On June 9th 2007, took ownership of a Nikon D40 d-SLR I purchased at Fred Miranda. (Made the deal & paid for it 6-7-2007, $450.) It is the successor to the Nikon D50, which I also owned at the time. It was purchased to be a 2nd d-SLR that supplemented the D50 I still owned. It was meant for more "portable" purposes where I leave the D50 at home but want image quality to remain identical.

Instead, I found myself using the D40 exclusively, and it didn't seem to be a mere case of "new toy fever" as it were. At the time, financial concerns existed, so I sold the D50 to stick with the new D40.

In fact, I got a 2nd D40 2-16-2008, since D40 #1 had become used a lot for "everyday" shots of our daughter Helen (as well as "artistic" stuff) and so now my wife could use it freely without me looking over her shoulder but me having a D40 of my own for my "artistic" purposes.

The "AF-S only" issue of the D40 wasn't the issue for me I thought it would be, as I used the 18-55mm kit lens the majority of the time anyway, and many Nikon observers felt that eventually all Nikon's lenses would be AF-S, and Sigma/Tamron/Tokina would catch-up to it also. Further, the lack of hard buttons didn't bother me as much. The larger 2½" LCD, Retouch Menu (for quickly generating Sepia-toned shots of old shacks etc), small/portable size, tested higher image quality and slightly larger viewfinder all won me over. It's a gem of a d-SLR.

Also, for tips on using the D40, including how to get older RAW software to read the RAW files, go here. Also, check out this D40 Users Site at Flickr.