Nikon Showcase D40 still works like a charm... autumn lane

tilman

All-Pro
Location
Portland, OR
I have to say I've got a bit of a weakness for "oldie but goldie" cameras... :)
Here's a shot from today's walk with my wive's D40. We were walking back to the car, this is the last light of the day... (ISO 800 using a monopod)

cheers,
Tilman

6378583681_34910625fc_b.jpg
 
I have only tried a few Nikon DSLRs, and mostly for curiousities' sake more than anything, but out of the D40, D60, D80, and D90 it was the "lowly" D40 that I liked the best. Super quiet shutter, easy controls, and six very well used megapixels. The strangest thing I remember is that zoom lenses would "breathe" through the viewfinder i.e. When you had a big-zooming lens like the 18-200mm the air displaced when the lens extended or retracted could be felt coming in and out of the camera body around the viewfinder. I don't know if this was typical behaivour but it isn't something that I have noticed before or since on any other camera.

P.S. Beautiful shot, BTW
 
That's it exactly. It was less than two years ago that I briefly owned a D40 so I was able to compare it against some newer cameras with much higher megapixel counts. For pixel-peeping the D40 was nothing special because the super-fine detail you'd find in a 12 or 15MP image just wasn't there, but when you viewed images in their entirety they were crisp and clear and I'd expect they'd print very nicely, too.
 
Thanks for all the comments! :)

And yes, I think as well that megapixels are overrated. What happened to "6MP are enough" from a few years ago? ;) (Just kidding)
I would probably see this a bit different if I was a pro and had to sell images to agencies or sell prints. But as things are I just have fun with the cameras I have.

And as for the D40 - it has pretty decent highISO performance and, more importantly, it makes very, very nice out-of-camera jpegs. I still have to find a camera where I like the jpgs as much.
I still converted this shot from raw because I could get a bit more detail out of it. But my first few steps in Lightroom were to match the OOC-jpeg colours and contrast...
(And in hindsight I could probably have used the jpeg just as well. A little bit of softness is not a bad thing in a misty evening mood... It can be an artistic choice over the harsh "technically pixel-sharp" :)

cheers,
Tilman
 
All beauties, Tilman, especially the second in the additional series. When I was considering my first DSLR, I debated with myself should I get a new D40 or an used D70. I went with D70, but several times l felt I made a mistake. Like now:)
 
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