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Good Entry Level DSLR

Saladinos

Saladinos

macrumors 68000
Feb 26, 2008
1,845
4
I should add to anybody considering a D40 and worried that it's "obsolete" or whatever - check Flickr. It's the second most popular Nikon camera there under the D80.

I went to a camera shop before I bought my D40. The guy there tried to scare me by saying that all the stock sold as new was actually refurb, and that the camera went obsolete months ago and that the kit lens was awful. The evidence is against those claims, however:

- It's an Amazon.co.uk best seller (Ranked #1 in Digital SLR Cameras)
- Second most popular Nikon on Flickr. Hard to tell, but probably 6th most popular camera on Flickr overall (all brands)
- My D40 was brand new (from Amazon). No refurb here.
- My experience of it is that it's a fantastic camera
- Checking Flickr, D40 users are taking phenomenal pictures. Many of those great pictures are even done using the 18-55mm kit lens (one example)

If you're thinking about it, do it.
 
thunderweb

thunderweb

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 22, 2008
326
0
Bend OR
Ok got ya. Thanks. My Dad has a really nice Pentax film camera and about $6,000 of lenses and I was curious if they could be used with a D5000.
 
C

cube

Suspended
May 10, 2004
17,011
4,973
I assume you meant your dad has a 35mm K mount camera, not medium format.
 
Saladinos

Saladinos

macrumors 68000
Feb 26, 2008
1,845
4
The lack of an autofocus motor means you can only autofocus "newer" AF-S or AF-I lenses. You can manual focus on any F-mount lens, though.

If you want to do macro photography, this doesn't matter, as you're going to be manual focussing anyway. The lack of an AF motor doesn't limit your choice of lenses much, as it can autofocus plenty of lenses and Nikon's commitment to keeping it off the D5000 indicates that they see this as the way forward.

The only thing this stops you doing is autofocusing on old telephoto lenses. Manual focus on a telephoto shot isn't that bad anyway, because they're mostly still shots and you have time to move your little finger a bit to focus. If you're buying a telephoto lens today, you're going to want to pay extra for a new one in order to get VR anyway, so you'll get an AF-S lens anyway. There is only one VR lens without AF-S: the 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED AF VR (FX format. Released in 2000).

The one thing I do lament is the price of Nikon's AF-S 50mm. That said, it's really new.
 
thunderweb

thunderweb

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 22, 2008
326
0
Bend OR
Ya I understand that. The lenses that I would be using of my Dad's would be his 80-300mm and his macro lens. I'm planing on getting the 18-105 with my Nikon so I was wondering if those would work. I'm still swaying between the D90 and D5000. I just can't shell out that much for the D90. I would like to have a camera before I leave for the summer traveling ect. and If that means I have to go for a less expensive camera that's probably what I'm gonna do. I can get the D5000 in a kit with the 18-105mm lens that comes with the D90 and a lot of other accessories (16 and 4 gig SDHC cards, tripods, case, ect.) for about $1049.00. The D90 is about $300 more.
 
C

cube

Suspended
May 10, 2004
17,011
4,973
For some mount combinations, sometimes one can get an adapter to go in one of the directions, but that will only allow you to use the lens MANUALLY.

[Disregarding FourThirds to Micro FourThirds]
 
Phrasikleia

Phrasikleia

macrumors 601
Feb 24, 2008
4,082
403
Over there------->
thunderweb said:
Ok got ya. Thanks. My Dad has a really nice Pentax film camera and about $6,000 of lenses and I was curious if they could be used with a D5000.
Click to expand...

Good grief! Case closed: get a Pentax!

Pentax glass is some of the best made, and they are the only company that has complete backward compatibility with their entire lens line. You can use any Pentax lens ever made on any modern Pentax DSLR and will even be able to meter with them.

Get a K200D, a K20D, or wait until July for the K-7.
 
luminosity

luminosity

macrumors 65816
Jan 10, 2006
1,364
0
Arizona
Pentax is the brand of people who look past the usual suspects and do their research. I'm a Nikon guy, but if I were starting over, it could just as easily be Pentax that I went with.
 
J

jvalente

macrumors member
May 22, 2009
76
0
Sydney, Australia
I own a D40 and I strongly recommend it. It's actually better than the D60 in every way other than megapixels. It has better flash sync speed, better ISO, and it costs way less. I paid AU$420 for my D40. It should be about $300ish US. It is an awesome camera. The fact it can only use AF-S lenses is not a limitation. Most of the AF-S lenses are just upgrades of tried and tested lens designs reworked so that they work they best they can for DX format. They're lighter, simpler, and no more expensive that older lenses.

A D40 and an 18-200mm Nikkor lens is pretty much everything someone who's just taking normal photos (meaning no crazy stuff like live music, or professional sports photography, even though this camera could probably handle that pretty well if you are a good enough photographer) could ever need.

The next step up is the D90. Get one of these if you want to use lenses other than AF-S. Remember the 1.5x crop factor of the sensor on the camera though.

The next real step up at the moment is a D700. The D300 is an awesome camera, but will soon be replaced, and it's image quality is just as good as the D90's since it has the same firmware. They have the same amount of megapixels and the same firmware. The only difference I can see is the FPS.


I vote the D40. And then use the cash you saved to save for a 50mm prime, or the 18-200mm.



edit:

wow i really did not read the whole thread. ignore
 
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