Using the Nikon ML-L3 with the Nikon D40 DSLR

If you just bought it and are wondering why your ML-L3 doesn't work with your Nikon D40, it is because you need to enable it in the settings.

Go to the menu on the D40 and scroll down to the Custom Setting Menu (pencil icon). Go to option 4, Shooting Mode. There are 2 settings that you can use with the ML-L3:

1. In the Quick-response remote mode, it will take a picture as soon as you press the button on the remote control.
2. In the 2s Delayed remote mode, it will take a picture 2 seconds after you press the button on the remote. This is useful if you are taking picture of yourself and don't want your arm sticking out while triggering the camera, so you get 2 seconds to tuck your arm away.

Also remember that the ML-L3 works with infrared light, so it needs line of sight to the Nikon camera. See the little dark circle under the red triangle on the hand grip? That is the infrared sensor on the D40 and the ML-L3 remote control should be approximately pointed somewhere near there. Indoors, in smaller spaces you can get away with bouncing the infrared off the walls, so sometimes you can also use it without proper pointing.

The D40 will decide to switch back to the previous shooting mode after some amount of time. In the Custom Setting Menu, go to item 17 Remote on duration to set this time, how long the ML-L3 remote control should stay enabled. You can choose between 1, 5, 10 and 15 minutes.

Nikon D40 Reviews from around the web

Here is a list of Nikon D40 reviews from various sites:

1. Digital Photography Review 
2. CNet Reviews 
3. Imaging Resource 
4. by Thom 
5. Digital Camera Resource Page 
6. What Digital Camera.com 
7. Ken Rockwell 
8. Digital Camera Review 
9. Digital Photography School 
10. Photography Blog
11. ePhotozine 
12. Steve's Digicams
13. DCViews
14. Digital Camera Info
15. Photo.net
16. CNet UK
17. PC Mag
18. Digital SLR Photography
19. PC World
20. Photoxels

Nikon D40 - How to format the memory card

Formatting the memory card on the D40 is very easy.

Go in to the menu, by pressing the button MENU (obviously). Scroll down until you get to the little spanner icon, which is the SETUP MENU.

Formatting the memory card is the second option on this menu, scroll over to it and click ok to be greeted with the warning:

Confirm to format the memory card.

And then 2 seconds later: Voila!

Empty memory card.

Nikon D40 - Histogram

In playback mode, you can display the histogram for the picture by pressing down on the thumb switch.

This will show a single histogram. To make the histogram go away, press up on the thumb switch.

You can also view a histogram for each color separately. In order to do this, press OK on the thumb switch to call up the Retouch Menu, choose Filter Effects and then choose Color Balance.

Pressing the play button takes you back to normal playback mode.

Nikon D40 - Setting Auto ISO

To adjust the Auto ISO on the Nikon D40, you need to go into the third menu, with the pencil icon. This is the Custom Setting menu.

Scroll down to item 10 and you find the ISO Auto. Press OK to go in and set ISO Auto to On.

You can also set the Max sensitivity, which means the maximum ISO that will be used in low light conditions. Keep in mind that the image quality will degrade as you increase the ISO values. At high ISO values, you will get slightly more grainy pictures Use lower values to keep image quality high and higher values to use in very low light. For the D40, I find ISO 800 to be a good compromise.

The other option is to set the Minimum shutter speed. This is the threshold that will cause the camera to start pushing ISO up. The D40 will try to strike a compromise between noise caused by high ISO settings and blur caused by camera shake caused by low shutter speeds. Obviously this will depend on the focal length, but somewhere around 1/30 should be a good start. You can set a slower shutter speed if you have a steady hand (for example 1/15) or a higher speed if you have a shaky hand (for example 1/60).