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Nikon D40

SPJ

SPJ

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Is this camera any good?
My photos are sporadically good and since my current one just broke, I was thinking of getting this one.
Does anyone have one?
How is the quality of the photos?
Is it worth the money?

Also, ff anyone can recommend a cheaper one that's good instead, I would appreciate it. :D

Thanks.
 
i have heard kodak had some nice ones and as i looked on the black friday list they have a nice 10.0 or 10.2 mega pixel thats going to be marked down to 89 bucks i think at target. from what i know the higher the mega pixel the better quality pictures you get and although i have never tried kodak i am going to pick one up thursday night to see since i need a new one lol.
 
Id go right for the canon digital rebel.

The Nikon has some features that you might like more, and the canon has some that might like more. It depends on your tastes and, at that, they would have to be experienced tastes... lol BOTH are pretty much the same, until you start getting into real specific stuff... then they can be very different.

all in all. Personally, i like the rebel more. I have used the D40, and just dont like it as much. youve seen my photos floating around.

With all DSLRs its the lens that makes the difference in the end. When you go DSLR, you start investing in lenses, and THAT is where the real money sits.
 
xanaxez said:
i have heard kodak had some nice ones and as i looked on the black friday list they have a nice 10.0 or 10.2 mega pixel thats going to be marked down to 89 bucks i think at target. from what i know the higher the mega pixel the better quality pictures you get and although i have never tried kodak i am going to pick one up thursday night to see since i need a new one lol.
Click to expand...

Mega pixels do not matter past 5.

That is just how LARGE the image can be printed at without looking like crap.

Do NOT buy a camera due to its " THIS many megapixels " You wont get a quality camera that way.
 
I have a D40 and I love it. I've never been what I consider a great photographer, but the quality of my pictures and the ease of taking them went up several fold when I bought the D40.
It has way more features than I actually know how to use, but for what I do know how to do it does it extremely well.
 
I have been into photography for around 20+ years and when I went to buy a DSLR I looked at the Nikon D40... but there is one feature that I did not like... and thus desided to upgrade a bit further. The Nikon D40 does NOT have the autofocus motor in the camera body.... thefore you have to buy lenses with the autofocus motor in the lens....which makes each and EVERY lens you buy more expensive. At the time I got my camera... the choices of lenses were not that great.... Im sure they have improved somewhat by now though.

I ended up paying a bit more and bought the Nikon D80 since I do make some of my money off photography. I can use ANY lens that fits on a Nikon frame... and I dont have to worry about an autofoucs motor. Can you imagine how much my 500mm lens would weigh if it also had the autofocus motor in the lens.... its already heavy enough.

I upgraded from the Kodak P850.... if you like macro work.....AVOID KODAK. The macro on that camera was close to useless. Actually... it was useless.

If you dont want to spend a boat load of cash.... check out the Fuji S1000. It is a Point and Shoot, 10MP, 10x optical zoom... and has a killer macro setting... it will actually focus closer than my best Nikon lenses. It will set you back around $200

As someone else stated.... at 5mp you can blow up a photo to an 8x10 and it looks great....however with my 10mp.... I have blown all the way up to 16x20.... and I have a wolf shot where he is coming out of the tree line that Im gonna blow up to a 20x30. If ya want to go big... you need the megapixels.
 
Southern Wolf said:
As someone else stated.... at 5mp you can blow up a photo to an 8x10 and it looks great....however with my 10mp.... I have blown all the way up to 16x20.... and I have a wolf shot where he is coming out of the tree line that Im gonna blow up to a 20x30. If ya want to go big... you need the megapixels.
Click to expand...
I agree with you Kevin, megapixels make a world of difference.

I just went from a D 50... 6 megapixels to a D 80... 10 megapixels the difference was amazing.

The D 40 is a solid entry levei SLR digital, the 18-55 lens that comes with it is a great close up lens.
 
i had i d-50 an it was the best thing ever.
after the discontinued the model i ended up giving it away. well. i sold it fold 300. thats very cheap.

i wish i never did that
 
One additional point about megapixels - if you're at maximum zoom and cannot get physically closer to the subject (physical barriers or the risk of spooking the critter), with high megapixels you can just take the photos, crop out the extraneous scenery as needed, and still wind up with a decent pic of the subject.

