Nikon D40 Review - Update

above pix from dpreview.com

After taking more than 1,000 shots for the past 2 weeks, below are my likes & dislikes:

1) Likes
- compact & lightweight. Compare to my old Nikon F4s this D40 is like a toy ;)
- more than enough resolution for me to work with. Even when u crop like crazy.
- excellent metering. So far I have yet to encounter any serious metering issues.
- buttons & dials are well placed. After a couple of hours, I can now basically change metering mode & exposure compensation WITHOUT taking my eyes off the viewfinder!
- excellent built-in flash.

2) Dislikes
- white balance. I encountered major wb issue (auto setting) during my Easter shooting. I need to PP almost half of the photos!
- SD card compartment door too easy to be opened accidentally.
- need MORE buttons & dials! I wished it has an ISO & a dedicated aperture dial (for manual shooting) or some programmable buttons for some preset setting.
- last but not least...


...ONLY 1 out of my 4 "old" Nikon lenses can autofocus :(

- after using autofocus for so many years, man, it was "hard work" to manual focus my 50mmf1.8 or 80-200mmf2.8 ED! I even get out-of-focus with my 16mmf2.8 FISHEYE! LOL! But praise God my favourite 17-35mmf2.8 ED still works like a charm. After all, I was well aware of the autofocusing issue b4 I decided to buy D40... Well, at least that gives me a "good excuse" to dream of D3??? ;)

- one last thing - smallish viewfinder. Compared to F4s or F100, man, the viewfinder for D40 is like peeping thru a pinhole!

Otherwise I am VERY happy with my D40.