My new toy...

Lovely...

I was torn between this and the 40D. Gareth had kindly lent me his 40D a few months back, and there's no denying it's a great machine. I found it to be large and heavy, especially compared to the somewhat diminutive 350D. I like the smallness of the 350D, and never found the oft-complained about small handgrip an issue (and I take an L size in marigolds!). The 450D is a little bigger, and the grip is definitely improved.

Also, the 40D has a few more features, more gradations of ISO and shutter speed, a greater shooting buffer and a more substantial alloy build quality. With RAW shooting, the fine tuning of ISO and shutter speed lessens in importance (at my level, at least) and I never use the "papparazzi" shooting mode anyway. As for build quality, the toughened plastic of the XXXD range seems fine for my needs (and I think a cover can be purchased for inclement conditions anyway). Although not a major consideration, the increased MP count and identical noise performance sealed the deal. Having on-board spot metering was a real plus over the 350D. The 450D has about 90% of the 40D's feature set too and is about £200 cheaper. I got £150 for the 350D and 2 spare batteries on part-ex, and Canon were doing a £50 cash-back too. Finally, I only needed the cheaper body-only kit, as I have all the lenses I need for now.

I had a brief excursion while in Norfolk on hols (with the 350D) and got some useable shots which I'll put on here soon. Also, went out Monday evening and shot down by the river Cam with the 450D. Not v exciting, but some possibles.

Cheers
Ivan