Thanks guys What has suprised me so much with the pressie is that it cost Christopher nearly 2 weeks wages, he's an apprentise so his wages arn't that great, he knows I've had a tough time just lately and is doing his best to make things better for me, he's such a good kid

I've tried reading through the instruction book, and I'm more confused than ever but at least it's a booklet, not like my last camera, the info was all on disc, I'm just going to have a play and see what happens and again like my old camera it will all make sense soon, hopefully, I have taken a few experimental pics, but they're huge compared to my other one, is that normal, I guess somewhere in the instruction it'll tell me how to make them smaller or not, anyway here's one I quite like, it's a bit dark I think but I like the fuzzy (new technical term ) background, not a very interesting subject but it was something to point the camera at I'll stop waffling on now, hope the pics not too big.




OK, it's huge

Nice DoF on that Sounds as though you are really enjoying it

The manual will only help you so far - get your self a good notebook and right down things that you may need to rememer - iv got all sorts in mine - websites for printing, photobooks, publishing, cards calendars ect ect. Iv got exposure compensation, optimizing images on the cam, ISO, Shutter Speed, Aperture, metering blah blah blah - it goes on. At the back iv got basic settings for different situation like, fireworks, IR, waterfalls, moonlight, and panning shots. I find it indispensable and would tell everyone to wright their things down!

Most importantly - get out there and practice! See what happens if you increase the aperture and not the shutter speed, find out what happens when you zoom out while the shutter is closed...... LEARN FROM EXPERIENCE - you will develop a style and your own tecniques

If you need any help - give us Nikonians a yell!

great first picture CLMG ! oh god im crying again now ! lol you`re lucky to have a son like that bless him .

Happy birthday and excellent choice of camera I love my D40 and I'm sure you'll have great fun with it

Thanks K , great advice about the note book, I do tend to learn from experience, I've never been one to read manuals before and as for practice, I can't see that being a problem

Thanks clairelou , Christopher is one in a million, I have 2 boys, the elder one was/is a complete nightmare, completely out of control, but Chris just the opposite, still wont let me cuddle him though

Thanks lambrini girl I'm intend to have hours and hours of fun with it trouble is I'm already thinking about what lens to get next, and how much it'll cost

..and the fun begins................

I got the 55-200mm lens with mine as well as the kit lens and I'd definately recommend it, and it's not too pricey

That's one I've been looking at, but I'm confussed by all these numbers, my point and shoot was 4 x digital zoom and 4 x Optical zoom so it ended up being 16 x zoom, now I have no idea what the equivilant or better would be but still I'm not looking to get untill Christmas so I have plenty of time to find out

Wow great first pic Christine!! It's so sharp, clear and creamy too

Best thing to do is just read through the manual at your own pace. And whilst you are reading and learning, just take pics in teh Auto mode for the time being, just so you get used to the camera.

Then when you read stuff that makes sense or interests you, experiment in that mode or with that function

That's what I did When you are more familiar with it, have a look at Ken Rockwells guide to the D40: http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d40...uide/index.htm

Look forward to seeing more pics!

Btw, yeah the pics will be huge on this camera do you have photoshop or any other program you can resize pics in? If not photobucket has a resize feature...

Thanks guys thanks for the Ken Rockwell link Azz , I think that'll come in very usefull in the very near future as for resizing, I only have Picasa and Gimp, I haven't looked yet to see if I can resize on either of them, but I've just seen the resize feature on photobucket, but what size is best, I have a choice, here's the list
100-75
160-120
320-240
640-480
800-600

sorry for being so thick about this, I didn't have this problem with the point and shoot camera
Christine