Small, and easy, and just too fun to use, the Nikon D40.

Firstly this is the camera replacement for the venerable D50. Primed before release to be called the "D60" Nikon decided instead on the "D40" name.

Accordingly announced on November16,2006, it steps up to the plate to go squarely against the Canon XT. This pint size DSLR has been a great success for Canon, and still going strong. Its "Digic" processor engine and easy use and small size has made it the great family camera.

At $599.99 with the 18mm-55mm lens, Nikon is in the sweet spot to duke it out with the Canon XT.

So great in fact I almost bought the Canon sight unseen and untouched. Glad I didn't. The body design and grip especially were too confining, and the body plastics were screaming "cheap" when I saw it and touched it. A Nikon D70s was next to the Canon, and I knew this was and is a very good camera, and tried it, and fell in love. What does Nikon do that there body designs are so good. Sure it is still Plastic, or Polycarbonate to be exact, but it felt strong and solid. The buttons large and easy to use. I bought it and had many happy times with it. Never any problems at all.

So happy in fact that I bought also a D200. This is my Hee-man rig for the real critical stuff. Solid Magnesium body with seals and gaskets all around. It has a great user interface with buttons big and easy to use. Canon can use some help here since a 30d was in the running here too.

Well I needed to replace my D70s with still a smaller more up to date "grab and go" camera picture taker, and a great vacation camera. No point and shoots for me thank you.

Again the Polycarbonate on steel frame body of the D40 was/is amazing. This peewee hitter felt great in my King Kong hands. The grip perfect, controls so easy to use like I had this camera for 5 years and not 5 minutes.

The back of the camera only has the gorgeous 2.5" 230,000 pixel display rivals my D-200. The look of the camera functions since there is no top LCD status screen is in "graphic" mode as a default. A light gray with black script. A "classic" mode, and in my opinion easier to read is also available with a more contrasting color backgrounds, with the white script. Try them both and see which works for you.

Just 4 buttons to the left of the LCD, view playback, menu, image reduce, image zoom. Right of the LCD Auto Focus Lock , and Command dial, just below the navigation buttons and "ok" buttons and lastly, the delete or trash it button. Top of the camera, the requisite Hot shoe or accessory shoe, the Mode dial including scene modes. Top of the grip is the power collar, and shutter release, and exposure adjust control and the "info" buttons.

So just 9 buttons and 2 dials. Not bad. Left side are your USB port and video. Right is the slide-back pop open door for your SD memory cards. Yes, the greater than 2 gig memory cards are supported too. That is the "SDHC" cards. Bottom is the tripod mount which is in perfect line of the lens center line. Battery hatch for the Li-Ion Nikon EN-EL9 1000 mah battery cell. About 4/5th scale of my D-200 or d-70s battery. More of a rectangular block vs. the double hump style of the other cameras I have. In the box, all the instructions, strap, battery charger, lens 18mm-55mm, USB cable. This time all in 1 box. Not 2 like my other cameras. You know, lens box, and body box. Video cable for your tv is missing..now an option. Silly, how much could that cable cost Nikon?!

I gave my brother the 18mm-55mm with the D70s he is using, so my use with the D40 is with the 18mm-70mm AF-S Nikkor lens for my comments here.

A word about lenses here is that the body does not have a lens motor drive for focusing so you must use AF-S or AF-I lenses. These type of lenses have the motors inside the lens itself. My F 1.8 55mm which I used on my D70s and D20o auto focus just fine. On the D40 this lens and my G lens 70mm-300mm zoom lens is a focus it yourself situation. No big deal to me, but could be a deal breaker those who have older Nikkor lenses.

One other small rant is the plastic lens mount I keep seeing on some of the kit lenses. The 18mm-55mm that came with this camera had this and my G 70mm-300mm has this cheap plastic mounting ring too. Once again Nikon cheaps out for no good reason. Ok, I'll pay $20.00 more for a metal mount. Rant over.

The color with this camera is great. You have to get that white balance right by the way. I never use the auto white balance or the presets in the camera. I use the "PRE" white balance option with my white or gray exposure card and adjust my white balance with that. You know old habits.

