So I Bought My 8-Year Old Nephew A Camera
About one week before writing this, I was traveling with my wife to visit with her family. While we were visiting, my nephew saw me using my camera to take some photos of our family at the beach. I didn't think much of it at the time, but later that day, he kept asking if we could take pictures. Great, I thought. Usually the only reaction I get to lugging a camera around is, 'Hey, my phone can take a better picture!' and they aren't always wrong! It was refreshing though, that someone actually took an active interest in photography....so I took advantage of it!
The next two hours were spent running after my nephew, who was weilding my camera, taking pictures of anything and everything. After so many pictures of random household objects, we got a little bored. I started coaching my nephew about the technical aspects of photography. We learned about ISO, shutter speed, and aperature, and how each of those affects a photo. He was facinated. It was at this time that I knew I needed to get him a camera of his own so he can continue experimenting and learn how to frame, expose, and shoot amazing images!
I started scouring eBay for low-cost DSLRs. My pricepoint was under $30 for the camera body and the same for the lens. This would put the combo under $60, which I justified as being low enough for a nephew's birthday or Christmas or whatever gift. Normally, my limit would be lower, but hey, this is a camera we're talking about here! I'm passionate about photography and also have a genetic predisposition for loving old junk. It was only a matter of days before I eventually bought a 15 year old DLSR and used lens.
How do you shop for a 15 year old DSLR under $30 and not end up with actual garbage? Ebay's filters made pretty quick work of sorting out the results based on price and condition, so I was left with a few choices of brands and models to research to see which would be the best beginner DSLR with a good balance of features and ease of use for an 8-year-old.
After watching Ebay for a few days and constantly reading Ken Rockwell's website, I somehow converged on the Nikon brand. I have owned a Nikon D300s before and really did like the camera. I have sold it only because of its size and weight relative to my Sonly A6400 mirrorless camera, which became my go-everywhere do-everything camera. I loved Nikon's quality and ease-of-use and given the surplus of really cheap Nikon DSLRs from the eary 2000's on Ebay, it made sense that this would be my target brand.
I eventually decided to purchase a Nikon D40. The Nikon D40 was sold between 2006-2010 for about $500, making it a solid entry-level camera body. Some of the things that make this a great camera for beginners are the simplicity of the interface, lightweight design, and seemingly endless battery life. Ken Rockwell gives a detailed review of this camera on his website. I really liked the distraction-free body, which will help a beginner phototographer focus on lighting, framing, exposure, and shutter speed instead of a million features that really aren't necessary to take good photos (but do make it easier for the pros that do it daily).
The lens that came with the camera was Nikon's AF-S 18-55mm kit lens, which is a great all-around lens. The camera accepts F-mount lenses so future upgrades are plentiful and easy to come by. Unfortunately, the original lens that was mounted to the camera was broken. One of the plastic mounting tabs was cracked off, causing the aperature adjustment to work intermittently. The seller wasn't aware of this, so I asked them if they had any other lenses I could buy that were not damaged. They apologized for the inconvenience and actually ended up sending me a replacement lens free of charge! Later on, I was able to repair the old lens and sell it to further offset the cost of the camera.
Now that we have a working camera/lens combination, it's time to take this camera out and shoot with it to see how it does. I am impressed with the image quality, even at higher ISOs. I'll admit, I still like my Sony A6400 due to its compact size, speey autofocus, and large display, but this Nikon D40 is still capable of capturing amazing images. My biggest complaint is that the metering seems a bit off. Getting the desired exposure in complex lighting situations takes a few trial-and-error shots to get just right. After using the camera for a few months, I got used to the idiosyncracies of the metering and started predicting the exposure settings fairly reliably. It is also worth mentioning that a few of the images have a handful of stuck pixels, but overall the image quality is not really affected by this and since we're not shooting professionally, that shouldn't be a huge deal.
As much fun as it has been learning how this camera works and figuring out how to capture great images with it, it is time to turn it over to my nephew. Before I do, here are some sample images taken with this camera while I was getting it set up. Hopefully, he will have as much fun with this Nikon D40 as I did!
