There have been rumours for some time about a new Nikon D40 digital SLR camera.
With Nikon being one of the top suppliers this was important news… and now it’s confirmed: the D40 is available for… anyone? You?

With many new compact cameras in the same price-range (around $ 600) the D40 seems to be targeted mainly at people wanting to step up from a compact camera. A number of reasons to prevent this step up are removed by giving this new baby many advantages of compacts:

• reasonable weight end relative small size
• easy to use with comprehensive menus
• a big, hi-res display
• standard Secure Digital storage

In fact, most of of the complaints about missing features are from people already owning an SLR camera - people that are unlikely to step down.

So, if you are looking for a new high end compact; is this a good alternative?
Yes, no doubt… if you’re looking for better “classic” image quality and speed.
No… if you’re going to miss affordable Image Stabilization and Superzoom. And no, if you like to make movies now and then.

Anyway, read a lot about all new options available with this camera. A very good way to start is the excellent review at dpreview.