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After surviving with a point and shoot that was slow and always missed the moment, I finally broke down and bought an SLR. After 6 months of research, the D40 seemed like the best camera for the money, especially for a beginner.
Got the camera on a Friday, in time for a weekend in San Antonio. By end of the weekend, I had taken 900 pictures at the Alamo and Sea World!! It was so nice to catch the picture right now! The pictures came out great, it's super easy to use, and for the price, I would recommend this to anyone.
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Great camera. If you need more than what this camera gives, you shold purchase a Hasselbad. Easy to use-sharp photos with both lens. Have used it local and on a trip to Banf, Cansda and recorded the Calgary Stampede and show. Ansel Adams would have gone nuts with this camera and the Canadian Rockys. The battery has a long life. The on camera flash works well up to about fifteen feet. But an SB400 flash. Contact me at "[...] and I will email youa couple of photos.
There are other fine cameras out there but the my final judgement was made after seeing the Nikon website and the online hoto program describing exactly how the camera function and examples of how each mode functions. Better than any written manual that I have ever seen.
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I bought this camera two weeks ago and love it. there are lots of stuff to learn and I'm still learning the manual settings. piture quality is pretty impressive. so long p&s
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This is an excellent DSLR camera for anyone with a limited budget. If you are migrating from a point and shoot camera and intend to use this camera solely for family snapshots and vacations, then you will have absolutely no regrets with using this camera. This camera takes beautiful pictures with the included kit lens that should satisfy any casual photo-taker. Even for an enthusiast in photography who is migrating from an advanced point and shoot or a film SLR, there is no doubt that you would be able to produce wonderful pictures with the D40.
Other than the pictures themselves, the Nikon D40 can be commended for some outstanding features:
-Camera Interface: The menus on the D40 are straightforward and easy to understand. Settings are not buried too deep in menus and there aren't too many buttons to press either. One can easily change most settings such as aperture, shutter speed, exposure compensation, or ISO speed simply with the press of a few buttons and/or the twirl of the thumb wheel.
-In-camera photo editing: I find the D40's in-camera editing tools to be very useful to tweaking pictures and making them look better. In particular, the D-light feature really does work to highlight dark shadowy objects in pictures. I also find the color balance feature quite handy in bringing out the color of significant objects in pictures.
For a camera of this price, there are sacrifices made. This camera is missing a lot of features found on more expensive DSLRs. While not all features are necessary, there are some that I find notable:
-3 point Autofocus system: The three autofocus points are all in a horizontal line in the middle of the viewfinder. In many scenarios, this system will work fine. But there are some cases in which I might try to focus on an object that I am not centering the picture on, which is when the camera fails to autofocus.
-6 MP sensor: If you're viewing small-size pictures or printing them 5x7 sized, then your pictures will turn out great no matter what. But when you view the pictures on a larger-size basis, then you will notice the lack of detail and the "fuzziness" of the picture. Personally, I like to set desktop wallpapers based on my pictures; hence why I see this as a flaw.
-No built-in focus motor: The D40 does work perfectly with any Nikon AF-S lens. Older AF lenses will also fit, but they won't autofocus without a built-in motor. I see this as a problem only because a D40 user cannot take advantage of older lenses that could be purchased cheaply from garage sales, ebay, etc.
Overall, this camera is solid for a budget DSLR and makes a great first camera too!
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My refurbished D40 has a tiny smudge on all photos which may be a defective ccd. Nikon tech support has to date been very helpful and I have sent the camera to a service center for repair. Hopefully I end up w/ a like-new camera.
nickww
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