Which TRAINING DVD should I buy for my camera? (also about SDHC speeds...)

[Cyber Akuma]

I recently purchased a Nikon D40 for my father (I got it brand new, yes with a lens, at Amazon for $411, it was shipped by Amazon, not a reseller through Amazon..... was this a good deal?).

My father has been taking photographs with a decent high/mid-range film camera since before I was born..... but is now falling apart and barely held together with tape. His Canon Powershot A620 that I got him was recently stolen so he is forced to use his terrible..... and slightly broken.... Fujifilm FinePix A330.

He has never had a SLR before, and one of the biggest problems for us with digital cameras were their terrible performance in low light situations, now, I know SLR cameras are no night vision goggles, but I heard they are far better than a point and shoot. (my personal video camera, a Sanyo Xacti E2, does SO terrible in low light situations that its almost unusable, doesn't help that the flash only works for pictures, not video, I am wondering if I am just using it wrong or if I wasted my money.)

I figured it would be best to get him a training DVD too, but there are dozens of Nikon D40 training DVDs out there. He is no stranger to basic camera use, he knows the basics of how they operate, but I am certain he doesn't know much about properly taking good photographs, adjusting the settings on the camera, what modes to use, etc..... I don't either.

So which training DVD would you suggest? And where can I get it cheapest? He isnt the type to just read guides online.

Also..... considering SD cards. How can I determine what card is a good speed? (without buying those $80 for 4GB high end cards that is).

I tried to Google benchmarks but didn't get anything conclusive, everything said something different and conflicted with each other, as well as many of them had completely different sets of cards tested that other tests didn't have. I have several SD and SDHC cards of my own ranging from 2GB to 16GB and tried to run my own tests using SiSoftware Sandra...... but the tests were all over the place and the exact OPPOSITE of what I expected. The card that I expected to be the slowest (a cheap 2GB card I got for my Wii) far outperformed the rest and the 16GB cards were the worst despite heavily researching them. I tried to reformat one of my 16GB cards that was supposedly high speed with 64k FAT32 clusters instead of the default 32k to help speed but this very slightly actually made performance WORSE! Any suggestions? Comments? Info? Anything about this?

Thanks

[flyinion]

I've read to format the card IN the camera that will be using it. The different "speeds" of cards will list their write speed in MB/sec. I don't know about .jpeg for instance but for raw files for my Canon XSi I've been told I would need an 18MB/sec card to keep up with continous shooting in RAW format. It's camera specific though due to continuous shooting speed and the megapixel rating of the model in question. Of course, if you're just taking one picture here and one there and no fast speed continuous then really you don't need a high speed card from what I understand. As far as brands, when I was at the camera shop where I bought mine we were talking about them and they mentioned that the majority of the cards have a max of about 5000 writes (new pics, delete, formatting, etc.) before they start going. They said the Sandisk cards though are rated for 200,000 writes.

I know flash cards do have write limitations, and knowing Sandisk has been in that business for a while I can see that as being pretty accurate though I haven't looked up specs myself. I'm pretty sure they weren't just trying to sell me a Sandisk card either since before the conversation I told them I planned to buy my memory cards for the camera elsewhere. They just offered up the brand/speed info as advice for what to look for at that point.

[Frog]

Save yourself the money on a video and use this site: http://www.nikondigitutor.com/eng/d40/index.shtml
I haven't looked at the manual for my D80 for years because Nikon has put these sites up and they are much easier to navigate and read than the manual.
Lexar, and sandisk are the best known names for cards but I've also used Kingston with no problems and others have used several brands. Most are just fine and you shouldn't have to spend that much for a 4 gig.
Speed doesn't matter much unless you are shooting rapid fire constantly. It will show up in download time mostly.

[Cyber Akuma]

As I said, hes not really the type to read online guides..... much....

I think it would be far easier for him to get a DVD.

[Grandpaw]

I have the Magic Lantern DVD for my Nikon D80 and think it was money well spent and found it very helpful. It covers the camera and how it works fairly well but does not cover every single thing about the camera. The DVD is not about photography but is about the controls on the make and model of the individual camera that you have and how they work.

If you have a question about how a particular setting works the section on that setting can be found in the menu of the DVD so that section can be reviewed to refresh your memory of how it operates.

If you are looking for a DVD on how to use your camera I would recommend it. If you are looking for a DVD on photography then you need to look elsewhere, Jeff