a quick "aps-c size" sensor question...

hi,
i'm looking to get a canon 40d in a month or so and i'm wondering about the sensor crop issue. i know that the aps-c sensors crop the image and give lenses the 1.6x magnification (or 1.5x). but i was wondering, is what you see through the viewfinder when you're composing a picture what you'll see in the final saved image? or is the live image that you're seeing in the viewfinder what the image looks like before the cropping takes place, and the image is cropped somewhere between me seeing it in the viewfinder and the picture being saved to the card.

i don't know if i worded this right. it sounds kinda confusing when i read it back.

the question is pretty much: with the canon 40d, is what i see in the viewfinder the same as what the picture will look like when its on a computer screen (crop-wise, not quality or colour). or will the picture that i see on my computer screen look like a cropped version of what i was seeing in my viewfinder?

hopefully this makes sense.

on another note, has anyone had any issues with the "err99" problem or whatever it is with the canon 40d? plus another issue where the frame-rate drops to 1 FPS for no reason. i've recently heard i bit about it online.

thanks in advance for anyone that can help.

Welcome to the Forum. To answer your original question, what you see in the viewfinder, is pretty much what your final image is going to be. I don't know if any of the DSLR's on the market have a 100% viewfinder. Most are slightly less. The 40D's viewfinder shows 95% of what the sensor will capture.

I have been using the 40D for a little less than a year, and have never had the "err99" problem. I have noticed the frame rate drop a couple of times, but didn't think much about it. It wasn't a big deal for me.

When we were shooting slide film WYSIWYG was very important and Nikon prided itself in giving the photgrapher a 100% viefinder. With the ease of post processing with digital not nearly so much. My rule of thump has been with digital to shoot a little less tight because I do have so many cropping options now.

i see. thanks for the info. i figured that what you see would be what you get (aside from the 95% viewfinder image), but i figured i'd double check. thanks again.