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Focusing screens for the D40

Yes, you can get them for the D40.

There's a very pricey one from Katz Eye. It runs into $100 to $155. It has some good reviews.
There is a pretty cheap one you can get on ebay right now ($34 with shipping), and it might be the same you get from focusingscreen.com (This one costs $40).

A video tutorial for replacing the focusing screen:


But I would use rubber tipped tweezers, rather than straight metal ones. And don't film your self doing it... :)

The google search url.
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Comments

  1. NickCAugust 20, 2009 at 9:01 AM

    Nice, I'm surprised to see how easy it is to replace the screen. Now other than personal preference, is there any real reason one should consider changing the screen? Are there any 'problems' with the default one?
    Thanks for the continued great review of the D40... you are definitely making my decision process a lot easier.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kaushik GhoseAugust 20, 2009 at 10:58 AM

    Hi Nick,

    The only real reason I would get the focusing screen is for nostalgic reasons (The manual focus film Nikons had them and I loved them).

    For very low light work (like the long exposure shots) there often isn't an object in one of the three AF zones. This means I have to pan the camera, focus on an object, lock the focus and then pan back. Instead of that I prefer to manual focus, but as you can see, I'm not that good at it.

    The prism focus screen would come in useful at that point.

    Best
    -Kaushik

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kaushik GhoseAugust 20, 2009 at 3:42 PM

    Well, not really, because the prism is at the center. For these shots I was turning the lens focus ring all the way to the stop, hoping that was infinity, but I have a hunch that the AF lenses might leave a little lee way beyond infinity. I had a similar issue with my film AF zoom. I gotta try MF in daylight and see where infinity is

    ReplyDelete

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