Quote Originally Posted by firstgensir
so i want to get a nice camra i was thinkin about a D40 or a digital SLR. just advice on what i should get
Thats not enough information. You should try to figure out what you want the camera to do (do you want to be able to change lenses or is a 3x, 6x, or 10x zoom good enough for you? Do you want to be able to shoot a lot of video with it? Do you need an extra powerful flash? Do you need the ability to take low light photos?)

...and you need to decide how much you have to spend and what size the camera has to be (are you ok with a huge SLR, or do you want something that will fit in your pocket?)

Generally speaking, the larger (in size) the camera, the larger the sensor/lenses and the better quality you will get from it.

I am a big fan of ultracompact cameras. They are easy to use, fit in your pocket and take pretty decent photos in auto mode. Their main weaknesses are:
• Limited zoom (usually only 3x)
• Horrible low light photo capability (limitation of the lens and crappy flash)
• Bad for photos with high contrast