I recently purchased a new camera.  The steps in my decision making process where as follows:

1. Shopping around on the internet.
2. Probing the minds of my friends that have experience with photography.
3. Going to a few electronics stores to get my hands on some real cameras.
4. And, finally looking at my bank account to see where reality and desire were inevitably going to intersect,

I decided to purchase Nikon’s D40.

The Nikon D40 with 18-55mm lens kit.

I read several reviews about this camera and found nothing but praise from both novice and professional users. The clincher for me was the description of the camera as and entry level DSLR unit. Nikon marketed this camera to first time DSLR users. I fall into this category. This is my first purchase of a camera above the grade of a cheap point and shoot digital camera. I have toyed around with the controls on the camera and they seem to be pretty intuitive, even for a beginner like me. I am excited to take the camera out on the town and see what kind of pictures it is going to actually let me take.

Tonight will be the maiden voyage. My wife and I are heading to Capitol Hill this afternoon to see what she can do. I will post some of the photos from the adventure in the next day or so.