Hmmm, my "acceptable reason" for plunking down the money on a DSLR was currently to help make good photos for the County shelter as part of my volunteer assignment. (I've thought of other "good reasons" in the past, but none were good enough to work until now.)

But, the photos still didn't turn out well. I used the kit lens and it is about the same speed as my Fuji, so that didn't help. The Nikon focuses closer, and I was hoping it would focus faster, which I think it did - but I still had motion blur due to shooting at slooooww shutter speeds. I set up the Auto ISO with a max of ISO 800 and a minimum shutter speed of 1/30th (although I doubt I can hold it still under 1/60). Some of my shots ended up being taken at ISO800 and SLOWER than 1/30 -- not sure, but I guess the D40 followed the ISO max rule more than the shutter speed rule when the light wasn't strong enough. I've reset it for a max of ISO1600 to see if that will help keep the shutter speed up.

Working with the D40 was much easier than the Fuji in many ways because I can set controls easier (multiple shots, Auto ISO with parameters I set), but I do miss using the viewfinder to view my shots. I set the diopter for shooting without my glasses because it's easier, but I can't view the recorded shots without putting my glasses back on, even with the wonderful zoom feature. (If I had good vision, this wouldn't be an issue, but I've never had good vision.) That big D40 LCD screen plus the extra zoom in Record mode sure helps check the eye blur, even if I am putting on/taking off my glasses in rapid succession.

I have a 50mm 1.8 lens that would manually focus on my D40, and I tried it before going to the shelter. I kept getting blurry photos. I will work with it to see if I can get sharp images out of it and try it the next time I visit the shelter.