New entry-level Nikon
Blah-blah-Photocritic doesn’t write about products-blah-blah-whatever. I’m excited about the launch of the new Nikon D40, and I’m a self-professed Canon man, so god knows you should be excited too!
The D40 is the newest, most inexpensive member of Nikon’s entry-level digital SRL range, announced only a few days ago. To reduce cost, some features of the D50 have been simplified to give a suggested retail price of only US$600 with the 18-55mm G-II kit lens.
The camera is lower spec than the Canon EOS 400D, but in a market where the cheapest dSLR will always pick up some new buyers, this might just be the edge that Nikon needs in the neverending Canon/Nikon war.
Excited yet? Good, you should be. The images of the new D40 were leaked a while ago, but now, the first reviews are trickling through as well. Read lots more about the Nikon D50 on Wikipedia, Digital Photo Review, and if you want one, check out Froogle (uk / us) to find the best prices!
(thanks for the heads-up, David!)
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Insights, suggestions and comments
This is definately a smart move by Nikon. It will be interesting to see whether Canon responds…
The cool thing is, if the price wars continue between to two big players (Nikon & Canon) it will start to drive down the prices of the higher end models such as the D80, D200 and to a lesser extent the D2Xs. Althought the D2Xs is a PRO camera aimed a niche market so prices there probably won’t change much. I’m currently a D70 man and hoping to become a D200 man in the not-so-distant future!
I debated a long time between the D200 and the D80. In the end, I decided to go with the D80 and spend the CDN$900 I saved on the 18-200VR lens, instead. It’s fantastic and will be good for 5-10 years, at least, while the D80/D200 will likely be obsolete in 3. Yeah, I would have liked some of the features of the D200, but the image quality is the same and that’s what really counts.
I find this camera wonderful. It has great resolution and the photos I take are wonderful. But in my opinion, I think that when you’re looking for a camera, you should also have a look to its accessories, how is the offer, what are the prices. You can get real surprises if you don’t look at that before.
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