Home > Consumer Reviews > Nikon D40 6.1MP Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II AF-S DX and 55-200mm f/4.5-5.6G ED AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor Lens with 2 Nikon School DVD

Have lived with this camera for a while now and have nothing but superlatives to say about it. I currently have both the 18-55 "standard" lens and the 55-200 "VR" lens.

I have a background in professional industrial photography and quite frankly if you can't do it with this camera you probably can't do it with anything. Even with it's myriad of features and settings my wife can take good pictures with it. The built in flash works very well but for more power and range pick up a Nikon SB-400 flash at a bit over $100. Picture quality is all that one could ask for. Save your money and get the D40 rather than the higher priced models.

KenRockwell.com has an excellent after market downloadable manual for the D40 in pdf format that gives a lot of easy to use help on choosing the optimal settings. You should download a copy from his site before your camera arrives. Much more readable than the factory manual.

With the price of SD cards coming down I suggest you get the high speed version of the cards (I use the SanDisk Ultra III cards) and save the older slow cards for your digital picture frames. A 2 GB card will hold around 500 images at highest quality. Order one

My only complaint is that the dedicated macro lenses are quite pricey compared to the standard lenses, but I have been getting excellent results using supplementary close-up lenses on the normal lenses--just not as convenient as a dedicated macro lens for some work.

As for accessories it depends what you really need to accomplish what you want, but I'd suggest the following to start

Extra SD card
52 mm UV filers for all lenses (mainly to protect the lens)
HB45 lens shade (if your 18-55 mm lens doesn't have one)
Tripod and/or monopod
Small camera bag
Lens cleaning kit
Spare battery
SB-400 flash (Get the SC-28 TTL flash cord to if you like to use your flash off camera for lighting control.)

I wanted to make the move into digital format for my SLR, and I have to say this was probably one of the best investments I've made for a camera. I've been shooting since I was 12 years old with SLR's, my first camera was a Nikon FG,all manual tank of a camera. I never thought that a digital SLR could compete with my film camera, but I'll tell you what, it certainly does.

The biggest thing i've noticeed is the color that it captures, the saturation is unbelievable, skin tones look amazing, and landscape photos bring out the most brilliant colors, yellows, reds and greens alike. The focusing on the camera is quick, and precise. I do recommend purchasing the SB-400 flash as well though. The built in flash is nice, but it suffers from the same downfalls as built in's on point and shoots, it just washes things out.

This camera is great for beginners, as well as more advanced users. The menu's are easy to read, and simply laid out, you can find practically any setting you may want in no time at all. But if you want to take pictures fast, throw it in program, bounce the SB-400 off the ceiling and take away, the pictures all come out great! If your a more advanced user the options available to actually edit your photo's after the pictures been taken, as well as the freedom of having a full manual setup is a dream, and easy to use as well.

The 2 lenses in the kit should fulfill any need for the average photographer, and to be honest, I haven't even had an oppurtunity to try the 55-200 lens yet, the 18-55 has been incredibly versatile, and the close focusing ability of the lens allows for some amazing close ups for flowers and such.

I still can't believe the quality of the pictures that this camera is capable of producing. I went to a butterfly exhibit in my town, and took a picture of an amazingly bright blue butterfly. Unfortunately I was only able to get about 3 feet from it, couldn't get closer due to barriers, but even so, with the 18-55 zoomed in on it, I further zoomed in and cropped the photo at home, and blew it up to an 8x10, and it was perfect. The color of the butterfly was just as bright, and just as crisp, and there was no distortion from the additional zooming in and cropping of the original.

The display on the back of the camera is just as fantastic as the rest of the camera, it's bright (actually had to dim it down in the settings menu) crisp and clear.

If your looking for the perfect digital SLR to get into, this is the one, it's simple, VERY light weight, and the pictures are absolutely amazing.

If you are ready to drop the point-and-shoot world, but don't want to spend a lot of money then get the Nikon D40. Definitely need to get at least a 4GB SD card and 2 lenses. I recommend the 18-55mm and the 55-200mm as a good start.

I cannot sing the praises of the NIKON D40 loud enough. This kit is spectacular. The teaching DVDs are fantastic: easy to understand, pleasant, fun. I am below novice level when it comes to photography. Initially, I bought a Kodak Easy Share V550 for my introduction to digital photography. The Easy Share was a complete disaster: Very short battery life, tiny little buttons, problems right and left. For Christmas, my husband got the NIKON D40 with the kit. Now my photos are unbelievably good, even great sometimes. The NIKON D40 is not pocket-sized but if taking great photos is what you are after, this is the camera to buy. Worth every cent and then some.

After purchasing a Sony digital that the store owner raved about and I was totally disgusted with by the time I decided to shop for a new camera, I am the very happy owner of a Nikon D40. (I have owned -and loved- three other Nikons.) This camera is reasonably priced for the quality and has predictably good results! I want close to 100% satisfaction when I shoot a photo. Thanks to Nikon, that's exactly what I get.