Just picked up a new camera as I'm tired of using my exilim point and shoot and being disappointed in the image quality. It's great for nights on the town but not much else.

So I started looking around and found a new Nikon D40 with a nice nikon case, 4 GB SD card, gimpy tripod and a small cleaning kit with screen protectors. Bought it as a kit with the 18-55mm standard kit lens. All said and done for $300 shipped with 3 year warranty.

So far in the 30 minutes I've played with it I'm happy with the purchase but I have no idea what many of the controls are. I'm used to older manual 35mm cameras that lack features of any kind besides being able to stop the lens down to check depth of field. On to reading the manual.

Also looking at picking up the Nikkor 18-200mm F/3.5 VR lens as pretty much a full time replacement for the more common 18-55mm 55-200mm dual lens package people go for. I've seen many incredible pictures taken with the ultrazoom and it is by far a good enough lens for what I'll be using it for.

 

Congrats. I came from all manual cameras too-- and still shoot that way with my dslr. But the real bonus is all the things that the dslr can do beyond that.

 

I love my [mom's] D40.

 

I've got the same camera with the 18-55mm kit lens. I picked up a 70-300mm VR lens . I also picked up this speedlight.

With kids the flash is an absolute must in my opinion.

 

Nice man, Thats a pretty good deal!

 

Sweet man.

I love the ability to zoom way in with my 200mm and really capture the moment rather than be up in people's faces and have them pose for shots.

I have the D40x and the kit 18-55 and 55-200 package, non VR. To tell you the truth, I'm not really sure if I regret going non VR as I've never really had much of a need for it. I guess it might just be a "you never miss is till you have had it" type thing.

Some taken recently with the 55-200mm lens.









Also play around with the 18mm side of things, as I have been really impressed with how wide that lens is.



I'm also looking for a pair of speedlights and a remote system to be in my possession in the near future.

 

Nice pictures. I'm looking forward to getting the 18-200 VR lens, I can get it new with warranty for right at $360 so it's not too aweful expensive and not having to carry around another large zoom lens makes that worth it to me. I already like the kit lens provided with the camera.

 

Where new at 360? Id pick one up right now for that money.

 

IMO VR is an option you want. It could make the difference between getting a usable image or not. And it makes even a bigger difference the longer the lens. I had a sigma 50-500, non IS/VR. It is amazingly sharp for a large zoom. I went out and took ten hand held shots at 400mm with the sigma, and then took ten shots with my dad's 100-400L with image stabilization. One of the images is was tack sharp with the sigma, while nine were tack sharp with the 100-400. I put the sigma up for sale after that and bought the 100-400. IMO it's better to wait and save for the best lens you can afford. The glass has far more to do with image quality than the camera body.

 

It was on ebay: NIKON D40 D-SLR DIGITAL CAMERA +18-55mm LENS +4GB +7 - eBay (item 270298699132 end time Nov-14-08 19:31:43 PST)

Then I used live.com 25% cash back and another 10% off paypal coupon code it was like choliday10 or something. So it was 300 shipped for all that.

m2, I hear you on waiting for the best glass I can buy, thats why I want this Nikkor 18-200 instead of the Sigma version thats less money. Both have VR/OS but I want the faster/quieter/lighter Nikkor.

I'll pay more money for things if I plan to use them alot and have them along time. Same idea goes for tools. Easy to understand.

 

Aren't you glad I suggested it? ....for the price as an intro into a DSLR, it can't be beat.

 

Yeah, I was looking at the D60 and D90 real hard but wtf for 2X or 4X the cost it just wasn't worth it to me to go that route, not at this point.

 

Damn, sweet deal. Definately jealous of the camera. I want a DSLR but the chancellor of finances would not approve anything over a "near-DSLR". So I got all the bulkiness of a DSLR with the usable functionality of a simple point n shoot.

 

Yeah the thing is you can get an old used DSLR for like 150 if you shop hard enough. I just wanted new with 3 yr warranty. And i dont like the idea of someone itching their nuts and touching my shutter button.

 

lol

Yeah man, that is a killer deal. In reality, there is not any noticeable difference between the D40-D60 besides the lens and the extra megapixels (which don't matter unless you are making posters).

 

I just sold my old canon D60 with <8k actuations for $200 and it was like new condition. That's the goin' rate for old dslrs. Nice thing about the older ones is that they were $2-3k new and built rock solid.

 

Did you replace the D60 yet?

 

Where did you find the Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens for 360? I buy it in a heartbeat for that price.

Also, be careful using live cashback with the paypal coupon. It states in the Terms and Conditions (17. Live Search cashback) that:

"You will not earn cashback rewards on purchases where...(g) you also use a separate discount or coupon"

I'm not sure if people have still gotten it to work ok, so if it does work for you, awesome deal. I got my D40 kit for 300 a couple months ago when Live cashback first launched with 35% cashback. Of course it took an extra month, but I got the money.

 

Yes. I got a 1D MkII. But I got all my lenses first. Of course cameras and lenses are a lot like the car, aren't they? There's always something else to buy, or sell and then buy.

 

1D's are so nice. I'm going to give Nikon a whirl. I've used Minolta and Canon in the past. A guy back home had a brand new 1D when I was in highschool (2000-04) and he would let me borrow all of his badass equipment in exchange for detailing his cars Worked out well.
We used to do weddings together as well. He used the 1D for stills and I did all the video with his XL2.