Nikon D40 - Reviews by PhotoCamel Members

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Nikon Nikon D40

Reviews	Views	Date of last review
3	1477	Thu July 14, 2011

Recommended By	Average Price	Average Rating
100% of reviewers	$475.00	9.5

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Description:

Nikon have released the extremely compact D40 as a follow up to their successful D50. Meant as an affordable, easy to use, point-and-shoot camera this digital SLR offers most of the features of other full specs DSLRs. It has a 6-megapixel sensor, a new image processing engine, in camera retouching with D-lighting and red-eye reduction plus continuous shooting of 2.5 frames per second. All in a small and light body with that distinct Nikon quality feel. • 6 megapixel DX format CCD (1.5x FOV crop, as D50) • Nikon Image processing engine • 3D Color Matrix Metering II, 420 pixel sensor • New Multi-CAM530 three area AF sensor • ISO sensitivity range 200 - 1600 plus HI 1 (3200 equiv.) • Custom Auto ISO (selectable maximum ISO, minimum shutter speed) • 2.5 fps continuous shooting, unlimited in JPEG • No status LCD, new LCD monitor based status / settings screens • Help suggestions on LCD monitor (eg. scene too dark, try using flash) • Large 2.5" 230,000 pixel LCD monitor • Bigger viewfinder view (x0.8 magnification, 95% coverage) • Short shutter lag and viewfinder blackout • Support for SDHC (SD cards over 2 GB in capacity) • In-camera retouching • USB 2.0 with PTP and Mass Storage device support • Very compact, light body • Improved menu user interface • New EN-EL9 Lithium-Ion battery • New 'Version II' AF-S DX 18-55 mm kit lens

Keywords:

Nikon D40 DSLR

Author

spysty1e
Alpaca

Registered: January 2010
Posts: 41

Review Date: Wed May 11, 2011

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: $350.00 | Rating: 0

Pros:	Awesome in so many ways, how much room do I have to write it all ?
Cons:	Limited lens selection (unless you are willing to manually focus and use an external meter)

The good :

This camera has a special power if you like "strobist stuff" as it can sync with a manual flash at over 1/2000 (amazing)

This camera is "only" 6 MP but the image quality is so good that you can view the images at 100% and they look great. What good is a 10 MP camera if you can only view the images at 70% ? Think about it.

The camera is small but there is a wonderful 3rd party battery grip for it by Targus. So it's small enough for her but can be big enough for him, so to speak LOL

The battery life is stunning, it has a really good lithium rechargeable. The Targus battery grip doubles that. I used to get like a million shots with two lithium batteries. It was great.

Image quality was great, I shot in "RAW" with "JPG basic". I developed the RAWs in Adobe LightRoom and the image quality was super.

The LCD and menu is good

The body is good, it does not feel like a cheapy

The kinda bad :

ISO 200 ~ 1600 is somewhat limited. But the good news is 1600 ISO looks really nice.

6 MP is somewhat limited, leaving less area for cropping. But as I stated above you can view the images at 1:1 so does that make it comparable to an 8 MP camera ? Many cameras output images that only look good at 80% and less.

Lens compatibility is "Nikon AF-S" only, but that's not so bad. "AF-S" lenses are really good.

Lens compatibility with "Nikon AF" lenses are limited, manual focus only, but with full metering.

Lens compatibility with Nikon manual focus lenses is manual focus with no metering. So you need to use an external meter or use "chimping" (looking at the histogram and shooting until you get it right)

The viewfinder is as small as low end dSLR, not worse then the competition but not better either. So it doesn't really lend itself to manually focusing. But it's fine for use with AF-S lenses.

Overall :

This camera is special ! Nikon really pulled out all the stops when they made this, there must have been a lot of competition at the time of it's release because this one had a lot of thought put into it.

What is it good for ?

Small camera with Nikon quality

Amazing flash sync with manual flashes is a blessing to all strobists

Super for beginners

I give it an A+ for what it is. It does what it's supposed to very well

A nice simple dSLR for AF-S lenses.

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verdesardog

Photocamel Master

Registered: June 2008
Location: Arizona
Posts: 5941

Review Date: Sun June 5, 2011

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 10

Pros:	easy to cary and use
Cons:

Nice camera, I still use it in 2011 even though there are several newer models out there I feel this is enough for what I shoot.

It's my first digital SLR but not my first SLE by a long shot. I dreaded changing from film to digital, the D40 has made the transition painless. Some people complain aboout lack of a top of the camera LCD, I cna't see what difference that would make, everything you need to see can be seen in the viewfinder or on the back of the camera.

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Michael

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kerrberr

Guanaco

Registered: June 2011
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 274

Review Date: Thu July 14, 2011

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: $600.00 | Rating: 9

Pros:	Low price, Amazing battery life, small & light but still sturdy
Cons:	Limited lens choice

I bought this about a month before the D40X was released. I wanted a D80, but for about 1/2 the price this was the compromise. I love it! It takes pictures like no P&S could. I know it's not the camera, but the photographer, but honestly... I've given this to random people to take shots with & after explaining a few things to them, their pictures look terrific.

It is an entry-level camera, so it doesn't have all the dedicated buttons many pros like. It has 1 "Function" button that you can assign to things like White Balance or ISO. (Those are the 2 settings I've used.) It's easy to learn. I love this battery. It can take well over 1,000 pictures in a day & not miss a beat. When I shoot that much, I charge it everyday just in case. But just taking a few shots per day it will last for weeks.

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