After working with an SLR, Olympus O10, for a number of years I decided to try my hand at digital photography. After a lot of research and weighing up the pro's and con's, prices and features I finally decided that, at 10.2MP, the Nikon D40x was a very good comprimise.
As a DSLR, it obviously has no live view and gives the user full control over the settings including apperture, shutter speed, focus, white balance etc.
I have found the biggest downfall with this camera is the confusion on how to adjust the shutterspeed and apperture in Manual mode; as it turned out you had to set the apperture in A mode then the shutterspeed in Manual which is a little fiddly and counter intuitive.

On a positive note, it produces easy high quality photos on the Auto, A and S modes with little fiddling and allows for a small amount of creativity. Manual mode gives full control and is best for when taking photos in darker settings and with tripods (No tripod + playing with the shutterspeed = very blurry photos, even on the best cameras!) The camera body does not have image stabilisation, but the majority of Nikon lenses you can buy do. The shutter release button is very easy to press, both for focusing and shooting, which does reduce potential camera shake slightly.

The body is reasonably light and easy to carry in a designed carry case, (definitely necessary if you want to protect your investment!) but when attaching a decent lense such as a 18-200mm it can become slightly cumbersome. This is the case with most DSLRs however, and actually is preferred by most avid photographers over light, 'toy like' bodys.

Battery life is fantastic as with all Li-ion rechargeables, easy to carry 2 around ready charged just in case as well as they're very small and not easily damaged. One battery charge can last a couple of days or more depending on usage from my experience.

Price is currently at around £340, which has dropped from about £450 in 2008 when I bought mine, the 18-200 mm lense I would recommend is generally around £200 depending on make and where it is bought, both of which are very reasonable for the product!

This camera is also good for high quality, spontaneous shots for those who believe in quality over size! For this reason I would recommend it not only to those looking to get into amateur photography but also those who just to take impressive day to day shots on Auto mode.