A while back I came to the realization that my compact Nikon Coolpix 4100, though nice, just wasn’t working out for me anymore. The deciding factor was a series of weddings where out of very many pictures I attempted to take, only a very few came out clear. I had, had enough of the lackluster ability of the small amount of glass and limited ISO range of the small camera. Now don’t get me wrong, this camera does a great job in bright light, and if it weren’t for this camera I would have never gotten pictures of the Bald Eagle family at Umbagog Lake, or gotten pics of a Red Tail Hawk on T-Hall lawn at 10′. However convenient the camera was, it was time to go back to the world of the SLR.

After a lot of research, I had decided that I would choose to continue with the Nikon line. There are two camps, Canon, and Nikon. Both companies offer superb products, and generally the deciding factor depends on an existing camera system. Where I, a long time ago, had a Minolta SLR, this was not an issue. I was starting from scratch. So why Nikon? I was used to thier cameras already. When a coworker very genrously lent me his D70 to try I came to the realization that I picked up the camera and imediatly began working with it. Another coworker had brought in her Canon, and I found the menu system to be confusing, and the combination of buttons to hold when changing some settings, even worse.

Over the next few days, I’ll begin posting some pictures from the D40 and compare them to the D70, while I have it, and the Coolpix camera.