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We clicked with:
Easy to use
Small and light
Good price
iTTL flash compatible
Shots in the dark:
No sensor dust buster
Some shadow and high ISO noise issues
Compatibility with pre-AF-S lenses
Price Comparison:
Nikon D40x
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No one could accuse the digital camera world of dragging its heels. Only a few months after the D40 hit the shelves, out comes its bigger brother… the Nikon D40x.
Despite appearances (the two look identical from the outside), the newer camera is claimed not to be a quick upgrade on the D40. The biggest change is the shift from a six megapixel sensor to a 10 megapixel one. Those extra megapixels are magic megapixels, though; they make an extra £100 magically disappear from your bank account.
Features
It's a very light camera, weighing just under half a kilo, and it's small too (it uses SD cards instead of the larger Compact Flash), but it feels easy to hold in the hand. Put the EN-EL9 Lithium-Ion battery in place and the camera tips the scales at 522g, but with a suggested 520 shots per charge, you might not need a spare battery for your Nikon D40x.
Like most DSLR, the camera comes with an abundance of picture modes on its top-plate dial - portrait, landscape, macro, hyperspace drive* and more - alongside the regular program, aperture and shutter priority and full manual. You might ask why you would rely on heavy-handed automation modes when selecting a DSLR with such potential for creativity, but the broad spread of modes give you a lot to play with.
The camera comes bundled as standard with the AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm ED II f3.5-5.6 autofocus lens that covers from reasonably wide to standard portrait (it's equivalent to about a 28-80mm in old money). The Nikon D40x is not completely compatible with the whole of the current lens range - it has no motors built into the camera body itself, so it can only autofocus with AF-S lenses (or Sigma's HSM equivalent). If you use older Nikon AF lenses, you either have to focus manually, or chose a more up-market Nikon camera body, like the D80.
The Nikon D40x has an electronic shutter, which can work up to three frames per second. Flash sync is at 1/200th second and the pop-up unit gives great fill flash as standard. There's a manual flash option from full power to 1/32 power. The camera uses Nikon's iTTL flash system, and the little SB400 external flash has been designed to work perfectly with the camera.You can also use more powerful flash like the SB600 or SB800, but the camera lacks a Commander mode for wireless off-camera flash as standard. (Creative Lighting System: How To)
There's no sensor dust-buster device on the Nikon D40x - something that Olympus has been using for years and most of the entry-level rivals now feature. Similarly, Nikon's Vibration Reduction system is built into some lenses, where rival cameras from Olympus, Sony and Pentax feature in-camera anti-shake systems.
Operation
The user interface is easy to use and quick to learn, as long as you don't mind navigating menu systems on that 2.5” TFT LCD screen. Fortunately, the menu uses bright, colourful screens and use a variety of illustrative graphics and decent layouts to visually assist you with what goes where.
Digging through the menus for white balance, ISO and flash settings is a pain - but how much of a pain depends on how often you adjust these settings, because they can all be automated.
The informative viewfinder shows the camera sports just three auto focus points - this may be limiting, especially for those shooting vertically.
Picture Quality
You buy a camera to take photographs - so this is where its good to see the Nikon D40x hold out strong, be that in high quality JPEG or RAW formats:
10 megapixels allows for a 3872x2592pixel resolution - which is a potentially massive size to be working with and should allow for all your cropping and printing needs to a decent physical size.
There's also an extra notch over the D40 with the addition of ISO100: ISO ranges from 100-1600 (plus special 3200 'HI' mode)
For the most part, noise isn't a significant issue:
When working ISO1600 and beyond, there is certainly some noticeable noise. Its not like the world will cave in if you use high ISO - its not that bad... but it's not that great either. Fortunately, there is a 'Noise Reduction' option tucked away in the menus.
Take a scenario as above - by stopping down to avoid overexposure, the shadowed areas really begin to suffer from some notable noise.
The lens is a reasonable entry level jobby - but there's some slight light fall off at wider angles.
The highlight-preserving nature of Nikon's metering system meant that exposures consistently needed an extra 1/3rd of a stop, but were otherwise excellent. Whilst the LCD screen is great for previewing, it does seem to push everything a little bit harder than it appears on screen - so always be meticulous about accurate exposure (although that should be taken as a general rule!).
Conclusion
Nikon's D40x takes great pictures, there are plenty of controls and it comes in at a terrific price. However, it's essentially a D40 with more megapixels (one could say almost the same of the Canon 400D, too). More isn't necessarily better; unless you print large or crop heavily, you may as well save yourself the £100 difference and go for the D40.
That aside, if you pick up a D40x then you'll be happy with the results. We certainly wouldn't kick one out of bed for eating biscuits…
*we lied about the hyperspace drive.
