I am finally ready to buy a new camera. After looking to see what's available in my price range, I've narrowed possible selections to 2 models- the Nikon D40 and D60. Thanks to the wonderful website (dpreview) suggested by Peter, I've seen all the specs for both. My dear son with the fine arts degree says the D40 is adequate for my needs. Costco has a D40 package with 2 lens available. My only concern is that the D40 has 6 million pixels, but the D60 has 10 million. Will this be important to me if I'm mostly taking pictures of backyard birds & my dogs? I hate seeing good pictures on my camera only to have rotten resolution when they're downloaded. Does anyone have any experience with either of these 2 models? Thanks in advance!

You shouldn’t worry about pixels. More pixels will not improve the quality of your image. What it does it gives you larger images without sacrificing quality but I seriously question if you could ever use the size of images produced by 10megapixels camera. To put this in perspective my camera is 8 megapixels and with a setting to the smallest image possible I still get images which are +- 4 feet by 3 feet. I could only use this size if I was to sell my pictures but for my web page, for posting my shots here or for printing I always end up reducing the size by several times. 6 magapicels will be more than enough. Spend money on lenses, which are more important than additional 2 megapixels.
I hope this helps.


Mike
Central NJ/Raritan Bay/Sandy Hook

Well said Mike! The lenses are incredibly expensive.

New Jersey
Zone 6

Hi Pauline,

I don't have any experience with Nikon, or DSLRs for that matter. But I have done a bit of research on them. Can you tell us what camera you're moving up FROM?

I'm sure the D40 and D60 are both excellent, but you should look into the cost not just of the camera but also the lens(es) you may want or need for birding. Long lenses for DSLRs are often more expensive (even MUCH more) than the camera body. And the learning curve to use a DSLR well can be considerable depending on what you're using now and how much experience you have.

Many regular contributors here post truly excellent bird photos captured with their DSLRs and will likely have some good advice for you. But some folks also struggle to master them. It requires both money and skill to get the most from them.

Hope this helps,


Kenn

Kenn & Temple
Gallery