My gracious wife surprised me with a Nikon d40 several years ago now and really loved it. I blame her for getting me into this thing and when I want a new lens or something!! Thoroughly enjoyed it and learned a lot with it, really an awesome camera considering the megapixels and price, really amazing. I would highly recommend it if you can't afford anything else, probably only find them used now and Nikon is always coming out with amazing entry level stuff. I've since upgraded to the Nikon D90, not the jump I thought it would be over the D40 but a great camera for sure. My last purchase a year or so ago has been a slightly used Tamron 90mm 2.8 macro that I'd really highly recommend, it is amazing!!!

Now back to the original post from a ways back. "Have purchased several different lens'. I'm currently using as my mainstay the Sigma 150-500 APO HSM OS lens. I have two 18-55mm Nikons, one with VR, a Nikon 55-200VR and a Sigma 70-300mm which I was using all the time. I just recieved a 1.4x teleconverer but haven't used it yet. Got it from a great Flickr subscriber! Also own a Canon S2 IS, a very good all around camera with 12X zoom. The Canon is does a nice job with outdoor photography and nature but indoor shots are a hodge podge, hit or miss. Have been shooting our extended family's Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings for several years now as well as video taping them and compiling it all onto a DVD for everyone. A recent Thanksgiving was very discouraging since the first few shots with the Canon P/S were blurry and out of focus as usual and I just went on to only video tape the affair. Now with the Nikon D40 things came out much better! Thanks for everyone's help, Ben Tebbens of Delaware, USA. bentebbens@comcast.net