Picture Quality / Size Options (8.5)
The Nikon D40 shoots JPEGs in Fine, Normal and Basic quality levels. Fine isn't compressed much, but it offers the best quality, while Basic sacrifices quality to make very small files. The D40 also shoots .NEF files, Nikon's RAW format, which preserves all the sensor data, for editing on a computer.
The D40 offers three file sizes. In pixel dimensions, they are 3008 x 2000, 2256 x 1496 and 1504 x 1000. It's also possible to re-save images at email-able sizes.
Picture Effects Mode (9.5)
 Nikon calls its effects “optimization,” and offers 6 presets and a custom option. Normal boosts saturation and sharpness. Softer has more natural saturation and contrast and performs less sharpening on the file. Vivid and More Vivid both increase saturation and boost sharpness. Portrait enhances skin tones and sharpens less. Black and white produces monochrome images. Custom allows the user to adjust saturation, contrast, and sharpness. The D40 offers 2 sRGB color spaces, Ia for portraits and the more vivid IIIa for landscape and still-life. It also offers Adobe RGB that embraces a wider gamut of color.
The D40's in-camera editing features change existing images. D-Lighting brightens shadows and mid-tones. Red-eye correction is supposed to eliminate glowing red pupils, but we didn't have a good shot to test the feature (that’s a good thing; we shouldn’t see red eyes in the first place). Trim can crop out extraneous parts of shots. Monochrome changes images into black and white, sepia, or cyanotype-style images. The Filter feature offers 3 options: Skylight is supposed to remove subtle blue casts from distant subjects. Warm tints the image toward amber. Color balance offers a more powerful option for color shifting, with a two-axis graph allowing the user to adjust color on axes for green to magenta and blue to amber. The feature allows fine adjustment over a pretty wide range. Small makes small copies of files for emailing. The choices of size are: 640 x 480, 320 x 240 and 160 x 120. Image Overlay combines two .NEF files, laying one partially transparent over the other. It doesn't work with JPEG files.
These are fairly extensive image editing options for a DSLR, perhaps to cater to increasingly popular direct printing.
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