I purchased Nikon D40 almost a year back. I got it for 260 UK pounds when I was travelling to UK. Being a fan for Nikon products I always wanted to buy Nikon DSLR. I have a good experience with Nikon since I have been using Nikon F75 for almost 5 years now. In my view Nikon has come up with an excellent value for money entry level DSLR. They have achieved cost savings by avoiding the digital display which normally comes on the top rightside of the camera. Instead you can view the camera settings in the rear view screen which is really huge at 2.5 inches. It comes with a 18-55mm Nikkor autofocus lens. the problem with this model is that you can only use autofocus lenses(the lenses which come with onboard motor) because D40 doesnt ship with focus motor like D80 or other models. The same applies to D40x model too. This restricts you purchase autofocus lenses only. Ofcourse these lenses can also be used in manual mode too.
The camera has a max resolution of 6.1 megapixel resolution and is pretty compact and light. Performance is pretty decent enough. I would recommend it as a very good choice for an amateur to advanced amateur. You can get very good insight at https://dpreview.com.
You can view some of my pictures taken with Nikon D40 at
https://picasaweb.google.com/vishakrs
Note: Try exploring the Vivid and More Vivid options for great Depth of Field enhanced pictures.