Nikon D40 for first time dSLR?

I am about to make the 'jump' from the 'point-and-shoot' Canon S3 IS
to the Nikon D40. Would you consider this entry-level dSLR a
'point-and-shoot' camera?

I am concerned about blurry pictures I have had from other
'point-and-shoot' cameras. I would like to be able to let my wife (who
has no experience with cameras) take a picture with ease and have
great results. I have heard a great many things about this camera,
such as 'it's hard to not take a great picture with it'.

Would you buy it?

Thanks
-John-

wrote in message
...
I am about to make the 'jump' from the 'point-and-shoot' Canon S3 IS
to the Nikon D40. Would you consider this entry-level dSLR a
'point-and-shoot' camera?

I am concerned about blurry pictures I have had from other
'point-and-shoot' cameras. I would like to be able to let my wife (who
has no experience with cameras) take a picture with ease and have
great results. I have heard a great many things about this camera,
such as 'it's hard to not take a great picture with it'.

Would you buy it?

Thanks
-John-


John:

There are a couple of considerations. The D40 is a good buy and produces
excellent photos. It is limited by the fact that if will autofocus only
with Nikon AF-S lenses, such as the kit lens that comes with the body. If
you own older Nikon AF glass, a D50, D70s, or D80 might be desirable, as
they can use these lenses with full autofocus. At the present, most 3rd
party lenses will not autofocus with the camera either.

The D40 contains no Image Stablization (Nikon builds IS into some of it more
expensive lenses). If shaky pictures are a consideration, you may want to
consider this. Some competing DSLRs from Sony and Pentax contain IS in the
body.

Yoshi

In article ,
wrote:

I am about to make the 'jump' from the 'point-and-shoot' Canon S3 IS
to the Nikon D40. Would you consider this entry-level dSLR a
'point-and-shoot' camera?

I am concerned about blurry pictures I have had from other
'point-and-shoot' cameras. I would like to be able to let my wife (who
has no experience with cameras) take a picture with ease and have
great results. I have heard a great many things about this camera,
such as 'it's hard to not take a great picture with it'.

Would you buy it?

Personally, I'd step up a bit (if I was buying Nikon, but I'm a Canon
user myself), simply because the difference between a D40 at about
$500-$600 with one lens or $800-$900 with two lenses (just going by
current eBay pricing on new - used, you can find them a lot less
expensive), and a D70 or D80 is not all that much, $$$-wise, if you're
going to take that step up to DSLR-ville anyway.

However, that having been said, just about any of the DSLR's have a set
of fully automatic modes which enable easy transition from P&S to SLR -
you set them, and click the shutter (minus the horrendous shutter lag
you had with a P&S that probably caused a lot of your "blurry pictures"
g). The more creative stuff (controlling aperture, shutter speed,
etc., yourself) can come later, as you get more comfortable with the
changes. So whichever one you start off with, you can probably hand it
to your wife and tell her to have a ball.

--
You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a
reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating
the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for
independence.
-- Charles A. Beard

On Apr 2, 11:51 pm, wrote:
I am about to make the 'jump' from the 'point-and-shoot' Canon S3 IS
to the Nikon D40. Would you consider this entry-level dSLR a
'point-and-shoot' camera?

I am concerned about blurry pictures I have had from other
'point-and-shoot' cameras. I would like to be able to let my wife (who
has no experience with cameras) take a picture with ease and have
great results. I have heard a great many things about this camera,
such as 'it's hard to not take a great picture with it'.

Would you buy it?

Thanks
-John-

I took the plunge about 2 months ago and would not look back. There is
an amazing difference between very high end point and shoots and the
d40. I am not saying it is perfect by any means and there is a
learning curve. But once you shoot a couple hundred picutres you will
never want a point and shoot again. The nice thing about the d40 is it
is very user friendly and small. My girlfriend has shot it on a few
trips she puts it on one of the auto settings and forgets about it. I
do just about everything so it can really do both.

On Mon, 02 Apr 2007 23:51:44 -0400, wrote:

I am about to make the 'jump' from the 'point-and-shoot' Canon S3 IS
to the Nikon D40. Would you consider this entry-level dSLR a
'point-and-shoot' camera?

I am concerned about blurry pictures I have had from other
'point-and-shoot' cameras. I would like to be able to let my wife (who
has no experience with cameras) take a picture with ease and have
great results. I have heard a great many things about this camera,
such as 'it's hard to not take a great picture with it'.

Would you buy it?

In a sense I just did, having just purchased the recently
discontinued D50. Other than the D40 being smaller and lighter
(which I would have preferred) these are virtually the same cameras.
Like almost all "serious" DSLRs, it can be used in an Auto mode that
makes it about as easy to use as a Point'n Shoot. But it also has
the advantages you'd expect from a DSLR. Much faster response,
meaning that unlike most P&Ses, the delay from the time you press
the shutter release until the picture is taken is very short and you
usually will get the shot that you wanted. With a P&S, if the
subject is moving there's a good chance that the shot will not turn
out as well as expected. DSLRs also can get good shots in low light
conditions that P&Ses couldn't, without using a flash. In this
regard, even though the D40 is an "entry level" DSLR, its low light,
high ISO performance is as good as or better than many other more
expensive DSLRs. Also, even though I've only so far used my older,
slower Nikkor lenses, the D50 focuses *much* faster and much more
accurately than any of the P&S cameras I've used before, and that
includes some pretty good ones.

