Nikon D40 Help

[ichrispro]

So I am wanting to buy a first camera (I am a total newbie), and the Ritz has a D40 kit on sale for $499. Is this a good buy? Is this a good choice of camera? Help please!

 

[lifeafter2am]

There are people here who love the D40, and people here who HATE the D40. If you do a search, you will find TONS of posts about it.

Usually the consensus is, go and actually hold the camera and see if you like it in your hand.

The other camera you might want to check out is the Canon Rebel Xt or Xti. Another very popular beginner camera.

 

[ichrispro]

Thanks for the advice

 

[lifeafter2am]

No problem! You might want to also check out Understanding Exposure as it is the best book for beginners to learn from!

 

[ichrispro]

Cool, I will defiantly check that out!

 

[snaremop]

Hey,
I bought a D40 two weeks ago, and love it! I got mine for 450, with a 1gb memory card... so probably saved around 80 bucks from what you would buy it for with the mem card. Samys camera is a pretty good place to buy a camera, its where I got mine. I'm not sure if you can buy it online though...

 

[ichrispro]

Can you do selective focus with your D40 and the lens it comes with? (Sorry for my lack of lingo I'm so new to this). What I mean is like having the subject clear and the background out of focus.

 

[lifeafter2am]

That all depends on your aperture. You would want to shoot with a lower number, which would give you a lower depth of field.

 

[ichrispro]

That all depends on your aperture. You would want to shoot with a lower number, which would give you a lower depth of field.

Oh. Well I don't really understand what you mean . So what your saying is the camera is capable of doing it but you have to change a setting or something. (sorry if I sound stupid)

 

[snaremop]

Oh. Well I don't really understand what you mean . So what your saying is the camera is capable of doing it but you have to change a setting or something. (sorry if I sound stupid)

Hey man, no problem. When I started photography about a year ago, I was really confused too...

Basically, lenses have two main settings: shutter speed (represented usually as a number like 1/200, or if it's a longer shutter speed, 2''). This means how long the shutter is open for, in other words, how long it lets light into the camera for. Basically if you have a long shutter speed everything will be blurry, when a short shutter speed should be used for action shots, where quick motions need to be freeze framed.The other setting is aperture, which is how much light it let into the camera. The lower the aperture number, the more light is let in. To shoot in low-light, you need a lens with an aperture range that can go low (a number like f/2.8 or f/4). This means more light can be let in, and thus produce a brighter image at night. When you are using a DSLR (Digital Single Lens reflex) camera, you will want to use these settings to produce unique results. When you are in manual mode (when you select both the shutter speed and your aperture manually), you will need to use the settings of the shutter speed and aperture together to properly expose the image.

Basically, a lens that has a low aperture range (something like f/2.8) will allow you to take pictures of objects with a blurry background. But basically, the lens that comes with the D40 kits also produces a pretty good blurry background. Here's a picture I took a week or so ago with the D40, for example:

I hope that helps! Please PM me if you have any qquestions or need extra help...

 

[ichrispro]

Thanks for taking the time to explain things, that really helped! Now I know what those numbers mean when I'm looking at cameras. Yea that cat picture is what I meant, so I think I will go with the D40. Hopefully I can get it this week. I'll PM you if I think of anything else, thanks again!

 

[snaremop]

Your welcome...

any time. D40 is a great camera. Buy with confidence!

 

[TamiyaGuy]

Well, so long as the D40 "feels right" in your hands, then it is a great camera, and for £250, I'd buy it even though I already have one xD.

Also, another thing I should mention about aperture and depth of field:

The aperture isn't the only thing that affects how blurry your background is. It is the main concern, but there is alot to it.

The first thing is the focus length, i.e. how close your subject is. If your subject is 0.5m in front of the camera, you will get more background blur (less depth of field) than if the subject was 2m in front of the camera.

Also, the length of the lens affects the Depth of Field as well. A longer lens means less of the scene will be in focus. Likewise, a shorter lens, or wide-angle one will get more of your scene in focus.

Hope you enjoy your new camera!

 

[pasknucklehead]

I don't know why I am being so thick headed not being able to understand this in my camera, but in programmed mode, can you set the shutter and aperture or does the camera automatically do that for you...What can you set in that mode, and if you can set the s and a, then why is there a manual mode? I guess I'm just not quite comprhending that...dc

 

[JimmyO]

I beleive that the program auto mode give you more control with things like ISO and white balance. So yes, in auto and program auto you cant set aperture or shutter speed. In S you can just choose shutter speed and it choses apertures automaticly, then the opposite with A. And then in manual you can change everything to your liking