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Nikon D40

Digital Camera Review

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Physical Tour

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Design / Layout
March 02, 2007 By Patrick Singleton
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Viewfinder (7.0)
The D40's viewfinder is small. While the D80 seemed to have inherited the D200's viewfinder optics, the D40 is a significant step down – it's darker and has less magnification. On the plus side, we found it easy to see the whole image while wearing glasses. The diopter control can be adjusted -1.7 to +0.5m. It works just fine, though we found we needed to set off-center to focus well on the display. That's odd because every other DSLR we've tested has looked sharpest with the diopter set to neutral.
 
The Nikon D40’s optical viewfinder shows 95 percent of the recorded image, which is the same accuracy found on other DSLR finders.
 
The D40’s eye-level penta-Dach mirror viewfinder shows a range of shooting details in the viewfinder display. They are: focus, battery charge, focus pattern, exposure lock, program shift, an exposure scale, exposure compensation, shots remaining, and a flash ready light. The information is easy to see and logically arranged.
 
LCD Screen (7.75)
The D40 features a 2.5-inch, 230,000-pixel LCD. It's readable from a wide range of angles. Unlike other Nikons, it doesn't come with a protective plastic cover.
 
The low-temperature polysilicon TFT LCD displays shooting information in two formats: the standard numerical system and a graphic arrangement that indicates the f/stop with a picture of an iris diaphragm. Shutter speed shows up as a dotted line circling around the diaphragm. The data shown in shooting mode are: image size and quality, white balance, ISO, burst mode, autofocus mode, meter pattern, shots remaining, exposure compensation, flash exposure compensation, flash sync, and the help mode indicator.
 
The LCD screen can be dimmed or brightened from the setup menu.
 
Flash (7.0)
Typically, the built-in flashes on DSLRs are small and low-powered. They're useful as fill-flashes, but they can't light up a whole room very well. We took an acceptable shot with the D40's flash at 7 feet, with the aperture set to f/5.6 and ISO at 100. The D40 offers red-eye reduction, rear curtain, slow sync, and activates the flash automatically in snapshot modes. The D40 offers a maximum sync speed of 1/500 – that's very fast and should be useful for outdoor fill-flash.
 
The flash can be set to manual outputs from full to 1/32 power, in full-EV steps (-3 to +1 EV range). Its automatic exposure is through the lens, using the 420-segment, RGB metering system. Unlike the D80 and D200, the D40's flash can't function in "Commander Mode," triggering external Nikon flashes wirelessly. A SB-800, SB-600 or SB-400 in the D40's hot shoe can use the camera's meter to control other flashes for wireless TTL exposure.
 
Lens and Mount (8.0)
The 18-55mm, f/3.5-5.6 lens supplied in the kit is an update of previous versions of this lens. The lens mount is plastic, while the flange on the camera is metal. It is better to have a flange made out of metal; swapping the lens frequently is likely to wear down the plastic mount.
 
Most of the structural elements of the kit lens are lightweight plastic. The front part of the lens seems particularly feeble and wobbles with slight pressure. It also rocks slightly as the user engages the manual focus ring.
 
The D40 itself is a lightweight piece of equipment and isn't built for durability. Still, it's tougher than the lens. We get plenty of comments about how sharp modern kit lenses are and what great pictures they take. But, compared to other Nikon lenses, the 18-55mm is cheaply made, and far more susceptible to breaking over time. A maximum aperture of f/5.6 when zoomed out isn't good enough for indoor use. Not only is it often impossible to shoot available light indoors at f/5.6 without a tripod, but the D40 has a hard time focusing in low light with such a slow lens.
 
The Nikon D40 lacks a feature that every previous Nikon DSLR had: a focusing motor. Most auto focus Nikkor lenses rely on motors in the camera to focus. The D40’s auto focus system is compatible only with lenses that have internal focusing motors. The D40’s F-mount is fully functional with Nikkor AF-S and AF-I lenses, and supports all other D- and G-type lenses except for the auto focus.
 

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Nikon D40
Digital Camera Review
3 Comments
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Previous: Page 2

Physical Tour

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Design / Layout