The one big difference between the D40 and D50 is that the D40
doesn't have an internal motor used to focus older Nikkor lenses,
and if I didn't already own several old Nikkor AF lenses I would
have chosen the D40 over the D50. This means that with a D40 you'd
be limited to using the more modern lenses that have built-in
focusing motors. These lenses focus more quickly and silently that
the older lenses that are mechanically coupled to focusing motors
within the camera.

As for getting blurry pictures, it depends. If you were getting
blurry pictures from the other P&S cameras you used because you were
unable to hold the camera steadily, you might still get blurry
pictures with a D40, although they'd probably be much less blurry
because the D40 could take good pictures with much higher ISO
levels, which would allow blur-reducing faster shutter speeds. But
under better shooting conditions (more light) or if you use a
tripod, the D40's pictures should be blur-free and sharp, much
better than you're used to seeing from a P&S unless you just compare
small 4" x 6" prints. With large prints, or when closely examining
images on a computer's monitor, the D40's images should be much
better. You can verify this by downloading full sized images from
camera review websites such as dpreview.com or steves-digicams.com.
They should all have D40 images to download, but if they don't have
any for the specific P&S cameras you've used before, there should be
many similar P&S cameras that you could substitute.

On Mon, 02 Apr 2007 23:51:44 -0400, wrote:

I am about to make the 'jump' from the 'point-and-shoot' Canon S3 IS
to the Nikon D40. Would you consider this entry-level dSLR a
'point-and-shoot' camera?

I am concerned about blurry pictures I have had from other
'point-and-shoot' cameras. I would like to be able to let my wife (who
has no experience with cameras) take a picture with ease and have
great results. I have heard a great many things about this camera,
such as 'it's hard to not take a great picture with it'.

Would you buy it?

Thanks
-John-



Hi John,

Definitely step up. You'll be glad you did. I have a D80 and
absolutely love it. You can use all of the features or use it as a
point-and-shoot. Either way, I don't think you'll be disappointed with
your pictures.

The great part for me was beging able to use all of my other lenses
and my SB600 flash.

Whatever you decide, best of luck and happy shooting!

Hal Lowe

http://www.cafepress.com/halogos (unique logo t-shirts, mugs & more)
http://www.halowe-graphics.com/photo.html (digiPhoto)
http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=7391019 (web hosting)
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"Hal Lowe" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 02 Apr 2007 23:51:44 -0400, wrote:

I am about to make the 'jump' from the 'point-and-
Definitely step up. You'll be glad you did. I have a D80 and
absolutely love it. You can use all of the features or use it as a
point-and-shoot. Either way, I don't think you'll be disappointed with
your pictures.

The great part for me was beging able to use all of my other lenses
and my SB600 flash.

Whatever you decide, best of luck and happy shooting!

Hal Lowe

The point is, with a D40 he won't be able to use all his other lenses in
autofocus mode, unless he has a collection of Nikon AF-S glass. The D40 will
only work in manual focus with non AF-S lenses. While this is not a
consideration for a new buyer who only intends to use the kit lens, it is a
serious point for anyone who intends to build a system.

Yoshi

wrote in message
...
I am about to make the 'jump' from the 'point-and-shoot' Canon S3 IS
to the Nikon D40. Would you consider this entry-level dSLR a
'point-and-shoot' camera?

I am concerned about blurry pictures I have had from other
'point-and-shoot' cameras. I would like to be able to let my wife (who
has no experience with cameras) take a picture with ease and have
great results. I have heard a great many things about this camera,
such as 'it's hard to not take a great picture with it'.

Would you buy it?

Thanks
-John-


The D40 is a fine camera, but if the pictures are blurry due to camera
movement you may want to buy VR lenses for it or consider the Pentax K100D.
It has a decent price and built in anti shake feature.
John

Yoshi wrote:
"Hal Lowe" wrote in message
...

On Mon, 02 Apr 2007 23:51:44 -0400, wrote:


I am about to make the 'jump' from the 'point-and-

Definitely step up. You'll be glad you did. I have a D80 and
absolutely love it. You can use all of the features or use it as a
point-and-shoot. Either way, I don't think you'll be disappointed with
your pictures.

The great part for me was beging able to use all of my other lenses
and my SB600 flash.

Whatever you decide, best of luck and happy shooting!

Hal Lowe


The point is, with a D40 he won't be able to use all his other lenses in
autofocus mode, unless he has a collection of Nikon AF-S glass. The D40 will
only work in manual focus with non AF-S lenses. While this is not a
consideration for a new buyer who only intends to use the kit lens, it is a
serious point for anyone who intends to build a system.

Yoshi

Essentialy, it seems that Nikon is inadvertantly marketing the only
manual focus only (with currently available and second-hand AF lenses,
at least) DSLR on the market.
Perhaps a Katzeye focusing screen would be a good addition, at least
then mf will be a lot easier?

Your pictures will not necessarily improve regardless of what camera you
use.
The biggest improvement in picture quality comes with some understanding of
exposure, the light range the sensor can capture, composition and realizing
that nearly all of the images you see in magazines have had some form of
post camera processing, i.e. Photoshop, to optimize the image.
Nikon is a great company with high priced lenses. It is ahead of the curve
with regard to in-camera image processing but behind the curve in image
stabilization and sensor protection/cleaning. I would expect these features
to show up in the next generation of Nikon dSLRs because that is where the
market is.
While I am a lifelong Nikon user I believe someone in your position would be
better served by the Pentax dSLRs or the Sony dSLR. I cannot wrap my head
around the 4/3 system although these are very capable machines as well.