35 live in Cumbria, Married. IT geek and gadget fiend. Biker, photographer and video taker. Do some...
35 live in Cumbria, Married. IT geek and gadget fiend. Biker, photographer and video taker. Do some work for local press website. Started with ZX81 and still learning
Member since:19.02.2009
Reviews:13
I have a Fuji S2 pro DSLR that I purchased from a well known internet auction site, and following in the footsteps of many others I won a second bid as well. For my £90 I got a possible working D40 body and completely flat battery, after a bit more shopping I got a battery charger and tried it with the 18 - 55mm lens off the Fuji (Both Nikon F mounts). It worked, and is happily still working now.
I have since bought a 18-55mm AF-S lens for the camera, and I am impressed, both the D40 and the S2 are 6Mp cameras (although the Fuji Super CCD operates differently) they both produce clean, sharp bright images on 'auto' and operate well under most conditions. The main difference between them is the weight, the Fuji is physically much bigger and weight a lot more than the D40 making the D40 an ideal camera to take with you when you want to be unobtrusive. The battery lasts very well even when using flash a lot and a seconf battery is easy to buy and very cheap (always have a spare in your pocket!) the D40 will take the latest SDHC cards and a 4gb will store over 1000 photos at best jpeg setting (bit worried when the display read 1k, then it clicked, LOL) the start up and shutter lag times are lightning quick meaning that you never have to miss that shop again and the language when using this camera is much gentler than point and shoots.
The layout, feel and overall construction of the camera feel good, teh fact that mine came second hand and works like a charm says a lot for build quality, ergonomically all the buttons and dials are in easy to reach places and make sense. The camera has some nice features that include a big display on the back and a self popping up flash (that nearly caused me to drop the camera the first time it popped up under its own steam, it can be disabled). I like this camera it takes nice photos (www.theregsy.co.uk/gallery) if you look in the Valentine rock photos there are some taken with the D40 and some with the S2 pro, feel free to have a look.
I do however have a couple of problems, the D40 lacks many of the easy to reach controls of the S2, they are there but you have to use the menu system (which is clear and easy to use) it is very small and light and to be honest a little too small for my big hands and very light, again I'm a big guy and liek the solid weightyness of the Fuji (personal preference) my biggest problem though is the Lens system. To make the camera this small Nikon removed the Auto Focus motor from the body of the camera into the lens (AF-S) which means that the lenses cost more (a lot more) and are harder to find second hand. For example I got a second hand 70 - 300mm Nikon lens for the Fuji for under £100 for a similar AF-S lens for the D40 I would be expecting to pay over £200.
However, the biggest problem for the D40 now is the D60 which is basically the same camera but running the 12Mp sensor rather than the 6. A second hand D40 with 18-55mm lens kit will cost around £250 and I think this price reflects a demand for this camera. Yes I would recommend one to anyone wanting to get a start in DSLR photography, it is an easy to use camera that takes excellent quality pictures and won't cost teh earth. However if you want to start investing in extras they can be pricey, although non AF-S lenses will work they will NOT autofocus.
The only other problem I have had with this camera I have had to a mainly greater extent with all digital cameras which is poor low light performance, its not as bad as some but I feel it could be better.
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Nikon's success in the D-SLR market has been outstanding and the new D40 is sure to be yet ... more
another sales sensation. Written by Simon Stafford this "Magic Lantern" manual gives owners all the information they need to understand and operate their camera...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Advantages: Excellent image quality, good core functionality of an DSLR, cheap, portable and lightweight. Disadvantages: Megapixels may not be sufficient for some, no autobracketing and no autofocus with non-AFS lenses
geft 14.10.2009 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Nikon D40
Advantages: Great quality and value for money, feature-rich, the good old dependable Nikon name Disadvantages: None really, unless you need more megapixels and more features for pro use
thereddragon 10.04.2009 (10.04.2009)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Nikon D40
Advantages: Excellent image quality, good core functionality of an DSLR, cheap, portable and lightweight. Disadvantages: Megapixels may not be sufficient for some, no autobracketing and no autofocus with non-AFS lenses
geft 14.10.2009 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Nikon D40
Oct 7th, 2009
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