Nikon D40...stupid question??

Plasticpants

Hi all, sorry if this is a ridiculous question! I got myself a Nikon D40 last week. Just wondering as this is my first SLR.... the images on the playback menu are quite crappy!! Well not crappy but contoured if that makes sense. Is this normal?? Just wanted to check! Thanks

Mycroft H

Contured? Is it like pixelated?

mrmac

Not really sure what you mean. I wonder if the "crappy contours" are flashing? If so you're referring to the Highlights option, which may have been switched on, and causing you some confusion.

Try this: go to Playback menu, select Display Option and turn Highlight OFF.

This is actually a very useful feature, as it indicates if a picture has any over / under exposed sections.

If that's not it, leave it OFF anyway, come back and let us know.

Plasticpants

No it's not the flashing highlight option, I have that switched off at the moment. It's not a huge deal it's just that I'm not getting a true sense of the pic on playback. It just seems that any contrasting areas of dark and light are very defined. For instance shading on a persons face. Sorry if this makes no sense!!

zdooldreb

Were the pictures taken under difficult lighting conditions?
Did you try taking the pics off the camera and viewing on a PC?

As regards the highlight option. You can leave this turned on. Then when you view the photos in playback mode hit the up button on the selection wheel to change the viewing options e.g 1. is just the pic. 2. is with highlights turned on. 3. is histogram and I think there is a 4th as well.

CabanSail

Maybe you should try to reset the camera to default settings & work from there, in case you have fiddled with something.

There should be two buttons with Green Dots. Hold those down & it should reset the camera.

AnCatDubh

hmnnn.... if you were able to take a picture of the back of the D40 on your mobile phone or other digital camera and upload a pic it would be useful to people for assisting you.

Cosmo K

Well, the D40's display isn't that great really. Have you tried to 'zoom' into the picture?

Plasticpants

Cheers, I'll have a mess around and see what I can do. The pics on the PC are perfect, just the LCD display so not a big deal I suppose. Early days yet so I'll keep at it.... thanks for your replies!

dudara

In my opinion the D40 doesn't have a great LCD display - in the sense that it's not the most accurate representation of the photo.

However, as you get used to the display and the subsequent photos, you'll learn to interpret the display.