I think its a matter of personal preference. The kit lens isn't very expensive, and the flexibility of a zoom lens is great to have. The two lenses rebelgtp mentioned are what are called "prime" lenses, which means they don't zoom.
Glad to see I'm helping.
Absolutely. I appreciate the information greatly!
dyintorace wrote: To continue my education, a Nikon D40 "kit" would contain the body and 2 lenses? Would those lenses be AS or AS-F? Would the 50mm 1.8D and the Sigma 30mm 1.4 HSM be in addition to the 2 lenses in the kit? And would it make sense to purchase the 50mm and 30mm or would they (mostly) be redundant?
The basic D40 kit that you could get for around $400 would be with a single lens the 18-55 AF-S. Even though this is a "cheap" lens it is a VERY good lens. The D40 and D60 body cameras officially ONLY come as a kit, not body only. For your general use the basic kit lenses with variable aperture will be perfectly fine and you will produce some great shots for what you want.
As Tommy said the 30mm and 50mm lenses that I've mentioned are called "primes" in other words you will have to zoom with your legs as the lens has a set length. While yes the 18-55 kit lens would cover both of these ranges, you will normally be able to get a much sharper image out of the primes. Also as Tommy and myself mentioned these lenses can also let you take photos in lower light without a flash.
The photos that Tommy posted show a great representation of what you can do with depth of field. A book that I would recommend to help you to get better images is "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Exposure-Photographs-Digital-Updated/dp/0817463003 . As Tommy said stay out of Auto mode its just a crutch, setup program mode start there, then start playing with the shutter and aperture priority modes, then finally fully manual. For me I actually have a total of 5 Nikon DSLR bodies. My two digitals, the D70 and D40. Then I also have three film bodies, an FE, an FM and a F3HP.
I actually have a small photography business because I had people wanting to hire me and buy some of my photos after seeing some of my work. I'm still learning and doubt I will ever stop learning but I'll also offer any help I can to anyone that is wanting to get into photography. There is not a single time that I walk out of the house with at least one camera if not two. I have a small point and shoot (that still has manual settings) and I'll sometimes take a film body or the D40 with me when heading out.
My "regular" walking around kit is a D40, with a Sigma 18-200 lens, an extra battery and memory card. The bag I put it in is normally an old WWII gas mask bag. My other carry around is the F3HP with a 50mm 1.8E lens.
Will wrote: If you decide to buy online, MAKE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN YOU'RE BUYING A CAMERA WITH A US WARRANTY. You do not want to get stuck with a gray market camera. Ask about this point, don't assume. I have a D200 and I like it, but it's fairly bulky. D40 and D80 are both great Nikon cameras. Don't buy off-brand optics, either.
The U.S. warranty is good advice. I have had to send camera equipment in for warranty service, as has my dad. Some of the bigger camera stories will offer both U.S. and gray market versions of the same equipment. The U.S.-market stuff will cost a few bucks more, so you have to weigh the risks.
As far as kit lenses, there are some good ones out there. The Canon 40D is available with a really nice 17-85mm lens: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/531271-REG/Canon_1901B010_EOS_40D_SLR_Digital.html (Of course, it's priced accordingly, but that's still a good deal.)
For a good budget-friendly package, I like this one: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/457541-REG/Canon_1236B001_EOS_Digital_Rebel_XTi.html In fact, I like it so much I bought one for my wife.
As far as Canon vs. Nikon, that's kind of like a Ford/Chevy thing. I have been shooting Canon since I got an A-1 when in middle school. My dad also shoots Canon, so maybe it really is like a Ford/Chevy thing.
No matter what the camera, once you get it shoot--shoot a lot. I've been doing this for a long time, and I still learn new things all the time. On the plus side, I don't miss darkroom work that much.
Some good reading about car photography: http://www.amazon.com/How-Photograph-Cars-James-Mann/dp/0760312435/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226203156&sr=8-1
Another nugget of advice: Get a good bounce flash. It gives indoor photos a much more natural look.
Another nugget: Good glass matters. I'd rather give up some features to have money for a good lens.
And ironically my next column has some practical advice about cameras.
David S. Wallens wrote: Some good reading about car photography: http://www.amazon.com/How-Photograph-Cars-James-Mann/dp/0760312435/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226203156&sr=8-1
Great book.
Another fast thing to consider is the speed of the camera itself. I don't know the specs on those listed, but many older ones only come with the equivalent of an 800 ASA rating, you want at least a 1600 and preferably a 3200 or higher.
This lets you shoot in a lower light while keeping your depth of feel and means you will need your flash less, unless of course you want it for fill flash.
