My shiny new D40 arrived in the post today, so I have been having fun playing around with it this evening and am enjoying being able to play with aperture and shutter settings after my compact.  Shame it's been a pretty grey, dull day, but here's some of the few shots I've taken so far...starting with the obligatory VW one of course!

Awesome photos, especially like the one of the trees

Well you seem to have managed to master exposure in less than a day so... well done  !!

Which lens did it come with??

peter0976:

Awesome photos, especially like the one of the trees

Thanks Peter. I'm really pleased...they came out better than I thought. Not bad for Milton Keynes eh?!

richwig83:

Well you seem to have managed to master exposure in less than a day so... well done  !!

Which lens did it come with??

Hehe. Thanks. I've spent long enough reading every review on earth that now I actually have an SLR to play with I know what to do with it!! It came with the standard 18-55mm 3.5-5.6 lens, but even over a few hours I'm thinking that I'll need the 55-200mm VR and a tripod to take the kind of photos I want. Oh and a polariser .

Whoever said that photography wasn't a cheap pursuit wasn't half right!

The 55-200 is supposed to be very good, a few mates of mine have that lens and are very impressed by it!

ND filters are worth looking into also, useful to allow a slower shutter speed in bright light without blowing the image.

Too true about the money thing...I recon after buying my camera (700quid) id need to spend at least another 1500quid on lenses/tripod/filters/flash to cover all corners!!!  A reasonable pricey DSLR soon turns into a money pit.... bit like cars i guess!!!

I've heard good things about the 55-200VR and for about £125ish it's reasonably priced for the added versatility, as with the kit lens it doesn't even zoom in anywhere near as far as the...3x zoom on my compact . I've thought about a few different filters and thought that a polariser would have the same effect as a ND filter in saturating skies whilst giving the colours a boost as well? I like the idea of an infrared filter...though I'm not sure how much they cost .

Do you have a 40D rich? £2200?! . As for my car...that needs new shocks (and springs), a service, new front brakes and discs...so that could easily cost £1000 over the next few months .

Nice pics mate, I have the D40 and i'm really happy with it. I bought the 55-200mm VR lense and could'nt live without it now. IMO for the money its a fantastic lense and addition to the standard kit lense.

I'd also reccomend the SB-400 flash which can be had for around £50, makes a considerable difference over the standard built in flash.

Take a look on ebay for tripods, i bought mine 2nd hand and it is in mint condition, with a bag and delievered for £12! RRP on the tripod alone was £60 at the time...

Thanks ant. The D40 is a pretty amazing price too, which makes it even better . When would you use an additional SB-400 flash (sorry newbie question...)? A tripod for £12 sounds like a steal!! I've been having a play around with night pics tonight without a tripod and it has been really frustrating to attempt to balance the camera on walls and surfaces...though I still managed to get a few nice shots.

One thing I noticed though was that quite often it wouldn't focus at all on certain subjects. Am I doing something wrong, or does the autofocus just not work in the dark, only I'm sure my compact would have autofocussed in the same scenario? Anyway, here are some of my shots...

 They are some pretty awesome photographs you've taken

One of these cameras or maybe a Canon 400D is definately on my list of things to buy.

 Good choice of camera, enjoy.

On the subject of tripods, don't mess about with cheap ones you will regret it in the long run, save a little longer and get one of these....

http://www.cameraworld.co.uk/ViewProdDetails.asp?prod_code=PON07B000007&Prod_name=Manfrotto%20190XPROB%20Tripod%20&%20804RC2%203-Way%20Head

Loving the pics. I love the macro feature on my little Ixus, but I think I'll have to take serious look at one of these.

This picture has me slightly confused though. What are the shadows from the plant falling on??

Blondie,

Thanks. I looked at a 400D too and that's a pretty neat little SLR, but the cheapest I managed to find it was £395, about £165 more than I paid for the D40, which I didn't think was worth the extra expense, but you should have a play around with both to see which you prefer.

Thanks Chris, I will do if I get chance.

Bora Chris,

You've got some very good shot's there,  do you mine me asking where you got the D40 from?

Blondie, just another note on the 400D as i've been thinking more about this recently. 

the 400D has a higher mega pixel rate than the 350D but apparently uses the same image processor hence is trying to cram more data through which can at the high end level pictures give a little grainy effect.  

anyone in the know If I'm wrong on this one my appolgies it's just what I've been told.

Greg

Del,

Part of the reason I got a D40 was thanks to the 2 photos of London you posted last year . I played around with incandescent white balance and l love the blue colour cast it gives...

Ok, no cheap tripods...but £140 is a lot to spend on a tripod. Are there any cheaper options say £50-£100 that would do the job? I'm thinking that Manfrottto, Slik, Giottos and Velbon seem the more reputable brands...

Thanks

efunc:

Loving the pics. I love the macro feature on my little Ixus, but I think I'll have to take serious look at one of these.

This picture has me slightly confused though. What are the shadows from the plant falling on??

 

Efunc,

I have an Ixus 75, which is great, but it definitely has limitations when you want to take a photo in anything other than bright light. An SLR whatever it is, will be much more flexible. I used flash and a 30 second exposure for this, so I think the shadows are the area that was behind the plant heads when the flash went off, and then the plant must have moved in the wind afterwards leaving a shadow...maybe. And the shadow at the bottom is of the lens.

austin21:

Bora Chris,

You've got some very good shot's there,  do you mine me asking where you got the D40 from?

Blondie, just another note on the 400D as i've been thinking more about this recently. 

the 400D has a higher mega pixel rate than the 350D but apparently uses the same image processor hence is trying to cram more data through which can at the high end level pictures give a little grainy effect.  

anyone in the know If I'm wrong on this one my appolgies it's just what I've been told.

Greg

Thanks Greg, I got my D40 from Amazon for £270 plus £40 cashback delivered, so £230 in total. It's gone up in price by £2.50 since I bought it though . As for the Canon sensors, the 400D and 450D share the same sensor (I think) and have over twice the amount of pixels for the area of the sensor, than the D40, which should mean that they are more noisy and produce more grainy photos than the D40. Or something like that!

The tripod I have is the Velbon CX640 and for the money I paid I have yet to fault it and have used it in a lot of different scenarios. I sometimes worry that the attachment mechanism between the tripod/camera feels flimsy but its not been an issue so far (touch wood). 

I bought the SB-400 mainly for taking pics inside in poor light, i find it gives softer more natural light than the built in flash as you are able to bounce the light by angling the reflector.

I am new to the DSLR game so please don't take my advice as gospel its more one newbie to another!

Well I didnt know that! When I was at Glastonbury, all the proffesional photographers had mainly Nikons. I might have a re-think because I had my heart set on a 400D for so long but I'm being swayed by Nikon.

Great photos there too Chris

antjdm:

The tripod I have is the Velbon CX640 and for the money I paid I have yet to fault it and have used it in a lot of different scenarios. I sometimes worry that the attachment mechanism between the tripod/camera feels flimsy but its not been an issue so far (touch wood). 

I bought the SB-400 mainly for taking pics inside in poor light, i find it gives softer more natural light than the built in flash as you are able to bounce the light by angling the reflector.

I am new to the DSLR game so please don't take my advice as gospel its more one newbie to another!

Jessops is selling it at £47 atm, so to get it for £12 is a quarter of the price . Have you used it for long exposures (30 seconds ish), as I'm wondering whether the cheaper end of tripods are sufficiently stable for this kind of thing?

Having played around with the built in flash last night and blinded myself with it on several occasions, I'm already finding the flash leagues ahead of the one on my compact...But it's good to have the option for extra flash too. Hey any newbie advice is much appreciated .