Having high MP cameras has helped me out a lot in that regard, particularly with skittish wildlife. I can zoom in, take a few photos from a distance, and gradually move closer as I snap away, knowing that if/when I spook the animal, I'll still have decent photos with a bit of cropping.

Mokele
 
Mokele said:
One additional point about megapixels - if you're at maximum zoom and cannot get physically closer to the subject (physical barriers or the risk of spooking the critter), with high megapixels you can just take the photos, crop out the extraneous scenery as needed, and still wind up with a decent pic of the subject.

Having high MP cameras has helped me out a lot in that regard, particularly with skittish wildlife. I can zoom in, take a few photos from a distance, and gradually move closer as I snap away, knowing that if/when I spook the animal, I'll still have decent photos with a bit of cropping.

Mokele
Click to expand...

This has been very helpful for me as well, at least until I get that 500mm lens... someday *sigh*
I'm doing my seasonal work right now... portraits with Santa. It's fun & I love it. The rest of the year I dink around taking photos of various subjects.
*******
To the OP:
A good lens is what you want on that camera body- be it Nikon or Canon. For reptile photos, a good DSLR camera equipped with a 90mm or 50mm MACRO lens will give great shots of herps. IMHO, The Tamron SP 90mm Macro & the Canon compact-Macro EF 50mm both produce tack-sharp photos... perfect for showing off your reptiles.

If you are looking for an all around lens that will be great for any situation & still give quality Macro shots, the Tamron AF 24-135mm Macro is a wonderful lens... it hardly ever leaves my camera body, even though the first two lenses I mentioned do produce sharper photos.

I shoot Canon & have a 20D, my sister got the Nikon 80D over a year ago... we had the best time going & taking photos together. As a result we were able to compare the results in detail. I found the Nikon to be every bit as good as the Canon for most situations, I preferred the Canon for action shots though & I preferred the multi-point focus on Canon over the D80- but I'm used to it so that could be part of it.

The basics of focus, proper lighting & setting your white-balance will still give most folks great results no matter what camera is used.

Hope this helps- Deb
 
NorthernRegius.com said:
The Tamron SP 90mm Macro
Click to expand...
That lens is awesome.
Back when I had a 35mm SLR, I used that lens.
Here is a shot with it.
This is in an aquarium (which is tough) and the print was scanned into a jpeg.
Can't go wrong with that lens IMO.
shark1.jpg
 
I love my Sigma 105mm Macro... it gives me a bit more working room so Im not right up in their face.
 
Technical Details
6.1-megapixel CCD captures enough detail for photo-quality 14 x 19-inch prints
Kit includes 3x 18-55mm f3.5-5.6G ED II AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor lens
2.5-inch LCD with three display options; built-in flash and hot shoe
Fast startup with instant shutter response; shoot at up to 2.5 frames per second
Powered by one rechargeable Li-ion battery EN-EL9 (included); stores images on SD memory cards (memory card not included)
› See more technical details
 
I have 2 Nikon DSLR cameras and a handful of Nikkor lenses. First off the number of megapixels makes a huge difference, especially when wanting to do macro type photography.

Id reccommend any of Nikons DSLR's to anyone, especially over the comparable canon dslr. Dont get me wrong Canon's are good too, but if your not looking to spend over 1k all of the canons feel like plastic junk in comparison to the nikon stuff.

Some things id reccommend based on personal expierence, the D40 is a good buy but try to find a D50 if you can, or a D70. The reason for this is as previously stated the D40 does not have the internal AF motor. Also many of the newer nikon cameras have been swaying away from the external LCD screen for the exposure settings, which i hate.

They have completely integrated it into the viewing LCD on the back of the camera and i think it attracts too much attention when trying to adjust settings as apposed to the seperate top lcd.

Also many people dont realize that unless the camera (atleast in nikons case) has liveview viewfinder, you are going to have to use the actual viewfinder on the camera to take your photos (all of the older dslr's are like this). So if you want an easier "point and shoot" style DSLR you may want to look at the newer camera bodies.

just my $.02
 
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