Nikon Chat: Nikon Digital Cameras and Equipment

By admin 　http://www.nikonchat.com/nikon-coolpix-e6400/

Which of these cameras do you think …..?

I want to get a different camera, but i don’t really know much about cameras. I looked online and these are the ones that i kind of liked:

Ana, it’s no secret here that I like the Nikon D40 over the Rebels. It’s the spot meter, if nothing else, that wins me over.

I’ll post my stock answers here, just to test the limits of our answer length. First is my usual thing about the D40. Next compares the D40 and Rebel XT. Next compares the D40X and XTi.

Shop at B&H, though. Ask me if you don’t know how to find them. They have the exact same kit you linked to for $475. Add a good memory card and you are still about $75 less than the place you linked. Adorama is probably cheaper, too. Both are excellent retailers.

Here we go…

Nikon D40

The Nikon D40 is a great little camera, very easy to use and quite reasonably priced. It’s just under $500 with a lens. It has a few “consumer friendly” totally automatic modes that make it very easy to use, but still offers total photographic control when you are ready to take charge. It will get you in the Nikon family which is a great place to be. If you buy accessories and lenses, you will be able to use everything on any Nikon that you might upgrade to later on. The user manual is among the easiest to use, also, including three pages of “frequently asked questions” that could put Yahoo! Answers out of business.

Check out Nikon’s “Picturetown” promotion, where they handed out 200 D40′s in Georgetown, SC. http://www.stunningnikon.com/picturetown/

Here are a few reviews, in case you have not read them yet. Be sure to note that they are several pages long and some of the reviews also have some sample images that you can look at.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond40/

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2007_reviews/nikon_d40.html

http://www.popphoto.com/cameras/3756/camera-test-nikon-d40.html

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d40/d40-recommendations.htm

I hate to see people slam the camera because it can’t autofocus with older Nikon lenses. It is true that there is a “slight problem” with older Nikon lenses not autofocusing on the D40, but if you do not own a bag full of older lenses, it is not going to be a problem. It is barely a problem anyhow. If you check www.nikonusa.com for “AF-S” lenses, which are ALL 100% compatible with the D40, you will find 28 lenses, including 13 “VR” (vibration Reduction) lenses and one true macro lens with “VR”. There are another 25-plus lenses in the current catalog that provide all functions except autofocus as well as many (possibly dozens) “out of print” lenses that will work just as well. In addition, although these lens will not autofocus, most of them will still give focus confirmation. From the D40 manual: “If the lens has a maximum aperture of f/5.6 of faster, the viewfinder focus indicator can be used to confirm whether the portion of the subject in the selected focus area is in focus. After positioning the subject in the active focus area, press the shutter release button halfway and rotate the lens focusing ring until the in-focus indicator is displayed.” (See http://www.members.aol.com/swf08302/nikonafs.txt for a list of AF-S lenses or see http://www.nikonians.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=read_count&om=16715&forum=DCForumID201 for even more…)

The D40 only has 3 autofocus zones arranged horizontally at the center, 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock positions. This might be considered a limitation, but realistically, most people will find this perfectly adequate, especially if you are moving up from a point and shoot with only a center zone.

There is no “Status LCD” on top of the camera, but Nikon chose to use the rear LCD for this information. This is actually a nice move, as the display is bigger than the top display and you aren’t using the read LCD for anything BEFORE you take the picture anyway. This is not a step backwards and it actually makes sense to me.

You can get the D40 with the 18-55 kit lens at B&H Photo available through Yahoo! Shopping or at 1-800-622-4987) for $475 (December 2007). Add a Lexar Platinum (60X speed) card for $25 or 2 GB for $35. Or – get the D40 with 18-135 lens and 1 GB Lexar card for around $700. This is a decent lens and it is very versatile. You will find it suitable for pretty much anything you want to do, other than really long telephoto shots. It will let you explore the range of focal lengths to decide where to start filling in your lens collection. If you don’t want to buy any more lenses, this one will carry you through pretty much everything. B&H also have used D40′s with the lens from $419.

