We are asked all the time by our students and by folks just wanting to "go digital", what is the best camera for us? Unfortunately, like buying a new car or a home the answer isn't easy. Everyone has different needs. Maybe you're a traveler, you don't want to weighed down by a full size 35mm style SLR. Maybe you're a weekend warrior that wants the kind of flexibility that those new digital SLRs offer. The qualifier when asked this question is, just how serious are you about your photography? Do you still have pictures in your camera from Christmas that haven't been developed or do you shoot a few rolls of film each month and process them right away?
We are going to discuss the latter. If you fall into the former, there are a ton of great point and shoot camera's out there to fit every budget from a few hundred dollars to upwards of $1000. They range in mega pixel rating from 3 to 7 or 8 in some cases and would perfect for the type of photography that you do. Base your purchase on price and manufacturer and for the most part you won't be disappointed. For the rest of you it's time to jump into the digital SLR world like a kid diving into a colored plastic ball pit.
We are going to concentrate on tradition here and one our favorite camera manufacturers, Nikon. Now I know that the Canon people out there will be slighted but if it is any comfort, understand that we will cover one of our other favorite manufacturers, namely Canon in a later article. In fact the reason that we are addressing the Nikon cameras is because of Canon. What do I mean?
Well when the digital SLR revolution began, Canon did what it has always done. They began producing digital SLR cameras at a wicked pace. They began offering low cost, high quality products in an effort to capture the market quickly. They achieved their goal. I can tell you without reservation that our Know Your Digital Camera Classes, are largely made up of Canon users. In a typical class we will see an overwhelming majority of Canon cameras being used by our students. Nikon knows this, not from us but from their own research. As a company that has been traditionally geared toward the Pro market, Nikon found it's self in a bit of a pickle early on. Their ever loyal professional market was making the switch to Canon. Why because Canon understood one thing that Nikon really didn't. When there is a paradigm shift within an industry, the company that moves quickly captures the market. More importantly than Nikon learning this lesson the hard way, Nikons' investors started to scream, hey you missed the wave!! As a result in the last few years Nikon has begun to enter the "pro-sumer" market. Today they are offering entry level cameras that in an effort to compete with the digital juggernaut that Canon has built.
The first offering from Nikon was the D70. This precursor to today's D80, D50 and now the D40 are a blatant effort by Nikon to recapture some of the market share they had lost. We are going to be talking about the latest offering the D40. First of all this is one of the smallest SLR cameras on the market, placing it in that gap between the consumer point and shoot and the pro SLR market. The camera measures just 5.0 x 2.5 x 3.7 and weighs just 17 ounces! Packing a 6.1 mega pixel CCD sensor in an APS-c configuration ( perfect for 4x6 prints) this camera was clearly geared for the "pro-sumer" market. It offers ISO settings from 200 to 1600 and a RAW recording mode for those that want total control over their images. Nikon has given it some of it's serious professional features as well. Like 3D color Matrix, Center weighted and spot metering capabilities. You will need to use the AF-s or AF-I lenses with this camera, as it relies on the lens motors for it's auto focus. The best part of this great little camera is the price. It has an estimated street price of $599 including a 18-55mm lens! What a great little camera!
We briefly shopped online for the camera kit and found it as low as $569 at Best buy. You will want to pick up an SD memory card to record all your images on, ( 2GB capacity) which will typically cost you about an additional $80 or so. All in all this camera is a great place for anyone to begin their SLR experience. We hope that if ou are seriously considering a new Digital SLR that you look at the Nikon D40. PS….. a recent addition to the D40 line is the D40x, which offers the same 10.2 mega pixel found in the pro D200 camera if you are looking for a little more in your Nikon, you can check out the differences at
www.dpreview.com - Aloha
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