If you get one with a good integral, but variable lens and a good ASA rating you may find you don't need to go all the way to the more top end models.
I have both and find I use the slightly smaller and lighter Fuji most of the time. When I want to take superb pics I always use the EOS.
Tommy, Rebel and David, this is all fantastic advice. I'm going to order the books you recommended and start shopping cameras. Unfortunately, the really good locally owned camera shop here recently closed. I think the big box stores put them under.
How does the Nikon D40 and D40x compare? This seems like a nice combo: http://www.keh.com/OnLineStore/ProductDetail.aspx?groupsku=DN019991016420&brandcategoryname=Digital&Mode=Digital&item=0&ActivateTOC2=&ID=13&BC=DN&BCC=3&CC=1&CCC=1&BCL=&GBC=&GCC=
Rebel, do you have a website for your photography business? I'd love to check it out.
David, when will the next issue be mailing for us subscribers?
technically in a digital it is not referred to ASA anymore, its now referred to as ISO. ASA referred to the speed of the film used for particular applications. However the larger the number normally the courser the grain in the photo, which is why for most of the artistic photos you will see them using a very low ASA film so they have a beautifully crystal clear image.
Part of this actually will carry through to your digital photography, As you increase your ISO it will allow you to take photos under different circumstances, but just like film normally the more "grain" you will get in the photos. However this grain will not be universal as instead of it being a product of the film it is a product of the sensor used in the camera. So you will have multiple different models of cameras all capable of the same ISO ranges and get vastly different results at those ranges. Now another factor in this is also the lens being used, remember those F numbers we talked about earlier? The lower the number (1.4, 1.8...3.5, 4....) the more light collected by the lens, the more light collected by the lens the higher the shutter speed can be and the lower the ISO speed can be.
With my D70 I can take a picture in a dark room with a 50mm 1.8 lens at 1.8, a shutter speed between 1/8th and 1/20th of a second and an ISO of under 800. If I was using say a lens at 3.5 or 4 I would not be able to get the same shot even by cranking the ISO up to 1600 or 3200, without using multiple seconds for the exposure time. Even then the picture would be more grainy because of the higher ISO range. The 3.5 or 4 lens is simply not as efficient at collecting light as the 1.4 or 1.8 lenses.
So while having a broader ISO range is a good thing, however you need to look at how effective the camera is WITH that range. If the pictures you take at 1600 or 3200 look like garbage are you really going to even use that range? In most cameras you will not get great results at those ISO ranges unless you start getting into "pro" territory (D300, D700, D3 in Nikon bodies).
dyintorace,
The D40X is actually a fine camera, the biggest difference between it and the D40 is that the D40 is 6Mp while the D40X is 10Mp. Some say that the D40X and D60 give more grain at 100% zoom compared to the D40 but you are also dealing with a MUCH larger photo. There is a huge benefit to this in the fact you will be able to crop in on the picture more. The draw back of course is less images per gig of memory, but as cheap as memory is these days carry multiple memory cards.
That D40X kit you are looking at on KEH would actually be good one. The 18-135 is a sharp lens with a decent range. Personally I like the 18-200 range a bit better but that is a much more expensive lens. Also you can always trade up or add lenses later on. So as a just starting out kit that would be very good. If you were to buy that kit new you would be looking at roughly $800 and the EX+ on KEH is darn near new. Now one thing to remember is that is going to be used on KEH so no warranty. If having a warranty is going to be important to you then for roughly the same amount of money as that kit you can get a new D40X with the 18-55 lens. OR if you have a Costco membership they have the D60 (a massaged over D40X) with the 18-55 VR lens, a free memory card, free shipping and you get an extra year warranty through Costco. Also the D60 has a slightly higher frame rate 3 frames per second versus 2.5 frames. http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11279060&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCat=BC|79|83|76275&N=4025522&Mo=8&pos=4&No=6&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=76275&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&ec=BC-EC10604-Cat83&topnav=
Oh and so far I still don't have a website setup, its something that I'll be working on during winter break at school. As I said I work with both film and digital, quite a bit of my work will be more on the nature front. Here are a couple of my shots that are just from my "playing around", the swamp monkey was from a trip to the zoo, the waterfall was taken during a project for school, the wolf is also from the zoo. All of these were taken with the D40.
Oh here is one more from the zoo trip
One more thing: on the D40 (and I think a few others) the 3200 ISO setting is hidden, and instead called HI.
just ordered a D40 from Abes of maine.. stacked a coupon and got it for $386. didn't want to Ebay.. I'm getting fed up with paypal, but that live cashback deal is sweet.
