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Just bought a Nikon D40 today and still learning how to use it. My first DSLR camera and so far I'm loving it =D got the D40 becuase I've read that it's the best bang for the bucks especially for beginners like me. Anyways here's a few pics I took tonight. Just testing the camera out and hopefully once I get use to it I'll get some nicer pics =DThis is the view of Downtown Los Angeles just a bit up the hill from home. The last couple pics are a bit blurry because it was windy and I think it was moving my tripod a bit =/and here's after I washed my car =P

Now I"m getten a Randy Newman flashback

The D40 is a nice camera, we have one. A great camera for the money. I let Kari take care of all of the photography with that thing, I'm far too stupid to figure out how to work it. And man, what's up with your Toyota loving neighborhood? Looks like practically everybody has one. lol

wow i just noticed my street is dominated by toyota lol good thing i have a domestic brand to stand out from the crowd =Dbtw i just bought a polarized lens filter thing which should give daytime pics a better look i think.

very nice pics!

Pretty decent shots... but now the bad news... Looks like you changed your lens in a dusty environment... see that black dot in the left corner of your photos? That's dust on your sensor which means it needs cleaned or else it will never go away. Bad news? Sensor cleaning is delicate business.

hmm yah i noticed that spot there and not sure where that dust is. i'll probably bring it to some camera shop and see if they can clean it.

Yeah, that's what I would do. Don't mess with cleaning the sensor if you're not sure of what you're doing. Good way to end up with a couple-hundred dollar paperweight.

well i ended up returning the D40 and bought a cheaper camera since i hardly take pictures anyways lol thank goodness best buy didn't charge me the 15% restocking fee so i got the full $$$ back =D anyways i bought a canon sx10 and so far it's pretty good. easier to use lol i also bought a 52mm polarized lens filter for the D40 and good thing it fits the canon too.here's a last test pic i took with the D40and these are from the canon sx10oh yeah, the pic with the ducks was taken using the 20X optical zoom fully zoomed out =D

What kind of polarizer did you get, a normal or a circular polarizer ? There is a difference, and with digital cameras you want a circular one. the filter has a grey color, so it's stealing light from your photographs, 2 stops, which is the same as from 100 iso to 400 iso, so use it only where you have plenty of light to begin with. Don't worry about the exposure difference, the light meter in the camera is adjusting for it. The filter spins in its mount, and the effect changes as you spin it. It can really darken the sky, and reduce reflections (except reflections in metal like chrome), so it can really make your colors POP ! You'll notice the sky darkening the most 90 degrees away from the sun.I used to use a polarizer all the time, and with Kodachrome slide film (yes film !) I came up with some photographs that look like the color was painted on; no glare.

those are some nice shots with the sx10! btw, those are geese, not ducks. xDi really like my canon 40d, but sadly, i miss my old eos with negatives and all that fun stuff. Kodachrome was fun to play with.

i used a hoya pl-cir so i'm thinking it's circular. haven't really used the polarizer that much but i'm going to start playing around with it. i'm still learning those manual settings and trying to play around with the focus and stuff. anyone know any good forums about photography?

Photography isn't really all that hard, and you have the LCD screen on the back of the camera to see if what you tried worked, or didn't work. What photo experience do you have ?

i guess i need to work on my angles and stuff.well today had some nice clouds and i went out and play around with the polarizer lense. i forgot to set the iso higher so lighting is still kind of dark =/

Nice work with the filter I see your fingers

tks...i just wished i had a better scenery or i would have went somewhere nicer to take pics haha

Did you spin the polarizer to see the effect that it had on the sky ? As you turn the filter the sky will get darker to a point, and then it will get lighter. I wouldn't mess with the ISO yet, the cityscapes look fine. The light meter in the camera is reading through the polarizer too, so it adjusts for the filter. Just experiment with the filter, and delete the ones that you don't like; it's not like you're wasting film like in the "old days". Try using the exposure compensation setting to make it lighter and darker. If you have PhotoShop Elements (about $80) that can make much much more adjustments, and make finer adjustments that you can do in the camera.

These are awesome pics! I really like the clarity of the pictures.Virginia Limo Services