Chris Hearts His ... Nikon D40

I hope you're sitting down, readership! We have the time of the man himself, speaking exclusively to CW on his latest love, the Nikon D40 digital SLR. I give you...Chris.

"We recently purchased a Nikon D40 and I love it. It's Nikon's entry level DSLR and it gets great reviews for picture quality and value (among other things like small size and weight compared to other DSLRs). Read what Ken Rockwell has to say about the D40 here: http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d40.htm.
He compared the D40 to two other high end Nikons and a few Canons here: http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d40.htm. After reading these reviews and researching on the web my decision was solidified and I haven't had any regrets.

I ordered the D40 kit (comes with camera body and 18-55mm lens) through Amazon and also purchased a zoom lens (55-200mm with vibration reduction) for around $750 altogether. The 18-55mm provides 3x optical zoom and the 55-200mm is equivalent to around 11-12x. I'll be set with these lenses for a long time.

If you're not interested in a DSLR I would highly recommend the other camera we own, the Canon A710 IS. It has 7.1 megapixels (read why megapixles don't matter much here: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/mpmyth.htm), but more importantly 6x optical zoom and image stabilization (Nikon refers to this feature as vibration reduction (VR) while Canon uses IS). I can't stress enough
what a great feature image stabilization is [Editor's Note: True dat.]. You'll get much cleared and in focus shots, especially in low light and/or high zoom situations, without needing a tripod.

Fans, if you're really interested in a DSLR I'd suggest trying ours to see what you think. I can almost guarantee you'll love taking photos with it and love the results even better. You can try both cameras side by side and see the differences yourself.

You may have seen commercials about how Nikon gave 200 people in a small town in S.C. the D40 and asked them to take pictures as they go about their lives. You can see the results here: http://www.stunningnikon.com/picturetown/.

For photos I've taken with the D40 and the A710 IS check out my Flickr site: http://flickr.com/photos/ctankcycles/. The first photos I took with the D40 are the ones from the Nationals game. The zoo photos were
with the D40 and the shots of CW Editor in Chief Kelly Brooks in the ocean are as well. You can get an idea of the kind of photos the A710 IS can take by looking at the pics I took in Germany. If you're not sure which camera was used click on the picture and the screen that opens will have the camera info on the lower right side of the page.

Write to me at CW with any questions: rubyvino@gmail.com. I'm MORE THAN THRILLED to help in any way I can."

There you have it, folks. So let it be written, so let it be done. Should you buy a camera other than the one recommended here, shame on you and good luck.