I’m looking at Nikon SLR. I need it for my art school and my future occupation. I’m looking for long life, autofocus, NOT too heavy (I walk everywhere in this city), and price isn’t an issue. I’ve been looking at Nikon D40, D50, N90 and . I’ve been looking at reviews all day and I need an opinion. Am I even going in the right direction [for long life, autofocus, light weight]? Any other good camera’s to look at?
Thanks for any responce
OK here is my short answer. The D40 will do everything a beginner to intermediate photographer needs at a great price. It comes with an 18-55 lens. It will let you use any other money to buy more accessories. And by the time you outgrow it cameras will have advanced to the point that most of what is on the market now would be obsolete. I bought a D300 last year and only had a it a few months when the D700 came out. The canon would also serve you well but I am a Nikon person so I suggest them. I have friends that are very happy with thier canon’s and take great photos. You will have others that like Pentax and Olympus and they are not bad cameras but if they were in the same ballpark you would see many more professional photographers use them
Now for the longer answer as you already have some experience I will be preaching to the choir on a good bit of this.
I would say the Nikon D40 Its an entry level DSLR. A digital SLR will give you a much larger sensor than any point and shoot camera. Larger sensor = more light to each pixel = clearer, crisper photo with better color saturation. DSLR will also let you grow and take more control as you learn more and you can change lenses when you have a need to. The sensor on the olympus is smaller than on Nikon or Canon
I am a nikon person and have had nikons since the 70’s I personally think the nikon D40 give you more for the dollar than any DSLR today. There are some that do more but you pay a good bit more. Do not let the lower megapixels concern you if you do not do very very large prints you will never notice the lower DSLR. My brother recently needs a DSLR for a class and I recommended the D40 to him So I would also say get the D40 not the D40X. The Nikon D40 does not have limited functions compared with other entry DSLR. Yes it has fewer funtioncas than a 1500 dollar camera body would. It is not a a cut down version its equal or above most any entry level DSLR.
There is a great article in this months Digital Photopro Magazine that is titled "Megapixels how much is enough" EVERYONE looking at buying a new digital camera can profit by reading this article. Its here
http://www.digitalphotopro.com/studio/megapixels-how-much-is-enough.html
I have a d300 and a d40 and when I am shooting for fun I grab the d40. Its weightless, a joy to use and gives good results
If you have a bit more money the D60 give you a number of things you want. It has newer firmware and image processors, designed for the 10 mp sensor. It has an "Active Dust Reduction System with Airflow Control ". Nikon not putting a system on the D40 to deal with dust is one of the biggest drawbacks I see to the D40 ( though I think its still a great camera for the money) If you change lenses dust will get in and the camera needs a system to deal with it. With the D60 you get a VR lens. That will help with low light situations ( they may offer that now with the D40 but originally it was not) . The D60 has Adaptive Dynamic Range. Nikon calls it "Active D-Lighting," it lets you save some highlights that my otherwise be lost. It has a newer better metering system than the D40. So you can get the D40 not the D40 x and spend the other money on lenses or a flash
Some people will want to make a big issue out of the fact that there are some nikon lenses that will not autofocus on these cameras. Right now there are "only" about 39 lenses that autofocus on these cameras. They cover the range of focal lengths. I doubt any photographer would be seriously limited with "only" this many lenses to choose from. If you want to manually focus you can more than double this and do so at a low cost. Manual focusing is easy and how we did things for decades before the advent of autofocus.
Cannon and Nikon chose to put the vibration reduction in the lens rather than the body. Somefolks put it in the camera and make of that. Yes that means you get stabilization only on lenses with that feature built in. In the body in theory it would work on every lens. But in fact image stbilization in the lens has proved to work faster and smoother with a lower impact on focus times than image stabilization in the body/ One problem with in body stabilization comes from the fact that the sensor would have to move different amounts for different focal lengths. A canon white paper says an in body system would have to move the sensor 1/4 inch to account for movement on a 300 mm lens.
Now a comment on liveview. Have you ever tried to hold several pounds of digital camera and lens steady at arms length while you look at an LCD screen. It not at all the same as holding a few ounces of point and shoot camera steady in the same position. One of the things we preach to new photogrpahers is to learn to hold the camera properly so the body mechanics give you a steady shot. You can’t really do that looking at the LCD. So liveview is really something that will have very limited applications in a DSLR. Usually only when its on a tripod. I have liveview on my D300 and have never used it.