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Nikon D40 vs. D40X

You can get a nikon d40x, 10.2 Megapixel, SLR, Digital Camera Kit with Nikon 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor Lens and Two SanDisk 2GB Ultra II Secure Digital (SD) Card from B&H Photo for less that $1,000 (July 2007), including shipping.

I’d lean towards the D40X, since it’s “only” $135 more than the D40 and you sure can’t buy a decent lens for so little money.

There are a few slight differences in these cameras that need to be considered. Rather than write it all out, I’ll send you to a few sites.

See: http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d40x.htm

See: http://www.popphoto.com/cameras/3896/camera-test-nikon-d40x.html for a glowing review.

See also:

http://www.popphoto.com/popularphotographyfeatures/4431/top-25-best-buys.html

http://www.bythom.com/d40review.htm

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_post.asp?method=sidebyside&cameras=nikon_d40%2Cnikon_d40x&show=all

See also:

http://www.nikonians.org/dcforum/DCForumID201/17255.html

See the REVIEW here:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond40x/

As far as the pixel issue, I say, if you have no other basis for making your decision, go for more pixels. If you always plan to compose your pictures perfectly, you don’t need a whole lot of pixels. If you want to allow for cropping, which means enlarging only a portion of your image, the more pixels the better.

Imagine taking a scenic view and then noticing that the middle 20% of the photo would make an even better picture. Suppose you take a picture of a whole group of people and Aunt Clara really, really looks great in the picture, but everyone else looks lousy. If you have the pixels to work with, you can still make a decent print of Aunt Clara that she would be happy to have. If you buy an 8-to-10 MP camera and don’t want to TAKE large photos, you can always set the camera to a lower file size. You can never go the other direction, though. Unless the cost is a major issue, buy the camera with more pixels. You will never be sorry that you did, but you might one day be sorry that you didn’t.

I have a few photos on Flickr to include in a discussion on how many pixels are enough. Go to my page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/tags/pixels/ Some of the pictures are from a 4 MP or even 3 MP camera, showing you what you might expect without any cropping. I think they are quite acceptable. Some of the pictures are from a 10 MP camera (the swan and the pansies), showing the value of having those large images so that you can crop a smaller image out of the original picture and still end up with a satisfactory image.

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Nikon D40 vs. Canon EOS 350D (Rebel XT)

I have never used a Canon EOS 350D, so I can’t actually compare the cameras, but I favor the D40 because it has a spotmeter and the 350D doesn’t. Although the D40 seems small, it is practically the exact same size as the 350D.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_post.asp?method=sidebyside&cameras=canon_eos350d%2Cnikon_d40&show=all

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond40/page17.asp

tells us that the Canon 350D meter calibration is off by about 1/3 of a stop. This would not really present any problems, except that it suggests “something” to me about the quality, since the Nikon and Pentax are dead on.

Scroll on down the page for image comparisons. The D40 is clearly sharper and shows less noise at all ISO settings.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond40/page18.asp shows us that both handle shadows equally, but the D40 clips the highlights by about 1/3 of a stop.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond40/page21.asp shows a side-by-side of studio images. The 8 MP of the Canon 350D at least put the camera on equal footing with the Nikon D40 for image quality, but you have to take note that the Rebel XT is shot at ISO 100 and the Nikon is shot at it lowest setting of ISO 200. I think the Canon images may look a little better, but we know from the prior page that under equal lighting levels, the Canon will start to break up before the Nikon.

The reviewer says, “While it is possible to pick areas of the image which lend some credence to the EOS 350D’s 34% pixel count advantage it’s clear that the average observer would not notice these differences and that you would need a very large output size for any of them to become visible.”

Check this out…

http://dpreview-img.fotki.com/gallery/canoneos350d_samples1/originals/img_4068-raw-dpp.jpg is taken by the Canon 350D with a 17 mm focal length at f/6.3, 1/80th of a second, ISO 400 using RAW.

http://dpreview-img.fotki.com/gallery/nikond40_samples/originals/dsc_1206.jpg is taken with the Nikon D40 with an 18 mm focal length at f/4.5, 1/80th of a second, ISO 400 using jpeg.

