hi alan   im not sure if there was something wrong with my 30d but i can recomend the 40d at the price it is at mo cos of the 50d now out,  with glasses i love the big screen and didnt think id use the live view but have used it loads for night shots and x10 is great for manual focus when you cant make out focus in dim light,     images seem to have greater colour depth  14 bit i suppose   i bought it to take to australia on month trip and it was well worth the extra upgrade     i had lots of fantastic pics off my 30d but hated its focus problem sometimes could be front or back and with autofocus highlight bang over area in camera it would still be out of focus  still happier now but not as happy as if i had a 1d mk 111  still maybe one day  and buy the later one eh and not the one with the autofocus issues , sounds familiar i could go round in a circle here if i got it wrong

regards steve