Nikon D40 Camera


I had wanted a new camera for a while; a 'big black camera' as I had always called them as, although I am certainly no professional, I do like taking photos. I did not have the money spare at the time and so felt extremely lucky to be given this camera from my mother-in-law as she had recently updated hers. The camera had been used for a couple of years, though very rarely as my mother-in-law did not like the bulkiness of the camera compared to her smaller one so was as good as new when we received it.

I have seen this camera online from between the prices of £250 to £400 which is very pricey, considering it is a few years old now, though make up your own mind whether it is worth it when reading the review to follow!

The camera, even though my mother-in-law complained of the bulky stature, is actually quite a reasonable size and much smaller than others of this age and size. It has an attractive look to it in black with silver buttons/logos and is quite comfortable to hold. The trigger button sits on the right side top and is easy to press when holding the camera. The main options are on a dial on the top though there are some smaller buttons alongside the menu options on the back of the camera either side of the screen. The flip-up flash is on the centre on topwith a button to the side to lift it up.

As mentioned, I am no professional when it comes to camera or photos so I will do my best to write this review though please do not expect too much in-depth professional details as that is far too advanced for my understanding - I am sure that there are many of you out there who feel the same!

The camera is a digital SLR camera with a 6.1megapixel resolution. It has six shooting options which include portrait, landscape, close-up, night portrait, children and sports, as well as a number of effects such as sepia, black and white, cyanotype, warm and skylight filters. It has a 2.5 frame per second continuous shooting speed with the shutter speed ranging from 30 secs to 1/4000 secs.

The pictures this camera takes, in my opinion, is absolutely fantastic. The zoom is 3x with a manual zoom adjustment. I have had a few problems taking great close up shots which is a shame as I love taking really great close-up photos of such things as bees on flowers, though my smaller, less expensive camera can take these much better. The zoom itself is not overly strong, though we were also given an additional zoom lens which clips on to the front of the camera really easily and is both safe and secure and enables the zoom to capture much clearer, more long distant images which is what I prefer, though even with this additional zoom, I still find close up shots not as good a quality as I feel they should be. Other shots are near to perfect, at least for an amateur such as myself. The colour is so crisp and clear with the colours simply flying from the photos. I did not realize how drab the photos taken on my old camera were until I started using this camera, and it is like the photos come alive!

As mentioned, the flash is a pop-up style flash which is always needed inside unless the sun is really shining through the windows! This can be rather annoying, though I have found that the flash does not wear the battery down too fast at all, unlike other camera's I have used in the past. This could also be to do with the fact that, although there is a screen on the back of the camera, you do not actually use this to view what you are about to take. You use this to look at photos afterwards and look through menu options, though to take an actual photo, you have to use the viewfinder. This took me some time to get used to as I was used to looking at the screen when taking a photo, though I have realized afterwards that this can only be a good thing. You get a clearer perception of the photo you are taking, and the batteries last an awful lot longer! The display is an LCD 2.5'' display.

There is a self timer feature with this camera which has a 2-20 second delay and works brilliantly. There is a small hole on the bottom of the camera in order to screw a tripod on to the camera to keep it in place which is certainly a bonus when using the self-timer feature.

The battery does not take long to charge and uses an external charger.

The camera takes the following cards:
MultiMediaCard, SD Memory Card, SDHC Memory Card


Overall, I really love this camera. Luckily for us, we were donated it, though to buy this is is rather expensive according to prices found online. It is a great camera and well worth the money in the long run, though do consider certain points before purchasing such as the screen not usable for taking photos. I have not gone into huge amount of detail about this camera, because really I do not know enough about all the technical details, though I think I have given you a good understanding of what the camera is like in basic terms.

Would I recommend this camera?

Yes, most certainly, though I would suggest looking around for a cheaper price as the top price is still way too much in my opinion.