Last summer my beloved Sony F717 died. It was my own fault--I was careless and dropped it while hiking at Winterpark with my family. That camera had great optics and had become a long time friend. I was so very bummed but saw it as an opportunity to buy a new camera. I bit the bullet and found, what was then, a good deal on a Nikon D40. I was ready to move to a dSLR--I trained as an artist at Bishops University in the late 80's and early 90's and had focused quite a bit on photography.

Now here was the thing--my family was getting ready to head to the UK for our summer vacation and while I found some dang good deals for the Nikon D40 online at places like wize.com, I didn't really have the time to wait to purchase the camera. I ended up buying it at Circuit City on a 0% financing deal.

In many ways, this has been one of the best little cameras I've owned. It is extremely light. I was surprised by how little it weighed and much to my joy, it will take my wife's Nikon lenses. The only challenge with that, is having to work the camera entirely manually. That really doesn't bother me as I learned on a wonderful Minolta X7A which I still own and enjoy taking film pictures on. I am comfortable with shutter speed, f stops, and film speed. The Nikon D40 gives me the flexibility to "point and shoot" with auto focus, but also allows me to very closely control the way I use the camera if I put it into manual mode.

One thing that I miss, is that on the F717, I could take reasonably good video in video mode. This means that, if I intend to do video, I need to carry a video camera with me. Honestly, not that big of a deal to be have the pleasure of using a camera like the Nikon.

After using my Nikon for about 6 months, I can honestly say--if you are looking for an entry level dSLR, I would highly recommend this camera.