Nikon also has great service. I was just reading the other day on eyefetch in the Nikon forum where someone posted that they had dropped thier lens and broken it. It was not a fault of the company they messed up. The sent it to Nikon and Nikon could not fix it. Nikon offered them a brand new identical lens at half the price. They did not have to
In closing all major camera manufactures make good cameras get out and compare the features and how they feel in your hand. Go to places like kenRockwell.com and DPreview.com to compare them. Nikon and Canon have the largest market share and I personally think there is a very good reason they do. Not bashing other brands but photographers tend to be very very demanding folks and they then tend to be loyal to what has worked for them well and consistently. That is not a pavlovian response anymore than it is a pavlovian response in my work at the fire department when I trust the brands of turnout gear and airpacks that have worked for me time and time again. Sometimes even going beyond the published specs. People in ANY demanding profession gain loyalty and trust from thier experiences. And if the product did not perform it would not be favored for long.
The FPS rate of the Nikon D90 Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR). To get the full 4.5 FPS on the D90, switch your cameras mode dial to either S, A, or M. Lets say you have it in A (Aperture Priority). Dial down your aperture to the lowest your lens F stop is, like F2.8. Once you have done that, adjust your ISO according to your lighting to get a proper exposure without a lot of noise. Secondly, make sure that your shutter speed is 1/250th of a second or faster. Then, hold down the release mode button (Top Right on body with 3 frames) and move the main command dial, on back, to the multiple frames with an “H” image on the LCD screen on top. You will now be able to shoot at 4.5 frames per second!
I have a nikon d50 digital slr. and normally, when I put my memory card in…it says it will hold 551 frames (but that number of course varies with the type of pictures I take). Anyway, just recently, when i put my memory card in the camera, it’s been saying 280 something frames instead of the usual 551. Normally I can get nearly 650 frames, but now I’m only being able to get about 300. I formatted the card and everything. What’s wrong with it!?!?
Could be a couple of things. You could have a bad sector on your card. Or the settings on your camera could be different (i.e. the resolution, etc.)
January 30, 2009 A group of 40+ people came together late on a Friday night to do a rolling photo shoot. In attendance were a bunch of Subaru WRXs and Subaru STis from wrxatlanta.com. A bunch of S2000s from s2katlanta.com. A couple people fron miata.net. A few from vwvortex.com. A few GTRs (R35s, R34, R33) from nissangtrclub.com and nagtroc.org. There were at least two photographers with Canon EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR Cameras on the scene to provide some excellent shots. One person had an older Canon EOS 5D Mark I. I was running with a Nikon D90 and Nikon D50. None of the shots on the Nikon D50 came out. The Nikon D90 took a few good shots. There were over 500 shots taken and only about 10 came out OK. We rolled from the Ege Sushi (in Marietta) parking lot to the Varsity in downtown Atanta. We gathered a few more R35 GTRs, an NSX and other nice cars. We then cruised to Hartsfield Jackson airport for some tunnel shots. I personally think there were too many cars. I lost count after 35. The line of cars was so long it was hard to get everyone organized into groups. I would tell everyone in my group to continue on through the tunnel and back to 285 so we can do loops, but many thought I said to do a U-turn and just go back through the tunnel. So, yeah. It was not organized very well. My fault. I hope the next will be better. Thanks everyone for showing up. I apologize for the mass confusion.
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I have found that film is too expensive. I am going to go digital. Right now, i have a Nikon FM10. I am basically learning on it. Film got on my bad side when i took at least 30 pictures of a wedding and found that the film didnt hook so the film was blank. NE WAYS< I am looking at the Nikon D40. How much could i get one for? new or used. Will it work with my bag of old nikon lenses?
oh- i m serious about photography and hope to make a career but i hope to use the d40 as a full time use camera because of the lower price that the d50, d80, etc
I checked a few of your other questions and I gather that you are a student, meaning under age 18. Don’t let the others tell you not to get a D40, because it’s a great camera to start out with. No, it’s NOT professional level, but at least you will not be stuck in the wrong camera family. You can get the D40 with the 18-55 kit lens at B&H Photo available through Yahoo! Shopping or at 1-800-622-4987) for $550 (May 2007) and this is with TWO Lexar 1 GB cards. You can get the same kit with one Lexar Platinum (higher speed) card for $560. Or – get the D40 with 18-135 lens and 1 GB Lexar card for $760.
B&H also have the Nikon D40x, 10.2 Megapixel, SLR, Digital Camera Kit with Nikon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor Lens and 55-200mm f/4-5.6G IF-ED AF-S VR DX Zoom-Nikkor lens for $999.99. THIS is a great set-up, especially with the VR lens.
