Pros:

cheap, easy to use UI, fast startup, wide choice of Nikkor lenses, accurate and fast AF, compact and lightweight but not flimsy

Cons:

only supports AF on AF-S & AF-I lenses, slow screen refresh

I’ve never had a digital camera before. I’ve been using my friend’s point and shoot(PnS) camera and I believed that I’ve outgrown all the features that a PnS camera can offer, so I bought my D40 two weeks ago. Because of my limited experience with SLR cameras, I was stuck with Auto and preset modes for the first couple of days.

D40

After I familiarized myself with the camera, I moved on to manual settings and it  gave me full control of exposure, aperture, shutter speed, just to name a few. Learning all these things wasn’t as intimidating as other people would say. In fact, it never was! thanks to its user friendly UI. The D40, unlike the higher end DSLRs, ditched the monochrome status display in favor of using the main color display, which is an advantage for first time SLR users since it incorporates a graphical display by default which shows a wheel representing the aperture size and shutter speed dial. The aperture display “stops down” to approximate what is actually happening to the lens blades, but it only moves after several turns of the Command dial. The same goes for the shutter speed graphic. It seems like a good idea to educate those who are unfamiliar with how cameras work, though they’ll have to be the types who pay close attention.

D40 status Display

When it comes to body design, I find it very comfortable to hold compared to other SLRs with their “boxy” build and hard-to-reach shutter buttons. the rubber lined grip on the the right side fits my hand snuggly and on the other side, is a notch where your thumb is supposed to rest. The camera has a plastic outer shell with a metal frame, but Nikon gave it a matte finish which sets it apart from other plastic cameras. It’s size may be bulky for everyday snapshots(this is where phone cameras come in handy), it is very compact and lightweight for use on special occasions and casual photography.

One fault I found on the camera however, is that the LCD is slow to refresh as you change settings. This includes aperture, shutter speed, and EV (exposure value) settings. I would tend to overshoot my goal, thinking the camera had missed my input resulting in either an over/underexposed image.

The 6.1 megapixels resolution may be a turnoff for other people today where basic point and shoot cameras have reached 12 megapixels. It just shows that they have drank the marketing kool-aid that more pixels define a better picture. In reality, megapixels just dictate the largest size prints you can have or how far you can crop your picture without degrading quality. 6 megapixels will get you a very good 13×19 inch print; and since most people will only print 8.5×11 inch images max, that means you can heavily crop your images and still get beautiful images on a Letter size page.

The Nikon D40 is perfect for the type of person who wants to make the move from a simple PnS camera, but is intimidated by the complexity of a full DSLR camera, and for its price that’s comparable to mid range PnS, it is well worth every penny.

If you want to see some samples of what I took with the camera, feel free to drop by my flickr profile. I will be updating it with fresh photos regularly.