by Omag 2.0 » Tue Jun 10, 2008 1:52 pm
The Canon 400D offers a 10 megapixel sensor and an in body autofocus-engine. The d 40 has a 6 megapixel sensor and requires lenses with an autofocus-engine.
The d 40 is basically the most basic form of dSLR, where the 400D is one step higher. ( There will be a basic canon 1000D soon).
Question is: what do you expect? Good imagequality for the lowest price possible? By all means, go for the Nikon. Or do you like to experiment and grow in photography? Do you intend to buy several lenses and accesories? In that case I'd look for the Canon 400D or a Nikon D80.
Don't get me wrong, both camera's are great, but they aim for a different type of public. My brother in law both a Nikon d 60 with the 2 VR kitlenses. This will suit him for all his needs and he gets good results. But I wanted to do concert, sport and aviation photography, so I choose a different system.
Try to look ahead into the future. See what type of lenses ( wideangle, zoom, macro,...) and accessories ( flash, batterygrip,...) you need and look at the current prices. Not every brand costs as much as the next one.