Cool the D40 is a great little camera I'm sure you will love it. Don't be afraid to play around with the settings and work in A,S,M modes. If you have any questions feel free to ask.
Buy a Canon or a Nikon. They are the Ford and Chevrolet of the Camera world (or Honda/Nissan -whatever floats your boat) and each has a wide variety of AF lenses available on the used market as well as new.
My wife bought an Olympus a year ago (an E-500), and she has turned out some SPECTACULAR photographs of our kids, other people's kids (she's working on rolling up a photography side business specializing in kids' portraiture), etc. However, after a year, she's hitting some limits of the camera. The AF on the Olympus? 3-point. On the Canon/Nikon of the same age, Something like 9. The new ones are 12, I think. That's HUGE, when you have a picture you want to make sure has the focus where you want it. She just spent $400 on a really great portrait lens (I want to say it was a 42mm prime?), and it's done great things, but the fact is that there are still great pictures that she gets that are a little out of focus in key areas because the camera's AF system isn't that great. It should tell you something that most people shoot with Canon/Nikon- leave it to my (sweet, wonderful, talented) wife to pick the weirdo dark horse manufacturer. :| :)
You should be able to find last year's model of anything somewhere for a deal- the DSLR arms race is moving at an utterly ridiculous rate, and the improvements come all the time.
Actually you can do quite a bit with only those 3 focus points, heck there is a ton I can do with a single focus point but then I'm use to manual focus. I don't know what the Olympus focus system is like but with the Nikon you can focus on what you want to be in focus (half press of the shutter release) hold the shutter release, recompose then fully depress the shutter release. Once you get good at that its actually faster then switching your focus point in camera.
The 42mm can be a nice focal length, there is actually a 42mm pancake lens I want to get for using for a compact carry rig.
I've seen absolutely spectacular shots taken with a basic point and shoot. It really isn't the camera so much as it is the photographer.
I was really torn between the D40 and the the Canon XS. It's really easy to get into analysis paralysis, so I went with the cheaper camera. The XS body felt better in my hands(I have big hands) but i wanted something that was comfortable for my wife. Even though I could get the XS for around $465 or so.. The extra hundred I saved on the camera will now buy a flash and a prime lens. I think the 50mm F1.4 nikon would be great, manual focus only. I would like a flash for the hot shoe for bouncing indoors. Lens and flash suggestion?
I have a nice panasonic P&S for walking around, and have gotten some great outisde photos with it...
(fly fishing trip to the Green River in western NC)
(grove arcade Asheville NC)
(random cone flower, asheville nc) It is alittle underexposed. but the Bee is cool.
One more from the Green River. Geez I want to go fly fishing again.
ignorant there is actually a new nikkor 50mm lens that is AFS so it will focus with the D40. Also the Sigma 30mm and 50mm HSM lenses are looking quite nice. A popular combination that I've seen is the D40 and the Sigma 30mm HSM.
As for the size part if you get the camera armor for the D40 you will gain a bit of size that makes it much more comfortable in the hand of those of us with larger hands. http://www.cameraarmor.us/. You can get them all over on the net even my local Walmart has them so you could check yours. The one out here actually has a D40 with the armor on so you can see how it feels.
Cool.. good hints. Thanks.
Hopefully the prices on the sigma HSM lenses will come down. The benefit with the older 50mm nikon is that while I have to manually focus, the lens only costs $100.
Camera armor is a good idea, I will look into it.
Yeah that Nikkor 50mm AF 1.8 is a great lens even if you do have to manually focus, I love mine.
Another added bonus for the camera armor besides the protection and little bit added size is it makes it easier to grip the camera as well. I use my D40 as my hiking/exploring camera all the time and the armor stays on it all the time.
I'm bidding on that lens now.
Did you get that lens?
How do you like it?
My D40 arrives today or tomorrow.
The lens just arrived today. I like it, and having to manually focus is no big deal. So far, I've only shot a few pictures around the house. I'll know more when I take more pictures tomorrow.
Camera showed up @ 5:45.. I checked it out.. clean warranty card and all. We shall see what happens when I power it up tomorrow.
I just picked up a D300 and absolutely love it. I was already pretty heavily invested in Nikon lenses, so I leaned that way, and after a bunch of research, went with the D300. It will almost do what the D700 will, within reason, and was substantially cheaper. ($1,500 with a lens and card, US warranty, etc.) Did I mention I love this camera? Of course the manual is over an inch think! HA
I'm starting to do some more serious shopping and am comparing brands/prices. What are the thoughts on these Nikon and Canon packages? Both seem like good deals and I like the idea of having a zoom lens. My only concern is that, come this Friday, the prices will be even better. 
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