One of the first things you will love about this camera is its Price. You can pick it off eBay.in for under Rs 20k inclusive of taxes and shipping - if you can get hold of a PaisaPay 10% discount coupon with limit of savings of Rs 2000.
If you’ve ever owned a Film SLR in the past, you will find transitioning to Digital on this camera very easy. You will however find it a little short on some of the expert features that you may be used to on a good grade Film SLR.
On the other hand if you’re moving onto this camera after mostly using compacts (either film or digital), you will see immediate improvement to your pictures and access to a great deal of features that are easily accessible.
However, if you’re a pro-photographer, you will find this camera lacking in many features that you would be used to and it is not recommended for you at all.
One of the things to keep in mind while picking up a SLR is that the lens and flash you pick are actually more important than the camera body. If you’re just starting up into SLR digital photography, but are low on budget, this is a good camera combo to pick up because it will get you started - and then you can slowly start adding in better lenses, flash, and other accessories.
The camera kit comes with the D40 camera body and a 18-55 mm Zoom lens. Like the camera the lens too is entry model, it will do the job, just don’t expect too much from it.
I’ll summarize the good things about this camera next and then the things that would have been nice to have.
The Good:
Very good price - below Rs 20k with kit lens
Light - It is not too much bigger than a good compact camera
Fast startup - you can turn on the camera and fire a shot in under 1 second
Easy to Use - very simple interface. If you are a total newbie, you can keep the camera in FULL Auto mode and still shot much better pics than any compact camera
Rugged enough for the price - although it is the cheapest DSLR, it is much tougher than the best of compacts
Fantastic battery life - Take 1000 shots on a single charge! (with less amount of flash of course)
Enough Megapixels for good photos - 6MP to be exact
Large LCD screen
Fast Continuous firing - 2.5 frames per second - its amazing how you can shoot a bunch of pics with a single press of the shutter button and then choose the best among what got shot
Uses affordable SD memory
11. Can be fired by an optional remote control (you can get it on eBay)
Would be nice to have:
1. Camera kit does not come with a case
2. Memory card NOT included
Spare battery would be nice (it comes with 1)
Does not have a built in lens focus motor. Only affects some of the older lenses that don’t have a built in motor on the lens itself
Does not have the face detection feature of newer cameras
Cannot view live on the LCD while shooting (this is true for most DSLRs by the way)