PLEASE HELP - CANON 40D PHOTOS NOT GOOD NIKON D60 BETTER?

Rico, from my experience, a photography "system" will always produce the best results. By that I mean, a Canon body with a Canon lens will produce superior results to a Canon body with a 3d party lens. In the film days, mixing and matching lenses, bodies, film etc was fine. But with the advancing technologies, you will lose functionality and/or IQ by using third party lenses IMO.

A more practical suggestion is to calibrate the WB for the two bodies and then compare results. Canon tends to AWB at the "reddish" end of normal, while Nikon is more neutral. That only accounts for colors though, not blur.

I think you are worrying about a lot for nothing. Your focus test looks fine and reasonably sharp at the plane of focus as does the shot of the sweets. I see no issues with your lens performance.

Nikon has a well regarded flash system implementation and nuances of color rendition are more of a question of "taste" than of one being perfectly correct and the other being wrong.

The 40D is a much more capable camera in terms of "shooting performance" when compared to the D60. Your 17-50mm f/2.8 lens has a HUGE advantage in it being a constant aperture f/2.8 lens. If you don't yet recognize how valuable that is compared to the kit lens, you will eventually. I would take in-hand camera shooting performance and a faster aperture lens over your friends D60 and kit lens, any day. And that's not because of a Nikon vs. Canon issue either.

My recommendations...

1. Don't worry about these little differences from a single shot that you are seeing. Your camera is very capable and your lens is sharp enough to accomplish any photographic goal you might have.

2. Learn to take control of what your camera is doing, and of what happens with your photos after you take them. You are on the right track with taking a class.
- Shoot RAW, get a good RAW converter (Lightroom).
- Learn Photoshop (elements or otherwise), especially control of color, contrast, sharpness and tone. Color differences go away in the digital realm. You can make the Nikon photo look like the Canon or vise versa.
- Learn to control the balance of ambient light with the amount of flash, and how they interrelate in the Canon camera world. I think that may be part of what you are seeing in the differences between the Nikon and Canon shot, both for color rendition and sharpness. Read this article to help get started... http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/
- Worry less about things like sharpness or other peoples cameras. These things only matter to us photographers and only make a small difference in photos. Non-photographers will appreciate your photos only for the photos themselves, and generally not for how "sharp" they are or aren't or what camera they are taken with.

Anyhow, you made good choices in what you bought, and I don't think you have a lemon. Use it, and stop worrying!

If you're going to shoot in full auto mode and you find the D60 is giving you better results, then I think the obvious answer is to exchange the 40D for a D60 and be happy.

Canon's default white balance under tungsten lighting is very warm. All the EOS bodies are the same ans are set in "tungsten" mode for tungsten photofloods (3200K), not domestic lighting (closer to 2600K).

First problem: your 40D was not in full auto mode on the portrait. The EXIF data in the image shows that it was in aperture priority mode. When using flash in Av mode the camera sets the shutter speed for ambient light. Your shutter speed was only 1/20th of a second yet your focal length was 50mm (80mm equivalent). You needed a shutter speed of at least 1/90th of a second to eliminate sharpness robbing hand shake.

The sweets shot had a better (but not ideal) shutter speed of 1/60th, but an aperture of only f/4 versus the D60's f/5.6. Any close up/macro shot benefits from a smaller aperture with more DoF. Having said that, if I zoom into in focus sections of the two sweets shots, I see more detail/better sharpness from the Canon. It's slight but unmistakable, and probably has nothing to do with the bodies and everything to do with the lenses or some other factor such as hand shake.

Second problem: the 40D portrait image was recorded in the AdobeRGB color space while the D60 was recorded in sRGB. Unless you know what you're doing and have properly calibrated your computer and printer for an AdobeRGB workflow, use sRGB. Simply discarding the AdobeRGB profile from the Canon portrait JPEG results in a more neutral shot, though this is secondary to the real cause of the color balance differences in both the portrait and sweets shots (see below).