The point of focus for the Canon photo is a bit deeper than it is for the Nikon, but even having 8MP and using RAW and a smaller aperture, I think the Canon image breaks up a lot more than the Nikon. You can barely make out the features on the face of the gentleman in the background. Is this the camera or the superiority of the Nikon 17-55 lens, which so many of us here praise???

Okay, I’ve made my stance clear. I like the Nikon D40 better than the Canon EOS 350D, so here’s my general review of the D40.

[THIS WAS POSTED ABOVE]

And yet… clearly these are both very good cameras. What it all comes down to is which one YOU feel better about. Go to a camera shop and pick them up and see.

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Nikon D40X vs. Canon Rebel XTi

You can go here to see a review. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond40x/ The last page takes you to some sample images. See: http://www.popphoto.com/cameras/3896/camera-test-nikon-d40x.html for a glowing review that even compares it with the XTi just a little bit.

Open a copy of Internet Explorer (or the browser of your choice) and go to http://www.dpreview.com/gallery/nikond40x_samples/ Open another copy and go to http://www.dpreview.com/gallery/canoneos400d_samples/ You can then scroll along the top and try to find some similar images to compare. Click on the file name below the image and you will get a new window that shows the image full-sized. Once it loads it will shrink to fit your screen, but you can click on the image to zoom to full-size. Hit [TAB]+[ALT] to toggle back and forth between the images and pick out hte differences. You can easily spend an hour doing this, but you are talkin gabout the best way to spend $1,000 for a camera and I think it is well worth your time.

These two are very similar as far as the subject, ISO, lens and other values:
Canon: http://dpreview-img.fotki.com/gallery/canoneos400d_samples/originals/img_0006.jpg
Nikon: http://dpreview-img.fotki.com/gallery/nikond40x_samples/originals/dsc_0199.jpg
I don’t know what’s up with the focus in the Canon sample, but try to overlook that as it’s the photographer’s decision where to focus.

The Canon might win in this next pair, but it’s processed from a RAW image, so it’s hard to compare.
Canon: http://dpreview-img.fotki.com/gallery/canoneos400d_samples/originals/img_1206-raw-acr.jpg
Nikon: http://dpreview-img.fotki.com/gallery/nikond40x_samples/originals/dsc_0229.jpg

See:
Canon: http://dpreview-img.fotki.com/gallery/canoneos400d_samples/originals/img_1201.jpg
Nikon: http://dpreview-img.fotki.com/gallery/nikond40x_samples/originals/dsc_0279-raw-acr.jpg

You get the idea. There are not too many that actually match up for comparison.

See this page for a side-by-side comparison:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond40x/page20.asp

See this page for some controled side-by-side studio tests with jpeg images:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond40x/page21.asp

and read the comments at the end of the page.

Here are some studio tests with RAW images that you can click to enlrage, just as before:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/NikonD40X/page23.asp

Here are some studio ISO comparisons:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/NikonD40X/page25.asp

The long and short of it is that Phil Askey at dpreview.com tested both cameras and called it a draw in image quality except high ISO sensitivity, where the Canon takes the slight edge. The Nikon was termed “quicker and more comfortable to use.”

I still like the idea that the Nikon has a spot meter and find it odd that the Canon doesn’t. The Nikon is a bit limited in autofocus capabilities and speed compared to the Canon, though.

Here are some pertinent quotes about the D40X:

“Noise suppression was generally better than the D80′s and much better than the Rebel’s. As ISOs increased, the D40x’s resolution exceeded that of the Rebel.”

“The economy-model status of the D40x doesn’t show in picture quality, either. At ISO 100, the D40x turned in an average resolution of 2075 lines, slightly behind the Nikon D80 and Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi.”

Continue on down on page 2 for a direct comparison to the XTi. I’ll let you read it for yourself, as it seems to lean slightly towards the Canon and it would kill me to write that. I’ll leave that job for Koko.

But seriously, these cameras are EXTREMELY close in performance and value. You need to go to a real camera store and pick up both cameras and see how they feel to you. Some people will love the Canon and some will love the Nikon. Find out which one you are. You will be happy with either one, but you will be happiest with the one that fits your hands better.

See also:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_post.asp?method=sidebyside&cameras=canon_eos400d%2Cnikon_d40x&show=all