This camera is on the low-end of Nikon's range. You can buy one at Wal-Mart for God's sake. Or currently $463.00 at Amazon.com, complete with the 18-55 mm lens. And why would any serious photographer buy anything sold at Wal-Mart? Why not spend thousands more? More dollars = better pictures, right? And only 6 megapixels (or 10 megapixels for the D40x) is pathetic, right?

The D40 may not cost much, but it does a lot of things very well. It shoots at a respectable 2.5 frames per second essentilly forever. The sensor has very low noise (partly because it only has 6 megapixels). It's super light weight. It's autofocus is extremely accurate and fast. And Nikon has resisted the temptation to chase megapixels (which are FAR less important to image quality than other factors).

The biggest problem with the D40 is that it doesn't have a body-driven internal focus motor. This means that many of the older nikon lenses will not autofocus with it. Nikon had to choose the time at which it would abandon supporting this archaic fousing method, and the D40 finally does this. The D40 will only focus with AF-S or AF-I lenses. However, if you don't have lots of old Nikon lenses, the D40 is an excellent choice.

This doesn't mean that those old lenses won't work at all - you will just have to manually focus them (which is OK for most macro lenses which I manually mocus anyways). But if you have a bag full of old Nikon lenses, the D40 may not be for you.

One of the biggest selling pointf of the D40 is it's enormous 230,000 pixel display. It was big enough that Nikon could get rid of the top-mounted LCD and just disply everything on the main display. This saves weight in the camera.

The battery life is simply amazing. In Rome, I took at least 400 photographs during the day, then went back to the hotel TRYING to drain the battery by taking flash photograph after flash photograph, and I couldn't. I fell asleep before the battery died out. I must admit that I am a conscientious battery user, always keeping the camera off unless I'm actively shooting, but this was a very impressive performance none the less.

The D40 comes with a kit lens, the Nikon AF-S DX 18-55 mm F3.5-F5.6 G II. This lens is incredibly light, and focuses quite well. I would recommend using this lens in conjunction with the Nikkor 55-200 mm VR f/4-5.6g, which can be found for $200.00 on Ebay. The VR is great for getting sharp shots while handheld. And the lens is lightweight and easy to travel with. This is one of the best deals in telephoto lenses today. For me, I wouldn't shoot at long focal lengths without VR, since it's so much easier with it.

The durability of the D40 is nothing short of amazing. I was recently in England when I thought it would be fun to run as fast as I could on a dark path (with the D40 around my neck). Needless to say, I tripped and bit it hard. The camera shamshed on the ground hard. Blood was all over my hands. The D40 has a deep gash in the base of the plastic body, but everything worked fine, even the 18-55mm lens.

The 18-55mm lens also suffered a fall when I dropped it onto a sheet of ice from about 5 feet while traveling in Maine. I thought it was a goner, but it has shown no ill effects in the six months since that fall. Quite durable indeed.

The camers is so durable that when I fly, I just toss it in my carry-on with no padding or anything. No fancy camera bag needed.