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I'm buying my first DSLR at the moment and I have a choice between a Canon 40D that a friend needs to sell and is offering it at the same price as a new Canon 1000D with the basic 18-55mm Canon lens.

Knowing nothing about DSLRs (yet), I really don't know which I should go for - I know that the 40D is a better grade of camera, but it's a few years out of date.

I need to go with a Canon specifically because all of my friends use Canons and can share lenses with me.

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    \$\begingroup\$ I agree with Che, go the 40D route if the camera is in good condition and well treated, don't let the age of the camera fool you into thinking it's out of date. It it more than capable of taking high quality images. \$\endgroup\$
    – Joanne C
    Commented Jul 31, 2010 at 13:14
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    \$\begingroup\$ FWIW, that's a good reason for choosing Canon gear. \$\endgroup\$
    – Reid
    Commented Jul 31, 2010 at 18:46

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Canon 1000D is quite low-end model: everything is plastic, you don't have normal display so you need to set up metering on the main LCD, and you have only one dial. 40D has all of this, so using it will be much more comfortable, and you'll be able to set camera faster, if that matters to you. It's also significantly faster in terms of continuous shooting speed, which is useful for sports, kids or basically anything that moves quickly.

My recommendation would be to go for 40D if it's in good state and if you intend to play with the camera more. If you want just usual vacation pictures or size/weight is important to you, you might prefer smaller and lighter 1000D. (Which, of course, can also be used for "serious" photoshoots, it's just not that fast to get to everyting.)

From technical point of view, they both have similar sensors, so it's really mostly between better+bigger vs. small+plastic. Comparison with some comments can be seen at Snapsort.

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    \$\begingroup\$ +1 -- in addition, the 40D will be a bit more resistant to odd bumps and scraps, but it is important to always check the condition of second hand equipment - not everyone treats their camera as if it were their first born... \$\endgroup\$
    – Rowland Shaw
    Commented Jul 31, 2010 at 14:11
  • \$\begingroup\$ Yea, the 40D is a great camera, the jump from 30D to 40D is much larger than from 20D-30D or 40D to 50D w/regards to image quality (ISO etc) so its a good pick for price/value. \$\endgroup\$
    – Shizam
    Commented Oct 29, 2010 at 20:27

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