Excellent entry-level digital SLR (Nikon D40)

Member Name: thereddragon

Product:	Nikon D40
Date:	15/04/09 (350 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great quality and value for money, feature - rich, the good old dependable Nikon name

Disadvantages: None really, unless you need more megapixels and more features for pro use

I bought this gorgeous digital SLR (single-lens reflex) camera just over a year ago and am head over heels in love with it. Although only the entry level D range Nikon at 6.1 megapixels, it is an absolutely brilliant piece of kit (as you would expect from Nikon) for the money and produces impressively high quality photos.

I've been an avid photographer for many years, and my trusty ancient Minolta SRT-101 SLR served me extremely well for more than two decades until I decided to try digital. At first I bought a Nikon Coolpix a few years ago, as prices for digital cameras were a lot higher then and that was as much as I could afford, and alternated between the Coolpix and the SRT depending on whether I wanted just snapshots or something that needed setting up in a more creative way.

But having had the opportunity last year to purchase the D40 at a reduced price due to some vouchers I had, I decided to take the plunge. And my elation at taking this camera home and starting to use it, was overwhelming (still is). The Minolta has now been retired to the bedroom closet, probably only to be taken out and dusted off from time to time to admire as a beautiful old museum piece.

The D40 is a gorgeous camera to use. It feels wonderful in the hand, being of a light weight for an SLR and feels very ergonomic. It just so very much feels, and looks, like quality. The LCD screen is a good generous size with a clear display, and it comes with an AF lens with variable zoom, giving you a range of from 18 to 55mm, which is very handy for general use. It also incorporates a pop-up flash unit that functions very well.

After so many years of setting things up manually with non-digital SLRs, I find it very useful that you can also use the D40 in Manual mode and get whatever non-standard effect you want to achieve, such as long-exposure shots or a deliberately over-exposed or under-exposed effect.

But for quick shots, it's great to have the automatic settings ('Point-and-Shoot Mode'), as these can save you from losing a great spur-of-the-moment photo opportunity that you might otherwise miss if you had to stop and fiddle around with manual settings. These modes consist of Auto, Auto (flash off), Portrait, Landscape, Child, Sports, Close Up, and Night Portrait. You can also achieve instant focus, which is usually pretty accurate, using Focus Lock which consists of pressing the shutter button halfway down until you hear a beep. As my eyes are not what they used to be, I find this feature of digital cameras extremely useful!

As well as the Manual and Auto modes described above, the camera also offers Programmed Auto which sets shutter speed and aperture for optimal exposure, Shutter Priority Auto in which you choose the shutter speed and the camera chooses the aperture (good for freeze or blur motion), and Aperture Priority in which the camera selects the shutter speed and you choose the aperture (for blurring the background or attempting to bring both the background and foreground into focus).

A variety of lenses can be used with this camera, in particular Nikkor (Nikon's own lens brand) lenses in its AF-S and AF-I ranges for autofocus work. Manual lenses without the autofocus facility can be used, but you will of course have to set them manually as the camera's autofocus feature won't work with them. In probably one of the most unconventional uses of an additional lens for this camera, I am using my antique Minolta's 35mm Rokkor lens with a reversing ring, as a Macro lens. It works pretty well and the price of a reversing ring was a lot more affordable than a new Macro lens! (And at least a part of my beloved old Minolta lives on!)

You can also use all the standard lens filters as you would use on any SLR. A polarising filter was my first filter purchase on buying this camera, as I've always loved the effect they give, and it works beautifully on the D40. You can add an external flash unit (Nikon Speedlight) if needed, and a remote control to take self-portraits or to eliminate camera shake.

The D40 takes SD cards and can cope with the larger capacity type up to 4GB, which is the size I use in mine to give me loads of capacity at high resolution. As well as downloading photos to a computer for printing, the camera can also print direct to a Pictbridge enabled printer via a USB cable, and can even be connected to a TV or VCR for displaying or recording your photos via an EG-D100 cable. Nifty!

Rather than just copy and paste a big list of specs, you can read the whole list of specs here right on the manufacturer's own site: http://nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Nikon/Product/Digita l-SLR/25420/D40.html. Enjoy.

Highly recommended entry-level DSLR from one of the world's best cameras makers, great as a first DSLR for traditional SLR users.

Also on Ciao.com as EsmeraldaDragon and ciao.co.uk as thereddragon.

Summary: Highly recommended as a quality first DSLR

Processing/Quality:
Reliability:
Ease of use:
Features:
Picture quality: