Should I stay with my purchase? Nikon D40

[RobbieS]

Last Sunday, I purchased a nikon d40 with a 18-55 vr and 55-200 vr, and I am very happy with it. But I now see that the d60 is out, and selling in stores. I have a 7 day return (which is still applicable) and a 30 day refund. For the 200 dollars, should I return the camera for the d60? I dont mind spending the 200 if the camera is worth it. KenRockwell says it isnt, but other sites say it is. I am a novice, but i still want to have a good product.
any help would be appreciated.

 

[alecmcmahon]

personally i would stick with the d40 and keep the extra $200 whatever dollars and buy an sb-600 flash.

 

[miloblithe]

Last Sunday, I purchased a nikon d40 with a 18-55 vr and 55-200 vr, and I am very happy with it. But I now see that the d60 is out, and selling in stores. I have a 7 day return (which is still applicable) and a 30 day refund. For the 200 dollars, should I return the camera for the d60? I dont mind spending the 200 if the camera is worth it. KenRockwell says it isnt, but other sites say it is. I am a novice, but i still want to have a good product.
any help would be appreciated.

I'd use that money for something else, like a flash. The main advantage, as I see it, is that it has anti-dust sensor shaking.

 

[Kamera RAWr]

Don't do it, your camera is great. Use the money for something else as other have mentioned or even just save it!

 

[the Helix]

keep the D40...

Keep the D40 and buy a Nikon 50mm f1.8 lens. Sure it's manually focused for the D40, but the creative use that you can get out of it is just phenomenal.

 

[compuwar]

Last Sunday, I purchased a nikon d40 with a 18-55 vr and 55-200 vr, and I am very happy with it. But I now see that the d60 is out, and selling in stores. I have a 7 day return (which is still applicable) and a 30 day refund. For the 200 dollars, should I return the camera for the d60? I dont mind spending the 200 if the camera is worth it. KenRockwell says it isnt, but other sites say it is. I am a novice, but i still want to have a good product.
any help would be appreciated.

If you took the same shot with both cameras and the same lenses and compared them, you wouldn't be able to tell which one took which shot. Your $200 would go to an unproven sensor cleaning system (and let's face it, all the tests show that most of them don't work and can actually make things worse.)

Spend your $200 on a community college course and some printing or a flash and flash bracket.

 

[ChrisA]

t I now see that the d60 is out, and selling in stores. I have a 7 day return....

The D40x was also out at the time you bought the D40. The "x" is very close to the D60. Why did you not want the D40x? I assume you'd not want a D60 for the same reason you didn't want the D40x.

I would decide based on how you intend to use the images you make. Will you be making large prints or doing a lot of post processing? Or will these images be viewed on electronic screens like computer monitors, TV sets and picture frames? If the latter you do NOT need the extra pixels.

I think that if you really want to step up you have to go with the D80 so that you then have access to the entire range of Nikon lenses. The D80 has a focus moter in the body. The biggest limitation of the D40 and D60 is the lack of access to non-AFs lens. To beat that you need a D80 (or a used D50/D70)

If you are going to take anything back. return the 200mm zoom lens. I doubt you'd use it much and an SB600 flash or a nice tripod might be more usful

 

[davinche]

I'm a novice photographer myself and I would recommend keeping the D40 as others said the step up to a D60 is not really a step up as picture quality is very close. I would the save the $200 to buy a better lens in the future. I also get a lot of use of my 55-200VR lens, but I guess it depends what kind of pictures you enjoy taking.

 

[phiberglass]

Keep the D40 and invest the rest of the money into a new lens, accessories/filters/battery grip or even a nice bag to keep all your gear in. The 50mm prime lens is a very nice lens.

 

[RobbieS]

Okay, since no one said to upgrade, i think ill just keep the d40. However, I do have one problem with it. There is a manufactures' flaw in the LCD screen. there is a tiny blue dot the size of a pinpoint that is especially noticeable when viewing dark photos. I purchased it from abesofmaine. They have a 30 day guarantee, and they are less than 20 minutes away from my house. Its a new camera, so I dont want to have a flaw this early in the game. I shouldnt have a problem returning it, should I?

 

[phiberglass]

No you shouldn't, Definitely take that back and get a new one. Even though it's such a small dead pixel, it still going to bother you every time you view pictures. Definitely take it back and get it replaced while you have the return policy still in place.

 

[RobbieS]

i read the "megapixel myth" but, generally speaking, how large can I print a photo from my 6 megapixel camera, and still have clarity? Is it much less than a 10 megapixel camera?

 

[colinmack]

OK, I'll go against the flow here...

Depending on how tight you are on cash, yes I would probably return it and upgrade. If you told me you had the D40x I might have given a different answer, but if you have to trade it anyway to fix the dead pixel, might as well spend $200 to get the newer features and upgrade the megapixels (it's not like it's going to instantly make you a better photographer, but extra megapixels can come in handy for enlargements and cropping - besides, the D60 also has active d-lighting and a few other improvements).

A bit of future-proofing might not hurt

 

[compuwar]

Okay, since no one said to upgrade, i think ill just keep the d40. However, I do have one problem with it. There is a manufactures' flaw in the LCD screen. there is a tiny blue dot the size of a pinpoint that is especially noticeable when viewing dark photos. I purchased it from abesofmaine. They have a 30 day guarantee, and they are less than 20 minutes away from my house. Its a new camera, so I dont want to have a flaw this early in the game. I shouldnt have a problem returning it, should I?

It depends, that's probably within the margin of error for the part- so it's up to the retailer.

OK, I'll go against the flow here...

Depending on how tight you are on cash, yes I would probably return it and upgrade. If you told me you had the D40x I might have given a different answer, but if you have to trade it anyway to fix the dead pixel, might as well spend $200 to get the newer features and upgrade the megapixels (it's not like it's going to instantly make you a better photographer, but extra megapixels can come in handy for enlargements and cropping - besides, the D60 also has active d-lighting and a few other improvements).

A bit of future-proofing might not hurt

Extra megapixels can actually make it *more difficult* to get good pictures, and will increase the amount of noise at high ISO- if you don't need them, spend your money getting the glass that means you won't have to crop.

 

[compuwar]

i read the "megapixel myth" but, generally speaking, how large can I print a photo from my 6 megapixel camera, and still have clarity? Is it much less than a 10 megapixel camera?

Larger than is practical for a good viewing distance. Though you'll have issues peeping in at close viewing distances above about 11x14 depending on how the print resolution is done (a good RIP can do wonders) going out at say 8.5x11 you'll be able to peep as closely as you'd like. Going to 11x14, you might want to go down to 200ppi or so.

If you want really large poster-sized prints, you'll just need to get them done somewhere with a good RIP, or you'll have to live with a normal viewing distance for that sized print.

The difference between 6 and 10MP isn't likely to be more than a couple of inches in the longest dimension at 300ppi and still less than 3 at 200ppi

Not worth sweating IMO.

 

[RobbieS]

if they wont replace it, then ill just ask for a return then, since its within my 7 day return policy. I would hope that they would rather replace it, then to loose out on the money. But I dont know. I think Abes of Maine is a decent retailer so I would hope they would replace it.

 

[jtblueberry]

If you're printing 16x20's or larger on a regular basis I'd say the upgrade is worth it. If not, you'll likely never notice a difference.

 

[seany916]

keep the 40.

invest the $200 on a flash, tripod, monopod like the people above have stated.

either take a class somewhere or pick up a book or 2.

it'll go SO much further than the D60.

If I handed you a D3 with the best lenses available and handed your kit to a pro for a photo shootoff. She'd kick your ass from here to the moon.

Skills can't be bought. Nor can they be taken away from you.

Camera bodies go obsolete VERY quickly.

PERSONALLY, I'd pick up a few books (and read the manual 2x more, researching everything I didn't understand).

A decent backpack or bag would be first on my list after that.

An SB-600 would probably go well after that.

I like tripods (though Ken Rockwell doesn't). They allow me to get shots I otherwise wouldn't get. MUCH better for portraits as well.

Lightroom or Aperture, Photoshop... I would get these programs BEFORE buying anything else.

There is my $0.05. Best of luck!

 

[CrackedButter]

Keep the D40, sell both of the lenses you got with the camera, or sell the kit lens and return the other, they're crap what with their moving apertures, they will do nothing for you, buy the 50mm prime and a 28mm, both are fast lenses and will provide a constant low aperture if needed, learn to get closer to your subject that way rather than stand further and zoom in.

I wouldn't want to be in a shoot and find out (if i needed to) that I couldn't get go lower than F4.

 

[ChrisA]

Keep the D40, sell both of the lenses you got with the camera, or sell the kit lens and return the other, they're crap what with their moving apertures, they will do nothing for you, buy the 50mm prime and a 28mm, both are fast lenses and will provide a constant low aperture if needed, learn to get closer to your subject that way rather than stand further and zoom in.

I wouldn't want to be in a shoot and find out (if i needed to) that I couldn't get go lower than F4.

Great advice. He will have to manually focus the 50mm and 28mm as neither of those work in autofocus mode with a D40.

Nikon's 18-55 "kit" lens actually has a great reputation for quality (within the limits of an f/5.6 lens) The 200mm zoom is kind of cheap.

This is why I said he'd have to move up to a D80 if he wanted a meaningful upgrade. The D80 has an in-body focus motor so he could then use a really great lens like the 50mm.

If the D80 is to expensive there are used D50 on the market for the price of the D40

 

[ChrisA]

6MP vs. 10MP

i read the "megapixel myth" but, generally speaking, how large can I print a photo from my 6 megapixel camera, and still have clarity? Is it much less than a 10 megapixel camera?

It's very easy to figure out. First off ignore the total pixel count. 6MP is meaningless. What you look at is 3000 x 2000. the product of 3K and 2K is of course 6M but the siz of the edgs is what matters.

To make a good print for viewing at arm's length of closer you need about 300 pixels per inch. So divide 3000 by 300 and you get 10 inches.

Lets say you wanted a 20 inch print. then you would need a 24MP image that is 6000 x 4000. For that you'd need either a very expensive digital camera or a film based body and a good film scanner.

We can deduce a "law": Print size is proportional to the square root of the pixel count. so a 16MP camera can make prints twice as large as a 4MP camera. (assuming all else is equal)

Back to the question of how much better is 10MP than 6MP. Take the square root of each number and compare those. The square roots of 10M and 6M are 3162 and 2449. These have a ratio of 3162/2449 or 1.29

So all things equal, the 10MP camera can make a print 1.29 times larger then a 6MP camera. THis works out to a 13 inch wide print compared to a 10 inch wide print for the 6MP camera.

When I said "assuming all else is equal" when looking at the D40 and D60 it applies. In the other example (4MP vs. 16MP) it would be a stretch to find "equal" cameras. BUt th "ratio of the square roots" method works well for camera within the same line.

 

[SolracSelbor]

Personally, I never got the D40 because it had no Auto-Exposure-Bracketing, making HDR images to difficult and time-consuming to capture. If the D60 has AEB and some, i would probably switch it. But thats only my opinion. I dont know the D60 specs.

 

[seany916]

Spend more and make the jump to a D300 instead of spending less on a D80

 

[cube]

You can get a demo D70 with the accessories and box for $350.

 

[Hmac]

Personally, I never got the D40 because it had no Auto-Exposure-Bracketing, making HDR images to difficult and time-consuming to capture. If the D60 has AEB and some, i would probably switch it. But thats only my opinion. I dont know the D60 specs.

Shooting in RAW format pretty much makes bracketing pointless, IMHO.