Originally Posted by
pdxer
with modern raw processing software such as adobe lightroom, very little additional time is needed compared with jpeg.
This is true. However, the whole point of RAW is to fidget with the settings on a photo-by-photo basis to theoretically produce the best rendering. Automatic rendering is easy...but fixing a photograph is not. And thus the question for the OP to answer would be whether he/she wants to fiddle with photos or whether he/she just wants to print them.
higher megapixel counts have nothing to do with sensitivty. that's a property of the sensor itself. the reason the base iso of the d40 is 200 instead of 100 as in the d40x is because it's a completely different sensor. both the 6 megapixel canon 10d and 10 megapixel 40d start at iso 100.
True, and I haven't looked into the performance of the D40 since I wouldn't really consider buying it for myself. I did want to point out that the base sensitivity is lower which implies a good likelihood of higher noise at comparable ISOs between a D40 and D40x/D60. Simply the fact that the sensor has 4 MP more in the same area implies it will have more noise unless the quality is better (which I doubt it is).
as for ken rockwell, quite a bit of his web site is factually incorrect, and he even admits as much. there are numerous other resources available online without that nonsense.
I think he makes many very good points on his website. I do not subscribe to all his theories but what I do like about him is that he judges cameras based more on their use than on their specifications. I have not really seen any other sites that do this to the same extent that he does. Now, if I really followed everything he did, I would be shooting wide on everything, only using basic JPEG, and using a D40 with 18-200, none of which I'm doing. I think that unfortunately his style puts many people off from reading his website which is a shame since there are good pieces of information scattered around that are harder to find elsewhere. Regarding the megapixels...read the NY times article as well.