My name is Connor Clemen, and in this review, I’m going to be doing a comparison between the Nikon D40, Nikon D40x and the Nikon D80 which is the camera I have right here. First I’m gonna start out with comparing the Nikon D40 and the D40x, and going over some of the pros to that camera. First of all, there are of course not much of a difference between the Nikon D40 and the D40x. The D40 has a 6 megapixel sensor whereas the D40x has a 10 megapixel sensor. That’s the main difference you gonna see between the two cameras. There is another small differences and that is with frames per second, the D40 shoots at 2.5 frames per second whereas the D40x shoots at 3 frames per second. Now that’s not much faster but it is worth noting. Now I’m gonna go over some of the pros of the D40 and the D40x. First thing that you’re gonna notice of course is how small the bodies are. They’re very small, lightweight, compact, and definitely easy to use. For instance, if you look at the D80 here, you’ll notice that it has tons of controls all over the body. The D40 and the D40x do not have this many controls and the controls are a lot easier to decipher. It’s a great camera for people who are moving up from compact camera. It’s very user friendly. It also has scene modes like you see in the D80 right here that help people moving up from compact learn how to use the SLR camera. Now I’m going to be comparing those two cameras against the D80 body. Now first thing that you’re gonna notice of course is how much larger the D80 body is. It’s also heavier to, but it’s not that much heavier. But it is quite a bit larger. The good thing about the D80 is that it is much better built, even though they are built of plastic, the D80 is definitely more durable. Also, if you look around the body, you’ll also notice that the D80, like I said has several more buttons and features on the outside of the camera body. Now I’m gonna go over some of the buttons that the D80 has that the D40 and the D40x do not have on the outside of the body. First of all, if you look up here, you’ve got the metering button up here, which is this button here which lets you choose between spot metering, center weighted metering, and the whole matrix metering system. The D40 and the D40x are also missing the shooting style button which is here, which lets you choose between single frame shots, continuous shooting, remote shooting, time shooting, many things like that. The D40 and the D40x also do not have a function button at all. They are completely missing this button. This is one of the most useful buttons I find in the D80 body. It let you choose between several different non functions. The D40 and the D40x also missed that all these buttons that you find right here, they do have three going down this side here, but the D80 definitely, those buttons on the D80 can be a lot more. For instance it has an ISO button, which right here, which lets you view and change the ISO. Has a white balance button right up here. It also has a quality button here. Those are some of the buttons that you will not find on the outside of the D40 and the D40x. Also the D40 and the D40x are missing some functions completely like for instance, I already showed you one is the function button, doesn’t have one of those. They also don’t have a depth of field button which can be very useful as well. And also another feature that you’ll be missing is a bracketing button. Those are some of the features that you’ll get with the D80. Now I’m gonna go over some of the more major features that the D80 has over the D40s. One of the major ones is the autofocus system. This one has an 11 point autofocus system, whereas the D40 has a 3 point autofocus system. The advantage of having more autofocus points is that you can choose many different areas in the frame and the autofocus in this camera is much more precise and quicker as well. The startup time and the speed of the D80 is also a lot faster, not really in frames per second but like I said in startup time, black out time, playback time, things like that. Let me give you an example for instance. The startup time for the D80, it starts in .1 seconds which is really, really fast. Whereas the D40 starts up in about .9 to a second, which is a lot, considerably a lot longer than the D80. And like I said the D80 will also have much shorter black out time after you take a picture. If you look back here, you got your viewfinder here, now on the D80, you’ll gonna have a much brighter and clearer viewfinder than you would on the D40 or the D40x. And that has to do with the D40 and the D40x smaller size. Alright, and also, if you look at the body here, that D80 has got a little feature up here, its top LCD screen here, as you can see it displays all the different settings of the camera is on. Now the D40 and the D40x do not have this feature, but instead they display all their information on the rear LCD screen back here. Now the D80 does not have that feature. And the advantage of having it on the rear LCD screen is that you can take pictures on the tripod and you can view your information a lot easier than looking up here at the top LCD screen. Even so though, a top LCD screen does have its advantages, it’s easier to view in really bright light especially. The D40 and the D40x do not have an internal autofocus motor, which is the mechanism that focus this certain lenses. Because of that they cannot use several Nikon lenses, for instance they cannot use any non AFS or non AFI lenses. If you put those lenses on the D40 or the D40x, they will be only manual focus. With the D80, you can use any Nikon lens and it will work great all the way from 1986. Now I’m gonna go over, there’s a couple of minor features here that are different between the cameras. The first is that the D80 has a little bit of a broader ISO range. The D40 and the D40x have an ISO range of 200 to 3200, whereas the D80 has one from 100 to 3200. A 100 ISO can come in handy sometime if you want a little bit less noise to your pictures. Big thumbs up for the D40 and the D40x, is that they have a faster flash sync. They have a 1/500th of a second flash sync, whereas the D80 has a really actually pretty slow 1/200th flash sync. Like I said the weight is also considerably different. The weight of the D80 is about 1.2 pounds, whereas the D40 and the D40x weighs considerably less than a pound. Now one of the largest differences between the camera of course, the cameras of course is the price. Now the D80, just the body itself, costs about 800 dollars. The D40 with the lens cost just under 500 dollars and the D40x with the lens cost little over 600 dollars. So you can see the D80 is considerably more expensive than both of those cameras. And for the price the D40 and the D40x are definitely the winners. You get a lot more in the D40 and the D40x for the price that you pay with those. However, some of the D80’s useful features, some useful to you, then you might wanna consider paying the extra hundred, couple of hundred dollars for the D80 body. Some of the things that I would buy the D80 over the D40 or the D40x for are its very autofocus system, also the fact that this camera can take all Nikon lenses, is definitely, was definitely worth the money for me. And also several of the features on this camera I find very useful. For instance the bracketing, the function button and the depth of field button, they are very useful to me, I use them all the time. So that was definitely worth the money for me as well. Things that I would not buy this camera for over the D40 and the D40x is the faster start up time and the brighter viewfinder and also the top LCD screen. Things like that, they are somewhat useful every now and then, but it’s definitely not worth the extra hundred bucks. The autofocus, the built quality and also the better features, were definitely worth the money though. But remember those features that I mentioned were worth it to me, now whether or not they’re worth it to you, all depends on how badly you need those features. You don’t want to pay the extra money for them. Then by all means go for the D40 and the D40x. But if those features sound useful to you, then I would definitely buy the D40. And this has been a comparison between the Nikon D40, the Nikon D40x and the Nikon D80.
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