Canon EOS 40D DSLR with 17-85mm lens

I have had this camera for about 2 months now. I bought it to be able to take lower light level shots with less graininess than my previous Canon G3. I also wanted better optics and resolution. I was a bit disappointed with the low level light performance. It is certainly less grainy but the shutter speed is to slow for most of my purposes. However, I may have been expecting too much. The larger sensor certainly gives better overall noise performance.
The optics gives me better depth of field which is one of the things I was after. The zoom give me enough close up for most of my shots but sometimes I use a 75-300mm telephoto that I bought separately when I run out of gas. For wide angle shots the 17-85mm is handy although it distorts a bit at the low end. I think (and I'm no expert) this is a function of the physics involved with such a wide angle (fish eye effect).
The flash is a big step up from the G3. This camera doesn't "wash out" the color by over exposing. Almost none of my shots suffer from this which was a problem with the old G3.
I use the high compression and have typical file sizes of 1.5 to 2 meg. When blowing up you really don't notice the difference between the less compressed higher quality images. I only use the higher quality mode for shots I know I want the most out of.
Bottom line I really like this camera and would highly recommend it. I use a 4 gig sandisk extreme III memory card.
I would like to say I wish the DSLR community would stop being snobby and push a video mode. There is no excuse now that they have the live view feature. I can't tell you how many times I was shooting stills and my kids did something that needed to be videoed then and there because running to grab the real video would mean loosing the moment altogether. So hopefully there will eventually be that feature. It is the only thing really missing from this camera that would prompt me to buy another. Well that and unbelievable low light level performance.

I love this camera. I've been dedicated to Canon and they've never let me down. This is no exception. I do with that it had better low-light functionality and maybe even went to 6400 (3200 is alright though) but for the price point you can't go wrong. My biggest critique - the 50D came out a week after I purchased this camera.

I have had this camera and lens for 9 months. Beautiful photos. Love the "live view" for setting up to take photos with a tripod. Large sensor means excellent low-light capability. Fast start-up time. Extremely fast focusing. Love the ability to take 6 photos per second! Manual controls are wonderful and easy to use. Beautiful display. The EFS 17-85 lens is great (remember to multiply by 1.6 for comparable 35mm focal lengths). Am also using a SanDisk Extreme III CF card. This is a fast card.