My reasoning is this… Even with the D40, you can add some awesome lenses. You do have to stick to the AF-S style to keep the auto-focus, but that’s not too much of a handicap. If you check www.nikonusa.com for "AF-S" lenses, which are ALL 100% compatible with the D40, you will find 23 lenses, including 7 "VR" (vibration Reduction) lenses and one true macro lens with "VR". There are another 25-plus lenses in the current catalog that provide all functions except autofocus as well as many (possibly dozens) "out of print" lenses that will work just as well. In addition, although these lens will not autofocus, most of them will still give focus confirmation. From the D40 manual: "If the lens has a maximum aperture of f/5.6 of faster, the viewfinder focus indicator can be used to confirm whether the portion of the subject in the selected focus area is in focus. After positioning the subject in the active focus area, press the shutter release button halfway and rotate the lens focusing ring until the in-focus indicator is displayed."
If you accumulate some nice AF-S lenses, and decide to move up to a D200 (my camera) or even better as something else comes along in the future, you will have some nice lenses to use and a decent spare body to fall back on.
Call me insane, but I’ve been meaning to make this list for a while…
Nikon AF-S Lenses as of May 27, 2007
ALL of these lenses can be used with ALL features available on the D40:
12-24mm f/4 G ED-IF AF-S DX
17-35mm f/2.8 D ED-IF AF-S
17-55mm f/2.8 G ED-IF AF-S DX
18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF II AF-S DX (The Kit Lens)
18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 G ED-IF AF-S DX
18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S DX
18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR DX
24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 G ED-IF AF-S
24-120mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR
28-70mm f/2.8 D ED-IF AF-S
55-200mm f/4-5.6 G ED AF-S DX
55-200mm f/4.5-5.6 G ED AF-S VR DX
70-200mm f/2.8 G ED-IF AF-S VR
70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR
200-400mm f/4 G ED-IF AF-S VR
105mm f/2.8 G ED-IF AF-S VR Macro
200mm f/2 G ED-IF AF-S VR
300mm f/2.8 G ED-IF AF-S VR
300mm f/4 D ED-IF AF-S
400mm F/2.8 D ED-IF AF-S II
500mm f/4 ED-IF AF-S II
600mm f/4D ED-IF AF-S II
That’s 22 lenses, including 9 VR lenses, one of which is an excellent macro lens.
There are also 3 AF-S teleconverters: 2x, 1.7x and 1.4x.
What do the letters mean?
G – A new subset of the D-type lenses, without an aperture ring. The aperture is set by a command dial on the camera body.
D – Lens provides distance to subject information to camera; useful for automatic flash setting
ED – Extra low dispersion glass; give superior sharpness and color rendition
IF – Internal focus – the lens does not rotate or extend as it focuses
AF-S – Auto-focus, silent wave focus engine contained inside the lens itself
DX – Lens formatted for digital sensors that should not be used on full frame cameras
VR – Vibration Reduction – a gyroscopic system to detect and correct camera shake to yield sharp images at slower shutter speeds
What’s not to like???
Buy the D40 and add some of these GREAT pro-quality lenses, knowing that your investment in lenses is not wasted.
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I have a Nikon D50 SLR digital camera with the 18-55mm lens kit. I just purchased the 52mm Sunpak Circular Polarizer to attach to my lens… I put it on but CANNOT get it off! I put it on nice and straight – the threads were even and all… but it has that outer ring that holds the actual glass that rotates and rotates, but does not tighten or loosen. The ring that have the threads is SO TINY that I cannot even get a grip enough to budge it! I put in on just to make sure it fit… and didn’t take the time to clean the lenses previously. I’m now stuck with a polarizer I can’t get off and a dirty lens I can’t clean. HELP ME!! Is there some special way to do it, or a tool I need? I’m lost and VERY UPSET and FRUSTRATED!
Yes, there are two rings with that kind of polarizer. The mounting ring and the rotating ring. You might try some rubber gloves and make sure you grip that mounting ring good and slowly add pressure as you turn it. Otherwise, take it to a camera shop as they may have a special tool that grips it better for you and if they happen to break anything then it is their fault. Still sounds like a slight cross thread though. Good luck.
The FPS rate of the 
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January 30, 2009 A group of 40+ people came together late on a Friday night to do a rolling photo shoot. In attendance were a bunch of Subaru WRXs and Subaru STis from wrxatlanta.com. A bunch of S2000s from s2katlanta.com. A couple people fron miata.net. A few from vwvortex.com. A few GTRs (R35s, R34, R33) from nissangtrclub.com and nagtroc.org. There were at least two photographers with Canon EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR Cameras on the scene to provide some excellent shots. One person had an older Canon EOS 5D Mark I. I was running with a Nikon D90 and 
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Taken with a 
Donât let its size fool you. We've packed tons of advanced features into the easy-to-use Olympus FE-3010 Digital Camera. It has everything you need to take razor-sharp photos, from Dual Image Stabilization technology to Smile Shot.
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