Starting out - thinking about the Nikon D40

dudara

Hi all,

I'm a complete novice to serious photography, but I've about E300-400 to spare at the moment and I'm considering buying an SLR camera and getting serious about the photos I take. I'll be using to take photos on a regular basis and want a starter camera that can handle landscapes as well as indoors.

I've been browsing pixmania to get some idea of what is available to me, and the Nikon D40 (with an AS-F lens included) for approx E400 looks good - link. I know that the lens has an auto-focus motor built in, and older lenses would have to be manually focused, but that doesn't worry me right now.

I'd appreciate some input from more experienced users. This is a big enough purchase to make.

Lionsden

I have the D40 and no regrets, it is a good camera. Can't say anything about pixmania though, as I haven't had any dealings with them.

dakar

My experience of pixmania has been mixed, I bought quite a bit of stuff from them when I was still a bit nervous of HK sellers on eBay (I'm a convert now though) including my first DSLR, a Nikon D50.

When they're good they're good, reasonably priced, no tax worries and fairly fast delivery.

When they went wrong, twice they managed to send me the wrong stuff, I found their customer service pretty poor (well at least until one poor sod sent me a reply on his own company email rather than the standard donotreply@whatever.com, I found that hassling him directly yielded pretty fast results!)

You pays your money etc.......

mcdonnells

This is a GREAT camera to kick off on. Does 90% of what you need and allows you to play (With Forgiveness)
Mixed with Pixmania also.
Advantage to Conns and the Like is Free Sensor cleaning. Doesnt sound like much (New Camera, Many Lenses to try You Will benefit from this.)
There are some Great offers Second hand, if not too prudish ;-()

Some will argue that 6MP is a little Low, I have found that this forces me to focus better on the photography.

Lens Wise. Forgoe the Kit 18-55.
Try to negotiate an 18-200 VR (You will be eventually buying one anyway)
Next an 85mm 1.8 (Classic for Portraits) (Manual Focus on D40)
Then 105 Macro (Not VR) Excellent. (Manual Focus on D40)
Some images on http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcdonnells/
Also recommend training after you get used to it. I VERY highly recommend Digital Beginners.

Enjoy the next weeks deciding ;-))

Ricky91t

Dont buy a D40 buy a D50 or a D80
The D40 hasnt got an af motor making many lens only manual focus on it.
Buy a D50 you'll get one cheaper and alot more lenses will AF with it

bbbbb

I was in a similar position a few months back & decided to go down the second hand route. e.g. this d40 looks like it sold for 300 with accessories. My logic was that if it's not my thing, or I want to upgrade, I should be able to sell on again without losing so much.

Fajitas!

6 megapixels will do you just fine, but if you didn't mind buying second hand, and going Canon, check out second hand 400D's - Or 350D's for that matter - Are both nice camera, and you should be able to pick up a good deal on them without much trouble. The other thing I'd suggest, is go into some of the camera places about town and play with the cameras so you know how they feel, this is pretty important, because you're going to be handling it for a lotta time (Hopefully )