Nikon D40x Digital Camera - Answered Questions & Fixed issues

There may be a fault requiring service (probably not economically viable if they won't do it under warranty), but before you go there, does this camera have a "Macro" feature? This is usually represented by an icon that looks like a flower. If you have set that on, the camera goes into an extreme close-up mode and won't focus on items at normal distances.

I ran into this exact issue (64GB Sandisk SD not working with an old Nikon D40). The problem is that the camera requires FAT32 formatting, which is not supported on partitions greater than 32GB (i.e the 64GB stick). A format from the camera attempts to repartition all device space (64GB) which is incompatible. I solved this by connecting the SD to my laptop, opening the windows disk management utility (diskmgmt.MSC), deleting all partitions on the SD (right-click, delete partition on all allocated space), the right clicking the unallocated space, add simple partition, then allocating only 32GB and using FAT32 as the format (any more and windows will only provide exFAT as an option, also not compatible with Nikon D40). Plugging that into the camera and NOT reformatting from there worked.

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Check your ISO, your white balance, and whether you have set exposure compensation by mistake.

Have you tried an alternate lens? Ensure AF is enabled on both camera left side and on side of lens.

Photos can be successfully retrieved from a memory card - however there is a catch. When you delete a photo, you really just tell the camera/computer to act like it isn't there. The actual bits in memory aren't changed to delete it (there is software you can get to actually delete them, but its usually completely unnecessary).
To get back your lost picture files try to use flash file recovery software. http://www.panterasoft.com/file-recovery/index.html

I agree - I had a usb cable that worked fine with other devices, but not with the D40x - I changed it and everything worked fine.

Are you certain you used to have Live View on the D40x? Then something was wrong, as Nikon never put it in.

The D40x does not have Live View.

Hi jchp_2001, I want to help you with your question, but without more information from you, I can only guess what you mean? What do you mean by "sharp spots"? I will assume that you are talking about speckles of white or colors in the deep shadow areas of your pictures or in black areas of night time exposures. What you are seeing is electrical noise generated by your camera's sensor and amplified by other electronic circuitry in your camera. Newer and more advanced cameras have higher signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio circuitry that reduces, but does not entirely eliminate the problem. The S/N ratio is a measure of how much stronger the picture information is than the electrical noise (analogous to to the static you hear on a week AM radio station). The higher this ratio, the fewer artaffects, such as spots, will appear in your pictures. There are a couple of ways to lessen this problem. You could use a shorter exposure time, lower the ISO setting on your camera (of course that would increase the required exposure time and my nullify the benefit), or illuminate the shadow areas with supplemental lighting. The other way is to buy a newer camera that has a higher S/N ratio. One of the main goals in new sensor and camera design is to raise the S/N ratio. Trading in your D40x on a newer model DX (24x16mm sensor) format camera will help. The reason that professionals more advanced photographers spend thousands of dollars on full frame (36x24mm sensor [the same size as a 35mm film slide]) digital cameras such as the D600, D610, D800 or D810 is because the larger sensors have an inherently higher signal to noise ratio. That is in part why your D40x gives you better quality pictures than a Coolpix camera for example, which has a smaller sensor.

First, make sure that both the camera and lens are set to auto-focus. The problem is possibly as simple as dirty contacts between the lens and the camera's lens mount. Depress and hold the lens release button while you fully rotate the lens back and forth about ten times. The friction between the contacts on the lens and the contacts on the lens mount will clean the contacts.

This is the Nikon support web page that has the firmware updates for your camera. Current Firmware downloads available for Nikon products Nikon... The D40 is near the bottom of the list. Follow the instructions carefully.

If you haven't done anything to the memory card since you deleted the pictures then you have a good chance to recover at least some of your pictures. Do a Google search for "data recovery software" and select a program for your computer and operating system. Put the card into a card reader attached to your computer and run the program.

In playback mode, press cursor-up/down to cycle through the various views.

There may be a problem with the card try reformatting it

Try a new or sd card format

Readjust your ISO, appuatue and shutter and take you lens cap off

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How to reset SLR to factory default settings Nikon Knowledgebase

You asked about the USB connection between your camera and the computer. First, be sure you are using an approved USB cord that came with your camera. Nikon gets a little finicky if you use an off brand. Next, be sure your USB outlet is working on your computer. Plug something else into it to be sure it's functional. Next, reboot your computer and shut off your camera. After reboot turn your camera on to see if the computer now recognizes your camera. It would help to know what software you're using for the post processing. Some software has an option to disallow uploading of duplicate photos. This could be the case if you've already uploaded these same images previously. You might want to check for that.

The date and time (and a lot more) are stored with every picture in its EXIF metadata. Any photo viewing/editing program should be able to display this data. To print this data, please consult the documentation for whatever program you're using to print your pictures. Depending on the program and printer you may print the date on the image, in the margins, or on the back.