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D80 is released

Sid Jervis

pro member
I wonder what the response will be from Canon?

The D80 certainly has a fair spec', it looks like Nikon are serious about that segment of the market.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Sid Jervis said:
I wonder what the response will be from Canon?

The D80 certainly has a fair spec', it looks like Nikon are serious about that segment of the market.
What segment?

Asher
 

Sid Jervis

pro member
Pro-sumer DSLR (a horrible term actually).

The D80 retail pricing places it under the Canon 30D discounted price.
And by the time some discounting arrives I guess it will be in the price region of the 350D.
 

Dierk Haasis

pro member
Bottom to top*:

Coolpix series
D50
D70
D80
D200
D2x/D2h


*Premise: There is an inherent ascendancy from holiday snapshooter through hobbyist, amateur to pro. Personally I think there isn't, all those cameras are tools, which obviously don't have a hierarchy (or is a carpenter's hammer on top of a goldsmith's?).
 

Joel Schochet

New member
But where are the lenses we[?] want?

Despite what Nikon has said about the D80 being an "addition" to the line, I think it's really a replacement for the D70s. What's interesting to me is that Nikon has drawn the Secure Digital - Compact Flash line above this replacement. But with the higher capacities for SD cards, I can't say it doesn't make sense.

What doesn't make sense to me is the 18-135. Even though it has real AF-S (where you can refocus manually without taking it off auto-focus), the lack of vibration reduction makes it incredibly redundant. As Thom Hogan and others say (see, e.g., www.bythom.com), Nikon would have been better off adding VR to the 18-70. How many of these zooms do we need, especially in light of the quality of the 18-200 VR? If you're going to make another wide-angle to telephoto zoom, at least start it at or below 16mm.

Many are waiting for DX wide-angles, especially with large maximum apertures. I still want a AF-S 70mm f/1.4 or so so I can have the 105 field of view and shallow depth of field that we had with the 105 f/1.8. Add VR and I'll spend up to $1,000. And where is the AF-S version of the 80-400 VR?

Descriptions like "pro-sumer" don't mean much (as noted above), but that is where I'd place the D80. Nikon now has a competitor to both the Sony Alpha 100 and the Canon 30D. Nikon certainly is getting back into the game with Canon; although there are still more white lenses at events. (Perhaps it's because Canon has put IS into all of its long lenses.)

Now, if I can find the time to use this stuff ...
 

Tom Yi

New member
It's price is $999 for the body only in US 699 pounds in UK.
I think Nikon tends to gear their stuff just between the Canon's. For example the D50 is cheaper than the Rebel XT but the D70/80 is a bit more. The D200 is a bit more than the 30D but less than the 5D.
The D2H is less than the 1DMII while the D2Xs fits between 1Dmark II and 1DsMark II in price.

So the D80 is more than a Rebel in terms of features/price but less than 30D in terms of features/price.

As for the SD card, I guess Nikon figures, the D70/D70s owners won't upgrade to the D80 but rather the D200 and that digicam and D50 owners will upgrade to the D80, since most digicams and the D50 uses SD cards.

Looks like it should outresolve the Rebel/30D from Canon at the cost of higher ISO noise. Looks like a great camera.
Due to 3fps, I think I'd go for the D200 if I was getting a Nikon. Nice to see that they are offering a grip for this as well. Nice. Good for Nikon.
Here is a preview from drp
http://www.dpreview.com/articles/nikond80/
 
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James Masi

New member
Tom Yi said:
Looks like it should outresolve the Rebel/30D from Canon at the cost of higher ISO noise. Looks like a great camera.
Due to 3fps, I think I'd go for the D200 if I was getting a Nikon. Nice to see that they are offering a grip for this as well. Nice. Good for Nikon.
Here is a preview from drp
http://www.dpreview.com/articles/nikond80/

The "at the cost of higher ISO noise" is really only an issue at 400 ISO and above. Further, it looks like Nijkon is getting better in this area. Sample images I saw posted from Japan suggested that it was much better than the Sony A100 in this area (even though it uses the same chip) and from what I saw getting much closer to Canon in this area. This is all bad news for the new Sony -- better performance at a competitive price.

I agree that the D200 might be preferable and a better camera, but if you needed to save $700, there are alot of people who could make due quite comfortably with the D80.
 

Tom Yi

New member
James, I think if it's shot in JPEG, the image processing programming will have an effect on the image. I know atleast for the D200 that at higher ISO's you cannot turn off the noise reduction.

I think DPR states that when shot in RAW, the Image Quality is same between the Sony Alpha vs the Nikon D200 b/c you are getting unaltered image information from the sensor.

In all honesty, unless you shoot frequently at higher ISO's this will be a non issue. I still think that cramming more pixels into the same space is a compromise between resolution and noise. It's a personal decision and I don't think there is a wrong answer here. As far as I know, I really can't tell the diff between a shot made with a Canon or a Nikon based on high ISO noise level.
 
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