Well, I switched cameras and this one is also leaning towards Canon as I've grabbed their newest, greatest, most spectacular pro-sumer camera and have pitted it against the venerable K10D.

Here is the Setup:

1 Canon EOS 40D, fresh as of August 31st with 10 actuations on it. The lens... probably the greatest lens Canon has to offer; the 70-200mm 2.8 IS USM L.

versues

1 Pentax K10D, with 47000+ actuations, purchased on February 9th. The lens... probably the best Pentax lens since the FA* series; the DA* 50-135mm 2.8 SDM.

Two weather sealed bodies, one with a solid magnesium body, the other born from granite itself. 6.5 FPS vs. 3 FPS, 3 inch LCD vs 2.5 inch LCD, CMOS vs CCD, etc.

Current feelings of the Canon 40D:

Body: Much better build than any of the previous in the same class (10D, 20D, 30D). The ergonomics are actually improved to the point of actually feeling like a K10D and is shaped very much like the Pentax. The weather seal gaskets on the other hand are not rubber but actually some sort of foam, kind of like the stuff found where the mirror stops inside the body. IMO, this seems very cheap and almost a joke compared to the K10D and also taking into consideration that the battery door looks like a leak waiting to happen on the 40D so I will not take this camera out if it looks like rain.

Button Layout: Actually pretty much the same to the 30D with ISO/DRIVE/WB all in the same spot, but the top LCD displays pretty much every detail you could ever ask for, which the 30D lacked and again feels like my K10D. The rear buttons are placed under the LCD because the 3in screen is too massive, but very pretty so the trade-off if justified. The On/Off switch has always been a gripe of mine. I HATE the stupid lever in the middle of the back of the camera!!!! Friggin put it next to the shutter or somewhere near a finger that you can turn it on quickly for goodness sakes!

Viewfinder is exactly like the K10D, big, bright, and easy to read.

Menu system is again the same as the the all the other Canon DSLRs and takes about 20 minutes to get used to after beig a Pentax man for so long.

Live view... ugh, this is the most pointless live view I've ever seen! Ok, so you focus, press set, take your face off the eye piece, wait it takes a second or two, ok the image is there, I compose then hit the shutter. If the focus is off I'll have to manually alter that, but wait if this take more than 30 seconds the sensor heats up and the image begins to turn white! CRAP! CANON DO NOT CALL THIS LIVE VIEW, ITS CALLED GARBAGE! Not a live view for fast moving action or shallow DOF let me tell you...

Other than that it's actually a nice camera and it's as impressive as a K10D thanks to the clone-like build with the exception of the awful looking foam gaskets vs. rubber on the K10D.

I've shot about 100 comparison shots so far and the camera handles much better than expected and compared to the Canon 5D it's a dream to shoot with.

The version III shake reduction in the 70-200mm is excellent and has kept up with the K10D in every test I could run it through since I've had it. Unlike the 100-400 you can hand hold this lens to the very extremes that the K10D allows which makes this test much more fair than the 5D test I ran last time, which I concluded I would not purchase the 5D if I made a switch.

Well the only thing left is to show you guys some comparison shots, but I'm going to hold off till tomorrow evening to post anything because I want to really grill these cameras and give you guys something that no other site will take the time to do.

Please stay tuned and if you come up with any good tests to try or situations I'll try and make it happen, but I wont make any promises.

[little laker]

I'm looking forward to seeing the tests Chris

[roentarre]

Chris, this is a much better review of canon 40D than what I read elsewhere. When 40D was released, I was so tempted to get a copy til what I read later on. Instead, I was struggling to get a 1d Mark III - the machine gun. Problem is the whatever DIGIC II or DIGIC III sensors used in these bodies give washed out colour with plain little texture details. So I hold it off for the time being.

I had seen a lot of 40D testing images and frankly speaking, shots taken by duds did not prove much. Plenty of back focused images or plain boring objects. Your test shots would provide a better and neutral comparison.

Looking forward to it

[vinzer]

Chris, I'm always interested in whatever it is you come up with, be it masterful artwork or great real-world comparisons such as this. Looking forward to see what you come up with.

[j-pol]

any updates?

[GatorPentax]

Yeah what happened...you got my palms all sweaty reading the OP and now nothing!! tease....

[codiac2600]

I do have images and I'll get them when I get back to the house, but I had to change lenses as the 40D I recieved was defective (Battery would charge but camera died like 15 pictures in to the shoot) so I checked another system out that worked, but it was with the 17-40L f4 vs. the 16-50 f2.8 DA* from Pentax. Thanks fo rreminding me about this, just got buried under everything.