Get the 350d lar......

do make sure your photography teacher paints you a more complete picture.

when people around you use X brand, you get to share lens. that's nice.

people tend to preach that using X brand is good cos X brand has lotsa lens. that seems OH SO NICE, but what they usually don't tell you is that

1. you are not likely to own more than 5 lens.
2. even if you do, you're still limited by your $$$$

regardless of what brand you get, there WILL be lens for them. even if you get a not-so-widely-used brands in Malaysia like Pentax, it doesn't mean you made a bad choice. it's just that going for Nikon or Canon usually means you get higher chance of getting used lens.

hehe. i was in "Kelab Seni Foto" when i was a teen. use EOS 88 or whatever those film SLRs for snapping school sports day.

anyway i'm not saying your teacher doesn't have a point cos i agree too. for me i was actually looking for Nikon, even had a lens ready. in the end i went for Canon cos got someone offer me rather nice package.

heck in fact i was eyeing on Pentax before as well. even if you get Nikon D40, don't worry about AF issue. it's just the AF lens that it won't support AF, you can still get AF-S & AF-I lens.

Both also got pros and cons ler...

Technology wise ler, i am sure D40 will do better than 350D...
But Focus Points wise ler, 350D definately dapaoed D40... (7FP vs 3FP)

Buy what you need and what u want...

The EF-S lens mount is a derivative of the EF lens mount created for a subset of Canon digital single-lens reflex cameras with APS-C sized image sensors.

The "S" in EF-S stands for "short back focus", which means that the rear element of the lens is closer to the image sensor than on regular 35 mm SLR cameras. The proximity of the rear element to the image sensor greatly enhances the possibilities for wide angle and very wide angle lens, enabling them to be made smaller, lighter (containing less glass), faster (larger aperture) and less expensive. Most current Canon EF-S lenses are wide angle.

Lenses designed specifically for APS-C sized sensors are often optically designed to provide a narrower light cone to match the sensor. However, not all such lenses require the shorter back focus, and may feature the standard EF mount. Such lenses will give noticeable vignetting if used on a 35mm film or sensor camera.