D40 or D40X

[Clayton]

Hi Laurie, I am in the market for a new Digital SLR and I prefer Nikon. Megapixels aside I have been looking at the D40 over the D40X, not because of price, but I read where the D40X is not as good with the lens drive (I believe that was the knock). Oponions?

[GeoR]

Hi Clayton & welcome to the forum. I have owned the D40X since April. Also a member of the Nikon D40 forums at dpreview.com & Nikonians.org. This is the first time I have heard of a lens drive different between the two cameras. The reason I chose the D40X is that I can severely crop pictures when playing in elements. Both cameras in my opinion are an excellent entry level digital SLR. GeoR

[Chuck S.]

According to dpreview.com, the D40 and D40X are virtually except for the sensor. Neither has the drive motor in the body; they rely on the lenses to supply the autofocus motor. Both get dpreview's "Highly Recommended" status.

I agree with GeoR; those extra megapixels will come in handy for severe cropping.

[Clayton]

Thanks GoeR and Chuck for the response. The difference I was told was that the D40X did not have an autofocus driver built into the body (but the D40 did) and it must rely completely on the Nikon lens for the autofocus thus eleminating the use of some of the other brand lens. Also a factor was the deal at Amazon for the camera, 18-55 lens, 55-200 lens, SB-400 speedlight flash, 2GB card, card reader, and gadget bag for $779.95

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=3HDS26Q7G1WMA

Looked like a pretty good deal.

Clayton

[Chuck S.]

Clayton, neither the D40 or the D40X has the motor in the body. Not an issue so long as you use lenses that have the built-in motor, which most recent ones do, I believe.

[lexcell]

Both the Nikon D40 and D40x require AF-I or AF-S lenses to retain auto focus. Any other AF lens...G, D, etc will work in all aspects except auto focus.
Here is a link to a side by side comparison of the two cameras...
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/comp..._d40x&show=all

Both cameras are very similar with a few small differences...
-The D40 is 6 megapixels and the D40X is 10 megapixels (I'm not a big fan of cropping...I prefer to "get it right" in the camera and use the extra megapixels for optimum resolution so that my images look their very best)
-The D40 goes to 200 ISO and the D40X goes to 100.
-The D40 fires at up to 2.5 frames per second and the D40X fires at up to 3 frames per second

If you don't need the features of the D40X and there is a great buy on the D40, go for it.

[Not4wood]

I am not an expert by far nor am I a gear head.

I just purchased my first DSLR and had a really hard time choosing.

I walked into the store with a Canon Rebel XTI in mind as first place.
Next up was the D40X, I wanted the more pixels available.
Also I had the D80 in mind as well but I was hesitant to spend the extra money.

When in the shop, I had held all of the above and the salesman thru in an Olympus DSLR w/10 MP as well for me to hold and feel.

My last decision was based on how the camera's felt in my hand since they all had very similar features offered. I was very surprised that I didn't like the way the Rebel felt. The D40X felt the same and I was very disappointed. I ended up going with the D80 because of how it felt and I also thought that the camera had things available when my skill and knowledge both grew.

My suggestion is to go out before you purchase anything and work the camera and get a feel to how you like it. Can you do the things you normally do out of reflex or do you find yourself fighting with the features to get the camera to work and interferes with your creativity?

[Chuck S.]

Mark, those are excellent suggestions. If the camera doesn't feel right in your hands and that controls aren't intuitive to you, the picture-taking experience may be frustrating. You made a great choice, of course - after shopping the right way!

[Not4wood]

But it still doesn't make it any easier.

You start second guessing yourself, am I spending too much money, does this thing do what I want when I want it? Does it have the flexibility
to grow with me if and when I acquire new skills. Will the memory cards be a very expensive proposition in the long run. Can my puter deal with
the memory cards and also the images in a way that I will find easy from download to final print?

I think the real problem is where not just buying a camera, where buying another life partner that we can actually see growing old with
us into the future. I didn't go thru this when I purchased my little P&S. I ran into PC Richards looked around grabbed one and asked whats
the largest memory card I could put into it. I got this little Gem 2 days before we left on our real First Adventure, too Alaska. It held up great
till I made the mistake of overextending the Zoom and I found out after we got home that it made too much noise when I needed it the most.
Oh well. But, this little 5 MP camera does take great pics.

This is me, on Ruths Glacier standing in front of the plane that flew us in and you tell me about the quality of this little baby?? I am really proud
of her and she will always be with me in my pocket.


(Just learned this new trick, sorry for the extra large shot. It was a link from Photobucket).

I still have my old 35mm camera, the three lenses, tripod, bracket and even the old Vivitar 283, my old Luna Pro light meter and they all work.
Granted the camera viewfinder needs a cleaning so I could use the built in Meter but why should I go thru the expense now?? I have had these
old friends with me since the early '70's and that camera saw me thru college and finally what actually started me in a life time career
that I am retired from. I retired from Photography way back in '89 and I'm first getting back into it now which too me was a very good
waiting period. Any earlier and I would've gotten stuck with a very strange camera indeed.

I did make the right decision, my new Nikon D80 is my new partner to see me thru parties, adventures and hopefully new and exciting places.
Too bad it don't cook!

[Chuck S.]

Mark, remarkable detail - great shot!

Some of my all-time favorite photos were taken with my first digicam, a 4 MP point-and-shoot. Image quality, particularly with respect to noise, hasn't necessarily improved over the last five years for P&S cameras. You'll see a difference, however, with your D80 and its much larger sensor.