So, the Canon EOS 5D mark II is now out and official. It’s a freaking cool camera and I had to put it on pre-order immediately, meaning I’ll probably sell the old 40D and the Samsung video camera soon. Which I’m not looking forwards to – I hate selling used equipment, probably because I feel I have too much responsibility if the stuff breaks after the sale.

For those uninitiated in digital SLR photography, the big difference between 40D and 5D is the size of the imaging sensor. 40D uses a smaller APS-C film size sensor while 5D has a full 35mm film size sensor. This changes the behavior of lenses when changed between the bodies – the 40D captures a cropped image from the middle of the lens while 5D captures the whole picture.

This means that on 40D, the captured image shows up as if it was shot with a lens that has a focal length that’s 1.6 times longer than what the lens really is, meaning wide angle shots require very, very wide lenses to produce. This also means the smaller sensor utilizes the center of the lens which probably has less optical problems with the projection.

Hence, migrating to the full frame sensor camera means every piece of glass I have a home changes quite radically, probably to the point where I’ll need to respec the lens arsenal to some extent as well… Bloody hell this is going to be expensive in the long run! :D

Another interesting new Canon product is the Powershot G10 compact camera. I have the G9 and it’s a very good compact, to the extent that you can call digital point and shoot’s good cameras. G10 looks like a serious improvement over the G9, so I’m tempted to do a switch there, too. If you’re looking at getting a compact, I recommend checking that one.