This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 21st, 2007 at 6:30 am and is filed under Nikon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Digital Camera Blog
Reviews of novelties from the world of digital camera
The Nikon D40 was announced just in time for the holiday buying season. Nikon??™s goal with the D40 was to introduce an affordable digital SLR that is easy to use and compact to address a couple of the reasons why people decide against buying a digital SLR. The D40 features a 6.1 megapixel DX format sensor, a 2.5 inch LCD with a nice graphical user interface, and it comes as a kit with an 18-55mm lens for under $600.
Since this is a digital SLR, you get a true optical viewfinder. The viewfinder is actually very nice and bright. A diopter adjustment is available so that the focus point marks and information in the viewfinder are sharp. The viewfinder covers about 95% of the actual captured image. While shooting, camera settings (focus, metering, exposure compensation, aperture, shutter speed, etc) are very visible in green text and symbols below the frame.
For reviewing your images and working in the menu system, there is a single 2.5 inch LCD that has 230K pixels of resolution. To make the camera and its ???info??? display less intimidating, Nikon provides several options for the style of display, including a very polished graphical display. You can choose from “graphical”, “classic” and “wallpaper” display styles. The graphical interface displays all of the camera settings, but the information is laid out very simply. The classic view shows all the information that you need to know. The wallpaper mode lets you choose one of your images as wallpaper behind a layout similar to graphical mode. Shots of the interfaces are below.
Since the D40 is targeted at beginning users, it??™s sold as a ???kit??? with one lens included. They include an 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor lens. The lens has a minimum focus distance of 11 inches, an aperture range of f/3.5-f22 at wide angle and f/5.6-38 at telephoto. If you??™re just starting out, this lens is a great start. As your skills get better, you can start checking out the other lenses that Nikon offers.
The D40 has a 3-point AF system with a focus assist lamp for low-light conditions. You can let the camera decide the correct point to use, you can use the center point, or you can set the camera so that it lets you set the focus point using the directional pad on the back of the camera.
There are a few focus modes that can be used. AF-A lets the camera decide whether to use single AF for stationary subjects or continuous AF to keep moving subjects in focus. AF-S mode starts the auto focus process as soon as you partially press the shutter release. AF-C mode attempts to keep the subject focused continuously. Finally, you can switch the kit lens to manual mode so that you can focus by hand.
As you would expect with any digital SLR, there is a full complement of shooting modes. Nikon calls the easy modes Digital Vari-Programs. This term encompasses auto, auto with flash off, portrait, landscape, child, sports, close up, and night portrait modes. All of these modes are accessible by using the mode dial on top of the camera. If you want more creative control, you can use program auto (auto exposure with user input), aperture priority mode (you set the aperture while camera determines shutter speed), shutter priority mode (you set the shutter speed and the camera sets the aperture), and full manual mode. These modes are also accessible on the mode dial via P, A, S, and M indicators.
The Nikon D40 is the ???gateway drug??? into the world of digital SLRs. The combination of nice price, high quality and ease of use is certain to lead to SLR addiction. With the D40, Nikon wants to make sure that you??™re not intimidated by the controls or size of an SLR and I think that they??™ve done a good job. Also, by including plenty of ???help??? features into the camera, it becomes very easy to figure out which setting does what.
Besides all of the features th make this a beginner-friendly camera, the D40 takes great pictures. It provides all of the flexibility and creative options that a beginning SLR user will need. The camera performs quickly and takes great shots. Sure, there are things about this camera that you could nit-pick, but I think that a package like this, with the quality and value that it provides, will be responsible for getting more people into using a digital SLR than any previous digital SLR.
I would highly recommend this camera to anyone looking for their first digital SLR and aren??™t entirely comfortable with all the options that an SLR can offer. When you first get the camera, you can leave it in auto mode and enjoy the quick operation and excellent image quality that you get from an SLR. When you??™re ready, you can start using the manual exposure modes and then start thinking about all the cool glass that you could get.
Random Posts
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
