Nikon D40 -

This was my first Digital SLR, having been a very happy user of a Sony compact for several years. I considered bridge cameras but decided to bite the bullet and buy a SLR for about the same money. Although I have only had the camera for a couple of weeks, I have no regrets and have already been able to take pictures that the compact would never have handled. The great thing for me is the speed of use, with no delay when pressing the shutter release. As with most DSLRs you have to use the viewfinder - no on-screen preview - but that's really not an issue once you get used to it. The controls are easy to use, and even in "point and shoot" mode it produces great images. Once I get used to the various settings and become more confident I would probably even upgrade my "Ease of Use" score from 4 to 5.

I looked at several cameras before deciding on this one. I couldn't see any need to spend half as much again - or more - for an enthusiastic amateur like me, and if I do decide to expand my range of accessories in the future, they should be compatible with any other Nikon kit for some time to coome. I tried some old lenses that came from an ancient Nikon, and while they fitted and gave super results, they were not compatible with the electronics and so I had to play around with manual metering and focusing - not ideal, but actually quite good at teaching me what the various settiings mean.

I would wholeheartedly recommend this camera to anyone who is looking to move up to SLR photography, and I can say that even on its lowest image size, the quality blows away the images from the old compact - which was itself more than acceptable.