Excellent Deal, Even Better Camera

Consider this: The Nikon 18-135mm lens (sold separately) costs $330 brandnew. When packaged with a D40, you're basically buying thelens for $330, and getting the D40 body for $350! That ismuch better than buying the 18-55mm (approx. $100) andgetting the D40 body for $400. This may also be better thangetting the D40 with both the 18-55mm and 55-200mm for $650,since for $20 more you basically combine the two nice lensesinto one lens of even higher quality. I don't mind the 65mm(100mm film equiv.) difference between the 55-200mm and18-135mm, because I own a Canon 70-300mm lens and find thegain (in zoom) from 200mm to 300mm to be incredibly small,despite the numerical difference.Camera Performance:The D40 is small, but very fast! I was constantly bursting10-30 frames at a time (JPEG) to freeze runners step by step. The biggest shock by far was the battery life! I expected itto die after the 480th picture of the day, but after 585shots and 7 hours the battery life displayed full charge!(Note: I would turn the camera off when I wasn't shooting,so maybe if I left it on it would've died, but that's juststupid!)RAW images are stunning. 10 MP is overkill, so just forgetabout the D40x. Use Adobe Photoshop CS2 (or CS3/ thelatest). I didn't ever bother with the included software.The 18-135mm lens focuses quickly, precisely, doesn't huntCompare:The Canon Rebel XT and XTi cameras feel like toys. My filmRebel Ti feels more solid to handle.I never got to handle the Pentax K100D and K10D. I wanted tovery badly, although I'm glad I didn't since my worry aboutbattery life was wrong and my need for frame burst provedmost valuable.Overall:I'm a 20 yr. old guy who needed something light to run with,a lens better than my old cheap Canon lenses and freedom toshoot unlimited (good-bye film!), all bundled in anattractive yet professional body.I love my D40.