I think my plans to buy a D40 just got seriously put on hold for a while.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0703/07030602nikond40x.asp
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0703/07030601nikon55200vr.asp

Jonathan - the new D40X coupled to that lens will cost £848 in the UK - most stores have them available to preorder - thats a steep price to pay :-)

I'm struggling to figure the pricing out really as D40X base kit is sixty quid more than a D80 body new - begging the questions - what were they thinking of and why would you buy the 40X over the 80?

the D40 must set the record for shortest shelf life of any model SLR I can remember - actually on sale for less than six months - and must be a bit of a kick in the teeth for people who bought the original model.

My question is, as consumers, would you prefer the technology race to continue as it is with a near constant stream of evolutionary tweaks to models (from any manufacturer) or for it to be more like a market sector such as games consoles where new models are only introduced every 3 or 4 years ensuring that buyers get their moneys worth out if it and, when a new model does appear it is much more of a revolutionary step up than a mild makeover?

WarehouseExpress are listing the D40X at £599 with the same 18-55 kit lens as the D40 (£380). That's insane. Even the normally Nikon-generous Ken Rockwell's talking about a $200 difference being a bit of a slip-up on Nikon's part. For the price of that D40X kit you could just about get the original D40 with the new 55-200 VR lens (£249).

Ken Rockwell's keeping a page updated with info on the new kit. He's expecting to receive one along with the rest of the world tomorrow.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d40x.htm

What irks me is that the "old" D40 has gone out of stock in a lot of places. I don't really want a noisier 10mp sensor in essentially the same camera, I'd rather have the silky 1600 ISO performance in the 6mp model.

I had another look at the D70s since posting on that other thread last night and I'm leaning heavily towards the original D40. Now it looks like it might be hard to pick up where I'd originally planned to buy it!

at the end of the day Jonathan - you should really go with a combination of what feels comfortable to use and what represents the best for your budget in order to prolong it's usability for you and so that you don't grow out of it's abilities too soon. the 40X pricing seams like a suicidal move by Nikon - they are pitching it as a rival to the EOS 400D which has eclipsed all others in global sales but in essence they already had a rival in the form of the D80 which by all accounts is a pretty equal match to the EOS and apparently cheaper than its new 40X sibling in real terms.

strange (that is all i have to say about the d40x announcement)

I guess the 55-200 vr is to go with those who have the 18-55 kit lenses, since it seems pretty similar to the 70-20 vr from my quick look.

Phil: you said that "The new D40X coupled to that lens will cost £848 in the UK". I think that £848 = ± 1250 €.
I bought my second hand D70 and a new 18-200 VRII lens for 1210 €.
... and I can use old AF-D lenses on the D70 with autofocus (you can't with the D40/D40x)
The 10 MP sensor is just a swindle. Recently, I printed a poster 75 cm x 50 cm despite the 6 MPs of my D70 and the result is perfect...

Actually, I think the best choices in Nikon are:
1) the D200, because it's a famous cam
2) if you can't pay it, try to find one of the last D70s or D50 (with the 18-55 or better with the 18-70) and save your money to buy a personalized lens later...