let me start by saying any DSLR will be a major jump in capability from your P&S. You really cant go wrong.


The low end Nikons have what I consider to be a serious issue in that they cannot auto focus any lens which doesnt have a motor built into it. This limits your lens choices if you want Auto Focus and makes the lenses more expensive to make. Tamron dont have silent wave or equivalent lenses at all so no Tamron lens will auto-focus with a low end Nikon body.

Since it looks like youre on a pretty serious budget, I would strongly recommend a camera which can fully use older/cheaper lenses. For example one of the best consumer grade long zooms available is also one of the cheapest, the Tamron 70-300 Di-II. It can be had for ~£100 and is quite versitile with good close focusing capabilities for macros. It wont auto focus with a D40, but it will with the older D50, or any Canon, Pentax or Sony DSLR (note the alphabetical order to avoid my natural pro-Pentax bias!).

Nikons mid to top end DSLRs are superb, but if youre looking to build up a collection of lenses over time without spending the earth Id steer well clear of the D40, D40x and D60.


As for the 18-55, its passable. Keep it stopped down to F8-10 and it will perform ok. It is pretty limited in its range, you will find your 4500 has nearly twice the reach at the long end, although you should be able to make this difference up by cropping the better quality DSLR images, it certainly wont give you anything you dont already have.

Are you going to be fundless for a significant while? If youre going to be stuck with one lens for a significant length of time, I would seriously consider buying the camera body only and getting a Tamron 18-250 to go with it (again though, this lens wont Auto Focus with a D40. Starting to see the limitations of that body?). This is probably the best super zoom ever made, at least in price/performance terms. Uncharacteristically for a super-zoom, its actually pretty reasonable. I played with the Pentax-DA badged version (actually the same lens) and although it doesnt match my shorter range zooms for image quality, it does offer considerable advantages in ease of use.

There are better lenses out there, but as a starter kit which you wont have to add to for a good few months, I think you would have a hard time doing better than a basic DSLR+18-250 lens.

If you do go for the 18-55 (not a bad choice, esp if the deal is good enough) then your next lens will almost certainly be in the range 70-300mm

Looks like the D40x is about £150 dearer and Im not planning on doing a lot of printing the money I suspect would be better put towards an extra lens. If I want to upgrade the body I can still use the lenses (providing I keep within the same system)?

I knew the D40 needs lenses with the focus motor built in - does this mean you can still focus other lenses but need to do it manually, and is that difficult?

What do the lens lengths actually mean - what can you do with 70-300 that you cant with 16-55? What I really need is a list of say four lenses and what youd use them for in real terms - or at least somewhere that explains things for a total novice.

On a tight budget mostly because I dont want to drop a grand on kit that Im not sure Ill get the benefit from at this point. I would think it would be a month to two months at the most before I was getting a second lens, so not too long - probably enough to get used to working the camera.

Amazon have it with the 18-55 for £265 and Nikon have a £40 cashback at the minute. Looking at MrTs photos you can get some awesome snaps with it - certainly better than I could ever imagine taking: http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinturner/

Thanks a lot guys.

Looks like the D40x is about £150 dearer and Im not planning on doing a lot of printing the money I suspect would be better put towards an extra lens. If I want to upgrade the body I can still use the lenses (providing I keep within the same system)?

Providing they are in the same system and are compatable you can just buy a new body and switch them over. A lot of people upgrade in this way.

I knew the D40 needs lenses with the focus motor built in - does this mean you can still focus other lenses but need to do it manually, and is that difficult?

You can switch most lenses to manual anyway, if you want to do it yourself. Usually its not that difficult, you just turn an ajustment ring on the barrel until it looks in focus.

What do the lens lengths actually mean - what can you do with 70-300 that you cant with 16-55? What I really need is a list of say four lenses and what youd use them for in real terms - or at least somewhere that explains things for a total novice.

In the end it relates to how much you can see on the picture. Just think of it as more millimetres means something will look closer. Therefore the 18-55mm standard gives you a moderate wide angle to mid-range on a digital. This is not the same as on a film camera, mainly because the sensor is smaller than a frame of 35mm film. If you have ever seen the Panasonic lens pulling the sphinx in thats what its about.

List
18-55mm General purpose, taking photographs of people, countryside, buildings, sporting events animals and things that arent far away. You use this when something is close or you want to get a lot in.
70-200mm (or300) for distant work, taking photos of sports, animals, details on buildings. If you cant walk close enough to the subject then you would switch to one of these. The Tamron 70-200 Di-II is about £70 and highly reccommended. Alternatively, if you want to take stuff at a really long distance, go for the 70-300mm Mongoose suggested. Remember though that a long lens will magnify things, but it will also magnify any shake your hands make. At 300mm its a lot more difficult to hold a camera without some shake being visible.
50mm fixed, Useful if there is limited light and especially if you cant or dont want to use flash. Can have another lens reversed onto it for macro work.

Thats it, three lenses. For most things the 18-55mm is adequate, providing you dont want to take things like long distance pictures of wildlife, which is why that one ends up as a kit lens. Personally I would buy that and then see if you feel like you need something else rather than just going out and buying a range of lenses. If you find yourself thinking I wish I could bringt hat closer then you need the longer zoom. Dont think that you have to buy a lens just because its available, its important to need it. Many people surprisingly just stick to the kit lens.

congrats and welcome to the world of SLR photography

I dont know for certain what MrT has in his bag, but that butterfly looks like it was taken with a macro lens, probably either a Sigma 105 or Tamron 90mm prime.

The second shot Id be willing to bet was taken with his Sigma 10-20mm super wide angle. A very nice lens, well outside your budget for now but very competitively priced for a super wide zoom.

Goblin, wide angle building and countryside photos often use an lens that covers the range 10 to 20mm, which is a rather specialist range. To get the equivalent on a film camera you would need to multiply this by 1.5 so its really equivalent to 15 to 30mm. These are not exactly cheap. If you want the Same effect on buildings, set the kit lens to 18mm and move about until you find the place to take the photo from rather than adjusting the zoom, not exactly the same but cost is free.

Then for close up there are specialist macro fixed lenses, usually in the range 60-100mm giving a 1 to 1 or larger image of what you see. These are not exactly cheap either. I would consider use one of the alternative options to try macro photography out before you buy a special lens. You can start using the kit lens, just crop down in software to the item you are taking a photo of. Reversing another lens, using extension tubes or a dioptic lens on the front (called a close up filter from 7dayshop) will all enable you to do macro work. Most SLR cameras have a macro setting, its worth using this when taking close up photos.