A Noob’s Review: Nikon D40 DSLR

When was the last time you wanted to try out a new hobby so bad, but just the thought of buying all the gear made you cringe? That has never happened to me. Case in point when I wanted to learn how to snowboard. I went out and rented gear the first time around and the following weekend I bought a brand new Option snowboard, with Salomon boots and bindings, all the excessive gear totalling just shy of $2,000. What better way to start a new hobby than to just jump right in.

Unfortunately that’s not what happened with my emerging photography career. I’ve been looking for cameras since the beginning of last summer. You hear it all the time, the camera doesn’t make the photo–rather the mastermind pointing it does. Or something to that effect.  I used to have a Canon S500 (est. 2004) which has treated me like a king. It still takes great pictures, and accounts for my memory on those drunken nights at the club.

But I wanted more. I wasn’t sure yet, but I did some research. From DPreview.com to the inner clockwork of my photo-junkie friends, I found my solution: the Nikon D40 DSLR.

It’s the perfect entry-level DSLR and I’m pretty much as noob as it gets with photography right now (although the D40′s autofocus auto-iso mode makes me look professional). It’s probably the easiest DSLR to use for all you point-and-shoot’ists. It’s the easiest one I’ve ever used (considering my vast experience in digital photography). Out of the box (after you charge the batter and plug in the memory card of course) it works like a dream! Set the focus mode to A (for auto.. zing!) and the picture mode to Auto, point at an unsuspecting victim and shoot. Of course there is more to this camera than it’s idiot-proof functionality…

The 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 Lens

What do all those numbers and letters mean, you ask? The 18-55mm is the focal length of the lens. It’s a measurement of how strongly the lens focuses light–I like to call it the zoom factor (note: do not take that as a digital photography term, otherwise your friends will laugh at you). The f3.5-5.6 denotes the aperture of the lens. If you want to take a photo of a single object and focus mainly on that object, you’ll want to use a wide aperture. For scattered objects at different distances, you’d want to use a more narrow aperture.

Lens craft 101 – check.

One thing about this lens is that it uses an internal autofocus module and therefore only works with other cameras using AF-S lenses. But seriously, does that matter to you? No, this is a noob’s review. This lens will be used in most applications and in the need of upgrading, just keep that thought in mind.

Sexiness Factor

The screen is crystal clear, and helps when you just may have mucked up your first 10 shots. Go back, recompose the shot, and take another 100. I use an 8gb SDHC card with my D40 and it’s great! After taking a slew of horrible pictures, it’s pretty quick to go review them on the spot and filter out the crap. A feature which would have been great to have with my dad’s old Canon 35mm film SLR (which is older than me btw).

The D40 is definitely no digital elph, but it isn’t excessively heavy. Although I wouldn’t lug this baby into a club. Roadtrips, day trips, work travels–this masterpiece works great. It also comes with a handy strap so you can truly pull off the “local tourist” look. Took me about 5 minutes to truly understand that I don’t know how to attach the strap, so I cracked open the manual and you wouldn’t believe the functionality with this thing.

As a noob, I’ll refrain from the technical details. So let’s keep on topic. Right out of the box there are several features which are hidden (from people like us who don’t know how to use them). It’s great to familiarize yourself with it before you actually start playing around with the lighting, compositions etc. This is why I really like this camera. It gives you the chance to really get good at the nooby features and once you’re ready, crack open google and start searching for tips. You certainly won’t get any good ones in this article

I have a few photos up on my flikr site, but I will definitely post some better examples as soon as I can. Work firewalls can be a bitch.

All in all I recommend this camera to you entry level folk who want to get into photography and don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for a quality DSLR. Suck it up, tell your girlfriend you’re not buying her a new LV purse and go pick one of these bad boys up.

Cameras are way cooler than girls anyways [sidenote: I do not necessarily agree, but it's a great way to convince you to buy one]