Advice regarding Nikon D40

[jadekelly]

Hi there, I'm wondering if someone could give me some advice.

I'm having a massive eBay clear out due to being a bit broke and found a Nikon D40 lingering in a drawer that I had forgotten about. I bought it back in 2008 when I was doing a lot of photography for my A Levels but then my boyfriend at the time dropped my camera and the lens broke, thus it was relegated to storage!

From what I can remember the body worked fine, it was only the lens that broke, but I can't find the charger so I've just ordered one off of eBay to double check that it actually works.

Assuming it does work, which I'm pretty sure it does, I spoke to a man in a camera shop recently who told me I could sell the body for about £180. Does this seem like a reasonable price? I thought it seemed a bit high. Anyway, I was planning to sell it, but I'm currently setting up a blog that is going to be quite photography heavy (it's a fashion blog) and I'm starting to wonder if my Kodak MD1063 will be good enough, it's great for photos with friends and that sort of thing but I'm thinking I will probably get to a point where I'll need better quality photos.

So this is my dilemma. Would it benefit me to sell the D40, stick with my Kodak and then get a better DSLR somewhere down the line, or should I get a new lens for the D40 (and how much would that cost me)? I realise that the D40 isn't made anymore and that's where my dilemma lies. I don't want to spend money on a lens to find that I need to buy a new camera relatively soon anyway. Or are there any decent cameras, compact or DSLR, that I could get for a similar price to what I could sell the D40 for, that would be fit for what I need it for? I'm not looking for top of the line (mostly because I can't afford it!) but something that I could get some decent full body photos from.

I hope this all makes sense! As you can probably tell I'm a bit of a photography noob so any advice you can give me will be greatly appreciated. Many thanks and sorry for the wall of text!

 

[Forkie]

I'd say £180 is a bit optimistic, especially without the lens, box, instructions, etc.

I sold mine for £100, body only, no box.

If it was me, I'd ditch the Kodak and get a new 18-55 lens for £45-£50 (or a used one for £20 on eBay if you're lucky!) which would be fine for the photos you said you'd want to take. Just because they don't make the D40 any more, doesn't make it obsolete. You can use all Nikon AF-S lenses on it and always will be able to.

You can also use off camera flash in the future if you decide to go that way with the photography you're doing.

The D40 is a great camera and shouldn't be dismissed so quickly!

 

[snowbear]

Replace the lens.