Nikon D40

Reviewed December 2006

Image Quality

Compact and light, the D40 integrates all of Nikon's newest technologies, but omits a few features found on other Nikon dSLRs to keep costs down.

For example, the D40 is equipped with the 420-segment 3D matrix metering found on more expensive Nikon SLR cameras, as well as the iTTL flash metering, but its autofocus only has 3 horizontal focus areas.

Probably the most notable difference between the D40 and previous dSLR from Nikon is that it does not have an internal focusing motor. Up to now, Nikon SLRs retained backward compatibility with Nikkor AF-D and G-type lenses, which do not have an internal autofocus motor, relying instead on a cam that is part of the lens mount. The D40, however, has only electrical contacts, and to autofocus requires lenses that have a Silent Wave motor, the AF-S and AF-I series.

Nevertheless, although they have to be focused manually, the D40 can receive previous Nikkor lenses AF-D, AI-S/A and G types, but only D and G types will benefit from the 3D Matrix metering.

The D40 is sold in a kit that includes a new DX lens — the DX group of Nikkor lenses is exclusively designed for digital SLR cameras which use an APS-C size sensor — an AF-S Nikkor 18 to 55 mm f3.5-5.6 G II ED.

The barrel is composed of polycarbonate (including the lens mount), making the lens remarkably light, without sacrificing any of its optical qualities.

The lens is equivalent to a 27 to 82.5 mm zoom in the 35 mm format, covering a range that starts at a good wide angle and extends to a short telephoto that is ideal for portraits. It has a large and fluid zoom ring, and a slim focus ring that is still useable when the camera is set to manual focus.

While at the widest angle there is noticeable barrel distortion, there is no pincushion distortion at the telephoto end, or throughout the rest of the zoom's focal length range. Moreover, images reveal excellent sharpness from corner to corner at all focal lengths, including at the wide angle end from f5.6 onwards.

Furthermore, because of the use of ED (Extra low Dispersion) glass, the lens has no chromatic aberration, even on the edges of strong contrasts, and yields excellent, well saturated colours.

The automatic white balance is usually very reliable, its only weakness being when it is used under mixed artificial lighting.

The 3D Matrix metering of the D40 is similarly reliable, and produces well-exposed images. In addition, the fact that alternative metering patterns — centre-weighted and spot that can be tied to the focus point — are available on an entry-level camera is laudable.

The D40 seems to be unaffected by noise up to 400 ISO. Noise starts to be detectable at 800 ISO, and a bit more so at 1600 ISO. And at the HI 1 setting, a sensitivity setting that corresponds to 3200 ISO, images are relatively noisy but remain useable when captured under good lighting to maximize the shutter speed.

With its 6.1 megapixel CCD, the D40 delivers excellent quality images in both RAW and JPEG formats, and even at the strongest JPEG compression. As always, the RAW format has the advantage of retaining all the data captured by the CCD, including all the colour information. To process RAW images Nikon includes Picture Project. Regrettably, however, the program does allow any tweaking of the RAW files, acting as a simple format conversion tool instead.

Therefore, to take full advantage of the RAW format, users will have to use either Photoshop with its Camera RAW Plug-in, or purchase Nikon's professional software: Nikon Capture NX, after the 30-day free trial included with the D40 expires.

As noted above, JPEG format images captured with the D40 are generally excellent. Set to the highest image quality, Fine, there are no compression artefacts and the level of detail the images retain is very high, lessening the need to use the RAW format.

The other compression levels are also useable, and even the Basic image quality yields impressive pictures, even though the compression level produces image files of approximately 800 KB.

Nevertheless, however acceptable the image quality at the Basic setting, it is regrettable that it is the only compression level available in combination with the RAW mode.

It is also worth noting the quality of flash exposures with the D40, using its built-in pop-up flash. The flash is able to light a large room without any problem, or light falloff in the corners of the frame at the widest angle of the kit lens.

By any measure, the Nikon D40 is an excellent deal. It may not have the highest resolution available in a digital camera, but the image size it produces is more than enough to make excellent prints up to 10 x 6.6 inches (25 x 16 cm) at 300 dpi.

And, while the D40 has some restrictions when it comes to the AF lenses that can be used with it, it still represents an excellent opportunity to jump to a digital SLR.