I Like Nikon better because when I was looking at the D40 or XT I went to the store and held them. The D40 felt much nicer to me as well as better built. Now that is just my opinion and I am not bashing Canon at all. I would say if you can get a D80, especially if you want to get into photography. If you just want a nice DSLR for just family shooting then the D40 is a great choice as you can get the 18-55 and the 55-200 and you are set. If you want to go into photography then I would say don't make the mistake I made, save and get the D80 as you get the AF motor. Thankfully for me Sigma makes lens with the HSM motor that work in my D40. I will upgrade after I have learned on my D40. I just got the Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 and it has the HSM motor and works great on my D40. Hope that helps If you are going to save for the D4x then just get the D80, the D40x is just a D40 with more megapixels which is not worth the extra money, you still don't get the AF motor.
don't say that, the Canon D Rebel XT will autofocus with ALL Canon EF mount lenses, the Nikon D40 will not focus with all Nikon F-mount lenses. I personally think that the D40 is an absolute horrible Digital SLR made purely to scam buyers out of money. Look at it this way, the D40 can only use AF-S lenses to autofocus. AF-S lenses cost more than their older AF-I counterparts. The D40 is a budget camera correct? However, by saving 3 or 4 hundread dollars in getting the camera, it potentially costs you thousands more in lenses, it's a scam to get Nikon more money! and if the people don't buy the lenses, they out grow their D40s really quickly and buy a D80 STILL getting Nikon more money. Also if you decide to keep a D40, you get only 3 AF points compared to 7 on the XT. I may be a Canon fanboy who went with the XT myself, but even most Nikon users will tell you, stay away from the D40 and D40X cameras, the only people who will recommend them are owners of D40s who want to justify their purchases.
