It’s certainly interesting the 40D appears to deliver softer, more subdued images by default than the 5D, almost as if the full-frame model has been tweaked for a consumer market which prefers punchier output. Either way, while the 5D is resolving greater detail, it’s minimal in this example. The full-framer still has an advantage when it comes to noise though as we’ll see later in our EOS 40D noise results page. Before visiting this or our EOS 40D Studio Resolution pages though, scroll down to see how the 40D’s RAW output compares to the default JPEGs.

The crop from the RAW file is noticeably sharper than the JPEG using the default settings, and while there’s some undesirable artefacts as a result, the overall image is preferred. As you’ll see throughout these results and sample images pages, the EOS 40D’s JPEGs using the default settings can appear relatively subdued and soft compared to rival models. So unless you prefer this look, you may wish to increase the in-camera sharpening by a notch or better still, shoot in RAW instead. Then you’ll really see what the 40D’s capable of. Now let’s look at the EOS 40D’s resolution.