 100-400 f4.5-5.6L IS USM for this image series, taken at or near the beach on the West Coast of South Florida.

The following birds were featured in the post:


  1. Grey Plover (known as Black-bellied Plover in North America).

  2. Snowy Egret.

  3. Tricolored Heron.

  4. Least Sandpiper.

  5. Brown Pelican.

Visit Rodrigo’s nature photos gallery for updates.

Fun photo of ducks splashing around in the water

Jeff Lynch took this image with a Canon EF 300mm f/4L IS USM Telephoto Lens mounted on the 40D.

A 1.4x teleconverter was used to extend the lens’ range.

Fantastic set of EF 100-400 photos by Borderrose

This series of photos by Jim aka Borderrose are some of the best bird and animal photos I’ve seen shot with the EF 10-400mm lens.

The last two photos were taken with the Canon 40D.

Reach was enhanced using a Canon EF 1.4X II Extender teleconverter.

Featured in the post are:


  1. Yellow Rumped Warbler (and the reason for its name).

  2. Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

  3. Red-shouldered Hawk.

  4. Raccoon.

  5. Roseate Spoonbill.

Baseball action

Lens used for these images was the Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L USM.

40D ISO1600 Test

This is the most convincing set of ISO 1600 test photos from the Canon 40D as far as high ISO image quality is concerned.

Chosen subjects are excellent too.

40D at a dog event

Stephen shares seven 40D photos taken at the “Paws in the Park” event in Sydney, Australia. Lens used was the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS USM.

Stephen used only minimal post processing of these ISO 800 images in DPP (Canon’s Digital Photo Professional software).

He also switched off the 40D’s autofocus — he pre-focused at the jump point and took advantage of the 6.5 fps (frames per second) continuous shooting mode on the 40D to get the pictures.

He considers the Canon 40D to be a worthy upgrade from his EOS 400D / Digital Rebel XTi which had some exposure and color issues.

The EF 100-400 also balances much better on the 40D.

With the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS lens

Clint Thayer posted a variety of photos taken using the 40D plus Canon 17-55 lens — really nice color and sharpness in these.

40D “1st Shot” at dc.watch.impress.co.jp

You can find many 40D outdoor images at this Japanese language site.

Most of the sample images are taken with the Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM lens at 17mm focal length.

The photos are clearly labeled in English, so it doesn’t really matter too much if you can’t read Japanese.

They have done an ISO series test too, take this ISO 3200 night shot for instance.

Watch this Canon 40D video to get a better idea of how a 40D plus 17-85mm IS lens would fit in your hand.

DPReview’s sample photos taken with a pre-production 40D

Phil Askey is careful about warning us that these sample photos are shot with a pre-production 40D, but that doesn’t detract from the excellent quality present in this this series of photos.

A variety of lenses were used, but most would probably be very interested in photos taken with Canon’s newest lens, the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM, such as this one, which was shot at ISO 1600.

There’s also an amazing ISO 3200 shot taken with a Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens.

On Canon.com

Here’s the official product page and the 40D Press Release, dated 20th August, 2007.

Downloadable images of the camera are also provided, and are available in High and Low Resolution formats.

This photo allows a peek at the new EF 28-135mm IS USM lens, while the photo of the back of the camera shows the location of the new AF-On button (first introduced in the 1D Mark III) very clearly (yup — the 3-inch LCD screen looks gorgeous).

Get the official image samples from web.canon.jp. Images were shot in RAW and then converted to JPG / JPEG.

Lenses used for the images:

  1. Portrait — EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM.
  2. Wedding — EF 50mm f/1.2L USM
  3. Dirt Rally — EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM. This image, despite being underexposed and shot at ISO 800, exhibits excellent low noise characteristics (free of chroma or patterned noise), even when compared with the 20D / 30D. Even when the levels / curves for the image is pushed in postprocessing, the increase in noise is hardly noticeable. Although not directly comparable, Romy has posted a screenshot of an ISO 800 image from his Canon 20D being processed in RAW Image Task, with a link to the JPEG output. Look closely at the JPG and you’ll notice the presence of chroma noise in the green background, which is absent in the 40D photo.
  4. Landscape — EF17-40mm f/4L USM.

Pre-production samples at Fotopolis.pl

Take these for what they’re worth, because the photos were snapped with a Canon EF 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 II USM lens mounted on a pre-production model of the EOS 40D.

Tons of full-sized images can be found there, and you might like to read this related discussion on them.

Of interest to me are the night and high ISO shots — ISO 1600 and ISO 3200 — in a word — excellent!

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