Nikon Announces $600 SLR

With the new D40 single-lens reflex camera, Nikon is clearly aiming its sites at shutterbugs looking for their first SLR. Priced at just $600 with a lens, the 6.1-megapixel D40 is one of the least expensive SLRs we've tested. It's also one of the smallest and lightest, weighing just 17 ounces and measuring 5 by 2.5 by 3.7 inches. And from what I saw in a demonstration, the camera offers a fair number of features for the price.

What the D40 attempts to do is ease the transition to an SLR for point-and-shoot users. The menus offer definitions of features beginners may not be familiar with, and aim to demonstrate how adjustments will affect a photograph. For example, a sample photo brightens or dims on the LCD to demonstrate the approximate effects of exposure compensation. You can customize the menus so they are potentially less intimidating.

The D40 borrows many of the in-camera effects of the more expensive D80; for example, red-eye removal and filter effects such as a warming filter. According to the company, the D40 starts up in a blink of an eye (0.18 second) and can shoot up to 100 JPEG images at 2.5 frames per second. The camera also shoots in Raw format, and can shoot in both formats simultaneously, albeit only up to four shots consecutively.

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