Nikon D40 Samples

First published on: Monday, 28 July 2008

Last update (Feb 06, 2009): New Mexico, Albuquerque and Arizona Photos by Donald Peterson of ABQStyle

Here’s my favorite section — it’s always been about the photos. This page is a collection of noteworthy photo samples taken with the Nikon D40 digital SLR (DSLR) camera, image galleries and user pictures that I’ve come across in forums, online communities, blogs and related websites.

Bear in mind that the majority of these photos are resized, and may have gone through postprocessing, retouching or other edits. I just thought that it would be interesting to see, at a glance, what Nikon D40 owners and users are shooting with their camera.

Full attribution is given by linking to the source and where available, the author’s homepage or photo gallery.

New Mexico, Albuquerque and Arizona Photos by Donald Peterson of ABQStyle

Check out the ABQStyle photo blog. Enjoy truly awe-inspiring photos by Donald Peterson. For each photo, Donald shares a wealth of EXIF data, camera settings, filters used (for instance, circular polarizers), best times of the day and weather conditions for photography, and post-processing. Many of the images were captured using nothing more than the Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G kit lens that comes bundled with the camera.

Some sample posts from his blog:

Miscellaneous links

The best bird photographs ever
Just my opinion only, but I had never seen better bird photography (including bird-in-flight / BIF types) with the D40 + Nikkor 70-300mm VR combination!

A word of warning — it’s not a happy ending for the one unfortunate Muscovy duckling which ends up in the beak of a Night Heron.

Settings used were Aperture priority (A mode) and spot metering.

The photographer also comments on how, for numerous reasons, he prefers the D40 over his D80.

See more bird in flight shots from Tech1961.

Gallery of photos with a $4000 lens
To be honest, I never thought I’d ever see a gallery of images shot with the super-expensive-but-everybody-wants-it Nikkor 200mm f/2G IF-ED AF-S VR lens mounted on the D40, but thanks to Pierre Dubeau, we get to enjoy photos shot with this combination.

The first portrait in the gallery is particularly striking — excellent colors, detail and bokeh.

Pierre’s just shared more excellent candids in this forum post plus a tip on how to properly hold the combo.

Hummingbirds
RAL shot these with the Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens. Excellent pictures!

Indoor portrait shot
ericBlair manually focused his Nikkor 55mm f/1.2 Nikkor-S Auto for this one

What about baby photos?
As far as I know, Ken Rockwell has one of the most extensive collection of baby photos online. Look through them and make a note of the equipment he uses, mostly the D40, SB-400 flash (great for throwing out a nicer light than the popup flash) and either the 18-55 II (in the December 2006 series) or 18-200 VR zoom lenses.

Perfect travel lens
Owners always tout the Nikkor 18-200mm VR as the perfect lens to carry on travels and holidays, and Franklin proves it with images from his recent trip to Canada.

D40 goes to Siem Reap, Cambodia
George Mann used only a single lens for the trip — the Nikkor 12-24mm f/4 DX. Read his blog on how he processed the photos using Adobe Lightroom and more details about his trip.

Sample pics with the Nikon 70-300 VR lens — you mustn’t miss these!

Sylvia Liu

Nikon D40 Images by Sylvia Liu
Most of her pictures are presented at very small sizes, but I like the subjects she photographs, and the color in her D40 pics are really nice. Visit her Flickr gallery now.

General Nikon D40 galleries

On Flickr.com — contributed by Mason.

On DPReview.com — contributed by Dale.

Nikon D40 test samples at Imaging Resource

Nikon D40 Test Image Samples, from Imaging Resource
Full-sized Nikon D40 test samples are available for ISO series tests and also outdoors under fine weather. Dave has one of the most controlled environments for digital camera test images on the internet. You might be interested to compare the D40 shots vs the Canon Rebel XTi / 400D pics from the same site.

Nikon D40 test samples at dc.watch.impress.co.jp

Nikon D40 Review Image Samples, from dc.watch.impress.co.jp
There are a few Japanese camera sites that I always look forward to browsing every time a new camera is launched.Even though I don’t understand a word of Japanese, the copious image samples more than make up for it.

Enjoy this series of full-sized, untouched Nikon D40 pics from dc.watch. Particularly interesting are the high-ISO night shots (this is an ISO1600 example) and the shots done with the Nikkor 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED AF-S DX Zoom lens (you won’t find too many of such Nikon 18-135mm + Nikon D40 samples online — here’s another).

Stopped down, the new Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II AF-S DX Zoom kit lens that comes bundled with the D40 seems to be able to do an amazing job at capturing sharp, detailed shots — see this night scene at aperture of f/10 and the flower shot at f/7.1.

The Nikon 18-55mm also performed extremely well, wide-open at f/5.6, 55m focal length, for this closeup shot of a cat.If you prefer to examine the EXIF data in the D40 images for yourself, read this short piece on how using Nikon View can help you do that.

Size comparison images

Nikon D40 vs Nikon D200
Here’s a very interesting photo posted by Takahara showing both cameras side-by-side. Make sure you scroll down further to view two pics of the Nikon 50/ 1.8 series E (mk 1) and
Nikkor 45mm f/2.8p lenses mounted on the diminutive D40.
For full-sized sample photos taken with the Nikon 45mm pancake optic, see this Nikon D40 plus Nikkor 45mm f/2.8P gallery).

PerL’s D40 vs D200, complete with lenses
In this forum post, PerL shows images of the D40 and D200 mounted with various lenses. He tends to carry around his “mini set” package more, which consists of the D40 with the kit Nikkor 18-55 II lens, the Nikkor 55-200mm VR optic and the Nikon SB400 flash.
The D200 is pictured with the Nikkor 18-70mm AF-S DX, Nikkor 70-200mm VR and Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 lenses.

D40 next to the Konica Minolta A200
The KM A200 is a “bridge” camera, digital cameras that are designed to fit in between compact cameras and digital SLR cameras. Bridge cameras tend to be quite large, and from a image quality plus performance vs size standpoint, the D40 presents an attractive alternative.

Archive of comments from the old blog post

  1. Armando Máynez Says: I love my D40 and my kit lens. My pictures are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amaynez
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