Rate my recent purchase...

[jkiffmeyer]

<p>The D40 has very rudimentary autofocus, so the bicycle race pictures may be difficult at that close range. I have the D40x, and cannot recommend the D40-D60 line from Nikon for that reason, you will simply loose a lot of shots to lack of focus, especially with the fast glass limiting your depth of field. I also would have suggested the step-by-step approach, starting the kit and maybe one fast lens, and then growing from there.</p>

<p>Having said that you will get some terrific photos with that setup, and you will certainly be able to use those lenses long term when you upgrade the body.</p>

[michael j hoffman]

<p>Andrea, I think you've chosen wisely. Your lens choices are sufficient to your subject matter. The Sigma is a good lens today; don't worry about what Nikon might do tomorrow. Nikon's new lens may be not so good; I doubt that, but its possible. Getting the Tamron to supplement the kit lens was a good choice. The long end of the kit lens opens up only to f/5.6. There are times at that focal length (like for portraits) where you will want to be able to open up to f/2.8. There are times when you won't need that and the more compact kit lens will come in handy, too. For the meager extra pittance the kit lens costs, its worth having, imo. As far as missing VR, its a relatively new feature. Before VR - or in my case IS, as I'm a Canon customer - the rule of thumb was to make sure your shutter speed was a higher number than your focal length. That's a bit trickier now due to the various sensor sizes. But if you stay above 1/60 sec for pedestrian pictures and at or above 1/250 to 1/500 for the cyclists, you'll do fine. Also, don't discount the artistic value of some intentionally included motion blur. You will easily get good prints up to 13 X 19 with the equipment you've chosen.</p>

<p>Let the nay-sayers say nay. Go enjoy your time with your daughter and your new camera.</p>

<p>Michael J Hoffman</p>

[tobycline]

<p>For $100 bucks, pick up the SB-400 for fill and bounce. It will do wonders for your indoor shots. In a word, it's weightless. The great thing you did by buying the D40 over the D40x or D60 is that you got yourself flash sync up to 1/500th. For your bicycling shots, fill flash at 1/500th will be awesome, and that's even more than the $8k D3x can do . . .</p>

<p>Have fun.</p>

[anand_dhupkar]

<p>The auto-focus might not be fast enough - you should rather use 'zone-focusing' type of thing..</p>