I have found that recovering shadow data in 40D images is now more doable and yields more usable results than with prior 1.6x bodies (I moved up from 20D).
It makes sense, I suppose... There's more accuracy in the raw data, so pushing the curves aggressively to bring out shadow data is less likely to show quantization artifacts (e.g., posterization or "blocking up"). Additionally, my 40D at least exhibits far less pattern (banding) noise in deep deep shadows than did my 20D. This makes both more shadow recovery possible and higher ISOs more useful.
Here is an example. I've included both the embedded JPEG as generated in-camera and extracted from the raw file without any exposure corrections, and the processed raw file with shadows aggressively recovered. As you can see, shadow detail is holding up nicely.
Of course, aggressively lightening shadows will bring out grainy noise as well and so there's no free lunch, but being able to recover shadow detail well is one small point against working too awfully hard to "expose to the right".
-Noel
Linear Mode
