Nikon D40x review

In other areas, the D40x surpasses some of the competition. Its sensitivity settings range from ISO 100 to ISO 1,600, plus an H1 setting, which is essentially equivalent to ISO 3,200. By contrast, the D40's lowest sensitivity is ISO 200, as are the Pentaxes'. Canon's 400D and the two Olympuses start at ISO 100, but top out at ISO 1,600.

Shutter speeds on the D40x range from 30 seconds to 1/4000 second, and exposure compensation covers a rather wide swath of plus or minus 5EV in third-stop increments. The scale used to show exposure compensation in the viewfinder and on the LCD screen, however, only covers plus or minus 2EV, so beyond that you need to pay attention to the tiny numerical indicator next to the scale. All other exposure controls also run in third-stop increments, as opposed to the more-coarse half-stop increments that some cameras, such as the Fujifilm S3 Pro, use.

As always, Nikon includes its barely useful Picture Project RAW processing software with the D40x and annoyingly expects you to shell out extra cash to purchase the company's Capture NX software if you want a more robust way to process RAW images. The Capture NX software, however, is quite nice and includes some innovative image-editing tools.

Performance
In our lab tests, the D40x yielded impressive results. It took 0.15 seconds to start up and capture its first JPEG. Subsequent JPEGs took 0.48 seconds between shots with the flash turned off and 0.85 seconds between shots with the flash turned on. The time between capturing RAW images measured 0.75 seconds.

Shutter lag measured 0.4 seconds in our high-contrast test, which mimics bright shooting conditions, and 0.9 seconds in our low-contrast test, which mimics dim shooting conditions. In continuous shooting mode, we were able to capture JPEGs at an average of 2.97 frames per second, regardless of image size.

Image quality
Image quality from the D40x is extremely good. Colours look very accurate and are well-saturated without being oversaturated. Images have a wide dynamic range, with plenty of detail in both shadows and highlights.

We shot our lab test images with the 18mm-to-55mm kit lens, which produced admirably sharp images for an entry-level kit lens, though we did see a very minor amount of fringing with this lens around some extreme highlights.

The camera's automatic white balance produces slightly warm images when used with incandescent light sources, such as a living room lamp, but the tungsten preset serves up neutral images in those circumstances. We got the most neutral results when using the manual white balance setting.

The D40x's built-in flash is rather powerful -- Nikon rates it to be effective to 12m at ISO 100 -- and it did a nice job of balancing its fill flash with the ambient light of the lamp in our test scene.

Noise due to ISO is very low in the D40x. At ISO 100 and ISO 200, noise is almost nonexistent. At ISO 400, it begins to become noticeable on monitors and only ever-so-slightly softens the image, but doesn't appreciably detract from prints. Even at ISO 800, you can barely see noise in prints, and though it is apparent on monitors, it's still well under control and images are still very pleasing.

At ISO 1600, noise is more pronounced still, but you should be able to get pleasing prints. Images retain much of their shadow detail, and while finer details are softened, they aren't obliterated -- text that was readable at ISO 100 will still probably be readable at ISO 1600. At the camera's Hi1 setting, noise becomes very prominent, finer details become blurred away, and the overall dynamic range becomes truncated so you lose a fair amount of shadow detail. You should still be able to produce passable prints if you stick with smaller sizes, though.

Conclusion
Nikon's D40x is a very impressive camera. While not quite as fast as the Canon EOS 400D, it does offer a higher resolution, though the 400D is less expensive.

If you're considering the D40x with the 18mm-135mm kit lens, and you've shot with an SLR before, you'll probably prefer the control system of the D80, which also includes a coupling pin, so you can use it with older Nikon AF lenses and retain the autofocus capability. If you're stepping up to your first dSLR and don't have a stash of old lenses, the D40x is a good choice.

Additional editing by Kate Macefield