News 

The new camera will replace the existing D50 - of which there is a month's supply remaining - while broadening its appeal to families as well as creative enthusiasts. In doing so, Nikon hopes to broaden the market itself, both by pricing and ease-of-use-led design. For a market that Nikon cites as growing 77 per cent year on year, it shows plenty of promise.

With 20 per cent of DSLR sales sat in the sub £400 range, and 40 per cent below £500, the D40 is Nikon's assault unit and key to its plans to take 35 per cent market share this year and 40 per cent in 2007.

The key component to the camera then is its price: £449 inc VAT for the body and 18-55mm lens. This makes it more expensive than the D50, which you can currently pick up for around the £400 mark for the body and lens.

However, the D40 brings with it many features from Nikon's higher-end D80 DSLR. Not, however, the CCD, which remains the D50 equivalent at 6.1 effective megapixel rather than the D80's 10 megapixel sensor.

It sports the D80's 12 bit colour processing engine and offers a high ISO range that includes ISO 1600 and HI-1. The D40 also boasts the D80's exposure algorithms, auto white balance, auto ISO function, 420 segment metering and 3D Colour Matrix Metering II.

The viewfinder has 0.8x magnification with a 95 per cent frame coverage and a large bright 2.5in display with an up to 19x zoom. Automatic image rotation detects the orientation of the camera when in use to adjust for portrait and landscape shots.

Camera controls include red-eye correction, crop, image overlay and monochrome and a range of filter effects. D-lighting automatically adjusts

ADVERTISEMENT

exposure settings to bring out detail. It takes SD and SD HC cards for removable storage and offers USB 2.0 and PictBridge connectivity.

The D40 also has a new smaller battery that lasts up to 470 shots with 50 per cent flash use - and more than 1,000 without flash.

It's quick off the mark too, with a 0.18s startup time. Continuous shooting can be done at 2.5fps.

Shutter speeds can be set from 1/4000s to half a minute, autofocus can be set to single area, for a moving target, or to prioritise the nearest object.

It's compatible with a range of 20 Nikkor AF-S lenses and AF-I; lenses without a built-in motor will need to be manually focused, though. Nikon has a new lens for the D40 with a faster and less power-hungry motor: the AFS-DX. It costs £149 alone.

Other accessories include a wireless remote control and the SB-400 flash gun, which won't be available until next year. Nikon is hoping to get initial volumes of the D40 into the UK before Christmas, but fuller availability is expected early next year. For more information, visit the Nikon website.

Despite the rounded feature list of the D40, Nikon has its work cut out to take market share off the leader Canon. Its EOS 400D boasts a 10mp CMOS sensor and incorporates technologies such as a vibration unit to help remove dust. Nikon's response is that its manufacturing processes already go a long way to deal with dust, using sealed components, antistatic coatings and running in the aperture mechanism in a clean-room environment during assembly.

However, Canon's EOS 400D only costs £487.99 inc VAT including an 18-55mm lens.

Sony by comparison launched its entry into the low-end DSLR segment earlier this summer, with the Alpha 100, priced from £599. It was built on the expertise and technology acquired from Konica, which exited the market back in January.

Nikon cited a GFK report showing Sony is nearing Konica Minolta's best month for market share of around 10 per cent in the three months it has been selling into the DSLR market.