This is the first dSLR I own, but not the first advanced-amateur digital. I always thought that even the worst film camera had better quality than a digital --- unless you were willing to pay a fortune. I'm glad this camera proved me wrong. For less than 500 you get terrific quality, a relatively light and simple to use camera that would give you much more satisfaction than other cameras.
Among the many virtues of this camera I'd point out:
- Excellent image quality: sharpness, depth of field, colors, etc.
- Meaningful quality: The 6MP sensor produces just the right amount of detail without overburdenning the user with heavy image files, slow transfers, etc. Keeping the MP count low was a priority when I bought this camera and I'm happy to see that I was right.
- Good controls. I'm certain that more advanced users would like more knobs and button customization, but for users who want to take pictures without much tweaking, the scene knob and the dial provide a great means of control for regular situations. More advanced tweaking requires the menu, but I find that a reasonable compromise to keep the camera simple. Compared to the other (non SLR) cameras I used (Canon, Olympus, Sony) this interface is the best.
- It's light and compact
What I would have preferred:
- VR lens offered by default
- ISO 100 (yet the minimum ISO=200 setting is way better than the ISO 64 setting in a prosumer canon!)
- More battery life (but I'm using it with eye-fi, which likely drains power faster)
Overall, the quality of this camera is great; it's fairly intuitive and easy to use, very responsive. You immediately are taking pictures with simple settings. At the same time it allows the user a lot of customization. It reminds me a lot the spurt of creative photography I experienced with the coolpix 950, but certainly with a much better quality.
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This is my intro into the DSLR world. I wanted one for better pictures than a Point and Shot one. Researched around and was told by many to go with Nikon, and by other to go for Canon. I guess there is this Nikon vs Canon thing with DSLRs. Of course all opinions biased as they own a nikon or canon. I decided to get the D40, main reason, cheaper than the others (mainly the XTi, which i was told to get). And if I decide to get a better DSLR, more expensive, I can use this as my back up camera.
Anyway, it is a great camera. I have had a lot of fun with it. Not until recently, i notice a lil green spot on all my images. Very slight, but there. When zoomed in onto the spot it looks like a small + . Very slight that it can easily be touched up. But I did pay some good money so I decided to give a call to Amazon. They are shipping a replacement. So a las I must say bye to this one. Cant wait to get the replacement.
I really like it. I have tested other and really like the texture of the nikon. Very nice feel, small, and lightweight. I really didnt like the textures of the other brands. Canon and Sony. Cant wait to continue shooting. I need moar lens's...Eye'ing the 50mm 1.8!
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