Third problem: the D60 image is actually too blue. But the key difference in the color balance between the two cameras, on both the portrait and sweets shots, goes back to the exposure. The D60 shots, with a faster shutter speed and an ISO of 200, were primarily illuminated with flash light which is colder. The 40D shots had slow shutter speeds and an ISO of 400 which means ambient light, which was warm here, played a much larger role in the Canon shots. Shot with higher shutter speeds and lower ISOs the Canon images would have been colder just like the D60 shots.

Fourth problem: the Canon portrait shot was made closer to the subject which means less DoF, and it looks like the focus may have been off. It's hard to tell for sure in light of the slow shutter speed and hand shake. If there was a focusing error it's impossible to tell whether it was user or camera error without knowing AF mode, selected AF point, and user technique. But at this point I wouldn't bet against the camera (no offense). Having said this, the errors did not completely destroy the image detail, which is partially recoverable using unsharp masking.

Fifth problem: the D60 shots are actually underexposed, but it's hard to tell if that's the camera's fault or a limitation of the built in flash given the ISO setting and the scene to be illuminated.

You don't need to replace or service your 40D, you don't need a Canon lens, and you certainly don't need to trade brands. With due respect, learn to use the camera and you will get fantastic results.

Just exchange the Canon 40D for the Nikon D60 if you only shoot in auto mode. Colors on auto mode are vary from one manufacturer to another, just like TVs they're all different in default setting. You can adjust the 40D to look like the D60, and vice versa.

Thanks to all who have replied thus far, particularly Sheldon and Daniel Lee who have provided some very detailed and informative feedback - thank you, an no offense taken at all. I know I have a lot to learn, thus I value your feedback and my interest in taking courses.

Please keep in mind that my goal is *not* to simply shoot in Auto Mode. I intend to take various photography classes which may lead to my getting into semi-professional work if I feel I have some talent. The reason I mentioned Auto Mode is because my family members only know how to use that mode on their Nikon D60. For curiousity sake (because I just got my Canon 40D) I thought I would take a photo in auto mode with their camera and compare it to the 40D in auto mode.

To me, the images looked better from the Nikon. A family member commented on the 'red hair' of my subject in the Canon shot and jokingly commented that they would 'fire me' from a paid job based on that photo. The Nikon did show the true 'salt & pepper' hair of the subject.

Daniel Lee commented that I was not in full auto mode on the 40D but I could have sworn I was. I can't see where in the EXIF info it indicates I was in AV mode. But in any event, the image I did take in full auto on the 40D looked the same as what I have posted on the webpage I mentioned.

Thanks again.

After a couple of years of messing around with many body/lens combos I have finally stopped at the 40D. I also have the Tamron 17-50 along with Canon 70-200 F4L and 400 F5.6L. The 40D/Tamron combination have produced some of the finest photographs I've ever taken, partly because of all the learning I've done along the way, and partly because of the quality of the equipment. The one thing I have found out with 100% certainty in my photographic journey is that most of the errors you make are not the equipments fault, it is probably human related. Stick with your excellent combination of equipment and learn with it. Also, don't focus so much on what is written around the internet. I've experienced no focusing problems whatsoever with the Canon, and the Tamron is also right on the money. You can make yourself nuts with other peoples opinions. Once you get more experience you will really appreciate your excellent equipment.....good luck, Rich

Daniel: Most impressive post!

It is more than obvious that you have buyer's remorse and don't understand yet how to get the best out of your camera and you are nervous because some casual observers think the D60 produces better results. All the camera manufacturers use their own profile to interpret the RAW data the sensor produces. It is very well known that Nikon is much more aggressive with their JPEG renditions than Canon. The 40D Canon JPEG shots will look very different than the D60s for that exact reason. YOu can and should adjust the variables (like contrast, sharpness, picture style, etc.) if you inted to shoot JPEG.
Or, the obvious answer is to switch to Nikon and be done with it.
BTW, most serious photographers shoot in RAW mode and interpret their own version of a photograph - total freedom, no worry about WB, sharpness, etc. etc.
You have much to learn, you should do some serious reading to understand all these facts - a good starting point is this forum, but you should also pick up some books on exposure.