[Recovered Thread: 115285]

[nikon.newbie]

Nice shots! I think D40 is as good as D50. Given that it is lighter and costs the same I don'tsee a reason whypeople should still buy D50.

[Tullio]

Thanks. The D50 has its advantages over the D40, the most important being the AF motor in the camera. As a result, any AF lense will work and not only there is a wide variety of brands and types, they are way way cheaper than the Nikon AF-S VR or Sigma HSM lenses. The other advantage is the fact that the battery is larger, thus it holds more charge allowing for morepictures to be taken. The top LCD is debatable. I personally prefer to use the D40nice and bright back LCD rather than the small top LCD of the D50. One big problem is the fact that the D50 top LCD is not back lit. How you are supposed to adjust the settings at night in low light is beyond me. So, overall, I think the D40 does the jobwell and considering its compact size and small price tag, one can't go wrong with it.

[Redsquare]

Looks like the D40 takes some nice shots, Looking at these is making me want it even more. I went to buy one yesterday and they only had the silver one. I paid for the cameraBut its on back order so should be with me by thursday. Im excited lol

Is it easy to use then or quite awkward. I'm so used to my fuji that i'm worried i wont get the feel of it right.

[mtclimber]

RedSquare-

I think you will really enjoy the Nikon D-40. They just issued a firmware upgrade for the D-40, so you might want to check if you need to install that firmware upgrade. The D-40 is a straight forward DSLR and I found getting to used to it, rather easy.

Just take your time and enjoy the experience.

Tullio-

One of the issues addressed in the firmware update is flash output, so I am sure you will be pleased.

MT/Sarah

[Tullio]

Hi Redsquare, the D40 is a very easy camera to use. It's very small (but not awkward) and light and it's buttonsare ergonomically placed. But,not all is well here. It's WB sucks big time (see comments below)and so does its metering system. It totally over exposes in matrix mode whenever youhave two high contrast areas in the image and it under exposes in center-weight during similar circumstances.The question is, what can you do to obtain good quality images? The answer is, several things, which I'll cover down below. The ONE thing you CANNOT do is to leave the camera set to its default values. One of theoptions when you are viewing a recorded image is "highlight" andthat's how I have my camera set to. It will show the over exposed areasof the picture by making it blink. The good thing is,the display ispretty darn accurate. In other words, if you see a large portion of the image blinking, you better change the exposure value and/or the metering mode and re-take that photo or you'll be very disappointed with what you've got.I've taken some test shots to compare the camera's behavior with regards to its metering modes and exposure compensation but I'll post them in another thread. For now,my recommendation is as follows:

• If shooting at WA (18mm), use matrix with exposure set to -0.67 and try to meter more on the bright area of the image since the D40 matrix algorithm will compensate for the dark areas (reason why the bright areas end up over exposed). Another option is to use Center-weight but then you should change the exposure value to either +0.3 or +0.67 since CW tends to under expose. Keep an eye in the highlights. [/*]
• If shooting at 55mm or higher, use center-weight with exposure value set to zero if the image has no high contrast or +1 if the background is very bright. Because you are zooming in, CW will provide a more accurate reading of the image.[/*]

As for the WB, the D40 has the AUTO adjusted toward the cool side (bluish color). This is very evident when shooting shaded areas. One of the WB options is actually called "shade". This setting will produce overly warm images (too much red) and it's particularly bad when shooting foliage in the shade for the leaves will loose their greenish tone. The good news is, one can adjust the WB presets according to one's taste. I like warmer image but not too warm. So, I set my D40 WB to AUTO -1 for outdoor photography. It's close to perfect. I tried -2 but it added too much orange to the color. I also tried Cloudy but it produces a similar effect as Shade. These settings may work well if you want to take pictures during early morning hours or mid-daywhen color temperature is low, so you end up with a much warmer image.


Sarah, I looked at the description of the firmware upgrade for the D40 and to be honest, I was disappointed. I was hoping that Nikon was going to fix the two issues I described above, which they did not. To me, most of the fixes are cosmetic. Even the flash, which you mentioned, will not resolve the problem I described. The fix affects the flash in manual mode only AND with the SB400 external flash. So, nothing to do with the output of the D40's built-in flash.

Anyway, here are some shots I took today at lunch. No PP at all.

[Tullio]

D40 w/ 18-55mm

[Tullio]

D40 w/ 18-55mm

[Tullio]

D40 w/ 18-55mm

[Tullio]

D40 w/ 18-55mm

[Redsquare]

Well that should help me alot Tullio, Very kind of you to go out of your way to help.Should get either today or tommorrow hopefully. As the bloke was saying that they're rear as hens teeth in Black. And i dont want a silver one