CrunchGear

The Nikon D40 has only been around for maybe fifteen minutes and already there’s an upgrade. This camera has a 10.2-megapixel sensor, faster continuous shooting, and wider ISO sensitivity.

It also has a “Retouch” menu that can improve red-eye, contrast, and color issues as well as trim and rotate images, all on the camera’s screen. There also three filter effects — Skylight, Warm filter, Color balance — and Black-and-white, Sepia, and Cyanotype modes.

The kit comes with a 3X 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor and should be about $799. Expected U.S. availability is April, but we shall see.

The current D40 kit costs about $599 and shoots at 6-megapixels.

Nikon also released the honking big 55-200mm f/4-5.6G IF-ED AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor, a 3.6X zoom lens with vibration reduction built-in. It should allow for zoom pictures in lower light thanks to improvements in the auto-focus and aperture. This guy sells for $249.95 and is also available.

The lens is on the right. The thing that looks like a barrel.