Image is a bit soft but Nikons have always been that way. I tweaked the sharpness a bit and all is good there. The "Custom image menu" is a must do to get the most out of the D40. Color space, sharpness, hue etc. Go through them you will be glad you did. I have to say out of the box the D40 is a bit sharper than my D70s was. Shadow detail is very good, though my D200 is slightly better I think, but only just. I am going to take this camera up to Seattle Washington for my vacation, so all the greenery on color space "IIIa" will be put to the test. By the color space 1a for for portraits and color space "II" AdobeRGB for extensive retouching since there is a wider of color gamut than I, IIIa color space. "I" and "IIIa" are set for direct print by the way too.

I am not a scene mode user, but I tried a few here, and they seem to work ok. The most dubious is the "kids" mode which I think Nikon should be taken out to the woodshed for creating. I use mostly Aperture,Shutter, or Manual mode with Program mode if I need that grab with no fuss shot.

On the by, the Shutter is real quiet on this camera. Quieter than my D70s and D200 by a long shot. Nature photo bugs rejoice. Very impressed by its silence. The 2.5 frames a second seem about right though where that .5 frame is going to me any good is anyones guess. Inside if a bit low for the class but so what. My D-200 will do 5 frames a second if that were of any importance to me. I rather get 3 great shots than 100 wasted frames for hopefully those 3 that I would want.

My favorite feature being a fill flash fiend is the 1/500th flash sync speed. Terrific for those moments I want to stop the action and control the shadows of my shot. For comparison, my D70s was 1/500th the D200 is 1/250th and my slowest was my Olympus E-10 at 160th second. I know I am spoiled, film cameras were hot with 1/125th, typical was more like 1/60th. I can't help it but that kind of speed is wonderful. Ken Rockwell explains it better than me why that is so great. The D40x by the is 1/250th also just to compare. The Canon Xt is slower too at 1/200th second.

I don't know if that is a big deal for everyone else, but I like that Nikon held that spec for this camera of 1/500th.

No Creative lighting support here on this camera. Just like the D50 of before. This feature allows you to master and slave 3 flash heads to create that just perfect lighting situation. Great for portraits for killing unwanted shadows and so on. It is sent via a flash pulse from the master flash to trigger the slave flash heads. The D40 is compatible with a wide choice of flash units and the SB-400 is a great match. Good power output, small size to match the D40s size. My SB-800 flash makes my D40 tiny but works great with the D40.

Battery power seems very good in duration. Will it be like my D70s where it takes forever to kill the battery. I hope so. Early to tell. I bought an extra battery just in case. They are cheap and always great to have a spare. The SD card memory is cheap too if you shop carefully. I paid about $25.00 each for Sandisk 2 gig and that wasn't even working hard. Memory is cheap anyway, and it is always great to have spares since they can go bad eventually, and you don't want to be stranded without memory. i hate the horrible strap that comes with the camera. Buy a nice comfy one with a wide width since it takes the weight off you neck and you don't feel like you have been carrying a bowling ball around your neck all day.

I will update this post as time goes by, software update and other impressions pending.
Update: 08-04-2007. Battery life is good, however my D-70s lasted longer. Now this is a smaller battery capacity than my D-70s. I took many pictures at the Boeing Museum of flight, and was amazed how fast the internal battery power dropped when using the flash extensively. I did take about 360 pictures combined with and without flash before the battery low warning came up. So I would recommend carrying a spare battery for your all day shoots. They are small. Carry a small camera bag with you for your consumables extra lenses etc. Batteries don't like extremes of temperature. In this case heat from being in a car etc. reduces the batteries efficiency greatly. Cold the same way. Picture quality is great capturing the greenery of Seattle Washington, and all the sites. I shot in JPG large and was very happy with the results. Up coming will be shooting in RAW. I look forward to seeing how this little mighty mite does.

So who wants this camera? A beginner looking to get a great "inexpensive" DSLR and wants an alternative Canon's fine XT.
A nice second body for the Nikon system committed, and where the big hee-man is not necessary or desired. Great for non geeks looking to go beyond the limits of point and shoots.

Considering all my D200 does, it is great that this camera doesn't cram all that into this small easy to use package. I hate it when a great camera with a small form factor gets all that Bloat-ware crammed into it.

I am looking forward for those special gatherings and vacation trips where the big guy (my D-200) gets to stay home, and gives my neck a rest.

So far I am delighted with this camera. Recommended for the first family DSLR camera. For comparison check out the Canon XT, the Olympus E-410, the Pentax k100, and the Sony Alpha too just to get a feel of what is possible. I think you will like the Nikon best.
Thanks for reading. V.C.