Nikon D40x

Reviewed October 2007

Interface & Software

Interface

The D40x makes no secret of its ancestry, and the content of its interface is totally identical to that of the D40. Aside from the information displayed in the viewfinder, the only display on the D40x is its 2.5-inch LCD monitor, as there is no LCD panel on top of the camera to instantly see the current camera settings. To see these, the button located next to the shutter release or the button, on the left side of the monitor must be pressed to show the Shooting Information Display, which in turn serves to change most basic photographic settings. To add interest, Nikon allows the presentation of the Shooting Information Display to be customized, even allowing the display to appear on a user-selected photo background.

• CSM/Setup Menu controls the number of options that are displayed when the Custom menu is accessed:
  • Simple: only shows basic options.
  • Full: displays all options.
  • Custom: allows selecting which options will be shown in the Playback, Shooting Custom, Setup and Retouch menus.
• Format Memory Card: serves to format the memory card, deleting all images including those that have been protected.
• Info Display Format: provides a choice presentation for the Info Display screen: Classic displays a screen that looks like a top mounted LCD display, Graphic blends text, numbers and icons with or without a background image or graphic. The Display screen can be set separately for P, S, A, M modes and for the Digital Vari-Programs.
• Auto Shooting Info: this option decides whether or not the Shooting Information Display Screen is automatically shown when the camera is turned on, and is only turned off while the shutter release is pressed. The way the display operates can be set independently for the advanced modes and the Digital Vari-Programs.
• World Time: serves to set the internal clock and calendar of the D40x and its format. In addition, the local time zone can be selected, as well as whether or not daylight savings time is in effect.

• LCD Brightness: allows adjusting the brightness of the monitor over ± 2 levels.
• Video Mode decides the signal output by the D40x: NTSC or PAL.
• Language serves to select the interface language: German, English, Spanish, Finnish, French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese or Korean.
• Image Comment: allows adding a comment to an image using a keyboard that is displayed on the monitor. Image comments added this way can then be seen using the supplied software.

• USB serves to set the USB protocol:
  • PTP: to print directly to a PictBridge compliant printer.
  • Mass Storage: to transfer images to a computer.

When the Menu CSM/Conf. is set to Full, the following options are also shown:

• Folders: serves to create, rename or delete folders into which photos are stored.
• File Number Sequence:
  • Off: files are numbered starting with 0001 when a new folder is created, or when the memory card is formatted, or when a new memory card is used.
  • On: images are numbered sequentially up to 9999, then the camera creates a new folder and restarts numbering images as of 0001.
  • Reset: uses the same method as the On setting, but starts a new folder every time the camera is powered on.
• Mirror Lock-up: serves to lock up the mirror so that the low-pass filter located in front of the CCD can be cleaned.
• Firmware Version: displays the version of the firmware loaded on the camera (Version 1.00 with the D40x tested for this review).
• Dust Off Reference Photo: serves to capture an image of a white surface so it can be used later by Capture NX to remove any dust on the sensor that may have been recorded on other images.
• Auto Image Rotation: decides whether images are shown in their correct orientation in playback.

The D40x is supplied with a printed manual. The manual is extremely well written and clear, worth noting as this is becoming rare. All aspects of the camera and its functions are covered and well explained. Equipped with a good manual such as this one, users should be able to be comfortable with the camera quickly.

Software

The D40x is retailed with 3 CDs in North America:

• Nikon PictureProject 1.7.
• Reference Manual for PictureProject in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format.
• The 123 of digital imaging, an interactive guide that introduces basic concepts in digital imaging.

Picture Project is the primary program supplied with the D40x, serving to transfer images, organize files and do some basic editing. The program also serves to view RAW files and re-save them into more common file formats. Picture Project also provides tools to create slide shows, send copies of photos via e-mail, or burn compilations onto CD or DVD.

With an image selected, the Edit button at the top of the window offers options to adjust the brightness of the image, process it using D-Lighting, which brightens up dark areas without affecting any others, adjusts colours, controls sharpness, straightens the image, or even creates a copy in black and white or sepia.

In addition, a series of tools that are positioned at the top left of the window make it possible to change its orientation, trim it, or apply red-eye reduction.

Nikon includes on the same CD a 30-day Trial Version of its more advanced RAW editor Capture NX. In fact, this is a program much more suited to the capabilities of the D40x, and it is regrettable that it is not included with the camera.

Capture NX is the professional image processing program from Nikon. Its interface is relatively complex (at right), but it allows organizing the various tools as desired.

Capture NX is a powerful program that is specially designed to manipulate Nikon's RAW (.NEF) files. The program allows retouching images either globally, or using special tools in a very precise and localized way. Once processed, RAW images can be saved as (CMYK or RGB, using either 8 or 16 bits and with or without LZW compression), or as JPEG at any of 5 different compression levels or using a compression percentage.