Nikon D40 SLR First Impressions
This camera is a Nikon D40 Digital SLR.
It is Nikon's entry level, thus cheapest DSLR.
I have recently bought this camera, my previous being a 'big zoom' compact.
Below are some of the impressions of the D40 coming from a compact camera.
Coming from a compact camera, the first thing that I noticed was the speed.
Sure, the D40 is not quick by DSLR standards, but coming from a compact camera, it feels like the shutter is instantaneous.
The 2.
5 frames per second continuous shooting rate is years ahead of most compacts.
While other DSLRs may be even quicker, I never found the D40 to be sluggish in use, except for moments where the autofocus did not react fast enough.
The autofocus system on the D40 is fairly simple, with only 3 focus points.
I had some trouble adjusting to this in the first days.
You have to have one of the autofocus points somewhere near a contrasty area in the picture.
This is quite unlike compact cameras, which focus, slowly, but they do in the end.
If you point the D40 somewhere with no contrast at all, it will often not be able to find focus.
One of the most pleasant surprises was the shutter noise of the D40.
I had feared a loud shutter noise because I had gotten used to the almost nonexistent shutter noise of my compact.
It was great for taking pictures without being noticed.
The shutter noise of the D40 is very quiet and smooth for a DSLR.
Of course, having real parts move inside the camera every time you take a picture has another effect as well: It is somehow much more satisfying to take pictures.
Every time you take a picture, you get a little klinkity klank, and that feels good.
You get the impression that what you did was more than just shuffling electrons around.
The usability of the D40 is exemplary.
I specifically mean the playback functionality, looking through the pictures, zooming in, out and deleting them.
The buttons on the left of the screen include the playback, zoom in and out.
The directional pad on the right allows you to scroll around in the zoomed picture.
It also navigates through the pictures when not zoomed in.
Simply use the left thumb to zoom, right thumb to scroll in picture and to move to next/prev picture.
This works like a dream and it takes hardly any time to get used to.
Deleting pictures is so easy, you wonder why not all cameras have the same functionality? Push the delete button twice.
Done.
Probably the biggest plus over my old compact camera was the colors.
While I was pretty happy with my compact in good light, the colors from the D40 are on another level.
It is very hard to describe this in words, but the colors just look so much better.
Another good thing is that you don't get blown out skies so often.
This happens when the camera cannot recognize the really light blue of the sky and renders it completely white, a common problem for many compacts.
This was one of the most annoying things on my old camera.
One of the negative points of moving up to a DSLR was camera shake.
Since my compact had a stabilized lens and the D40 did not, I had quite a lot more trouble with camera shake.
It is not that the D40 is prone to a lot of camera shake; it is just that my little compact had really spoiled me with image stabilization.
I also think that camera shake is easier to see on a DSLR since the resulting image is much crisper and cleaner.
It is Nikon's entry level, thus cheapest DSLR.
I have recently bought this camera, my previous being a 'big zoom' compact.
Below are some of the impressions of the D40 coming from a compact camera.
Coming from a compact camera, the first thing that I noticed was the speed.
Sure, the D40 is not quick by DSLR standards, but coming from a compact camera, it feels like the shutter is instantaneous.
The 2.
5 frames per second continuous shooting rate is years ahead of most compacts.
While other DSLRs may be even quicker, I never found the D40 to be sluggish in use, except for moments where the autofocus did not react fast enough.
The autofocus system on the D40 is fairly simple, with only 3 focus points.
I had some trouble adjusting to this in the first days.
You have to have one of the autofocus points somewhere near a contrasty area in the picture.
This is quite unlike compact cameras, which focus, slowly, but they do in the end.
If you point the D40 somewhere with no contrast at all, it will often not be able to find focus.
One of the most pleasant surprises was the shutter noise of the D40.
I had feared a loud shutter noise because I had gotten used to the almost nonexistent shutter noise of my compact.
It was great for taking pictures without being noticed.
The shutter noise of the D40 is very quiet and smooth for a DSLR.
Of course, having real parts move inside the camera every time you take a picture has another effect as well: It is somehow much more satisfying to take pictures.
Every time you take a picture, you get a little klinkity klank, and that feels good.
You get the impression that what you did was more than just shuffling electrons around.
The usability of the D40 is exemplary.
I specifically mean the playback functionality, looking through the pictures, zooming in, out and deleting them.
The buttons on the left of the screen include the playback, zoom in and out.
The directional pad on the right allows you to scroll around in the zoomed picture.
It also navigates through the pictures when not zoomed in.
Simply use the left thumb to zoom, right thumb to scroll in picture and to move to next/prev picture.
This works like a dream and it takes hardly any time to get used to.
Deleting pictures is so easy, you wonder why not all cameras have the same functionality? Push the delete button twice.
Done.
Probably the biggest plus over my old compact camera was the colors.
While I was pretty happy with my compact in good light, the colors from the D40 are on another level.
It is very hard to describe this in words, but the colors just look so much better.
Another good thing is that you don't get blown out skies so often.
This happens when the camera cannot recognize the really light blue of the sky and renders it completely white, a common problem for many compacts.
This was one of the most annoying things on my old camera.
One of the negative points of moving up to a DSLR was camera shake.
Since my compact had a stabilized lens and the D40 did not, I had quite a lot more trouble with camera shake.
It is not that the D40 is prone to a lot of camera shake; it is just that my little compact had really spoiled me with image stabilization.
I also think that camera shake is easier to see on a DSLR since the resulting image is much crisper and cleaner.
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