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Ronbo*MFA* · 08-15-2007, 12:27 PM

ST, I have time for an answer

....just not a lot to play online at the moment.

I love the D80. Although it is a polycarbonite body, it has withstood the abuses that happen in day to day shooting. Most people are turned off by the smaller size and the body construction. The size works for me since I also purchased the MB-D80 battery grip a short time later. as for construction..it is as good as any industrial electrical tool construction in that it uses the same materials.

As far as the features I would have to say that it meets my needs. It has the same features as the D200 with a few exceptions. If you plan on doing any sport photography I would look to the D200....otherwise the D80 will live up to your expectations.

As for lenses I can understand that you will be looking at some expense there. I would highly recommend that you save for the 18-200VR lens that Nikon makes.....from all the reviews it is the lens to have for everyday shooting. And it will allow you to take shots in lower light levels...approximately 3 stops Using an analog lens you do lose the AF features and the light metering, which you will find a little bothersome, but not impossible to use. The Focus confirmation should still work though.

overall I am completely pleased with the D80. There are some features I have yet to use, but plan on using them when I get the lens/flash setup that I desire.

Now getting to the RAW are you talking about the used spaced on the media card or the used space on the hard drive? And in technical terms RAW is a compressed file for all cameras not just the D80...it's only when you convert them to TIFF that expands the file to it's full size....better have plenty of HDD space doing that. I usually convert the RAW files to JPG and save them both...but then I leave the RAW file in it's original state after post processing and saving in JPG. With all the research I have done I have found that everytime you save a JPG it loses some data...so the best thing to do is save in JPG only in it's final state after Post Process.

Any camera can take stunning pictures..but there are some factors that make one stand out from the other. While many point and shoot cameras boast huge MP, one has to remember that the sensor sizes haven't changed much from the original 1 MP cameras...so they have had to cram more Pixels into an area the same size...and that is what gives the dSLR cameras a leg up. This is why if you take an inexpensive lens and place it on a 6MP dSLR you would notice more lens shortcomings on the 10MP cameras. Just the nature of the beast I guess. So with that said....make sure you at the very least see if you can come up with the oney for the D80 w/ the 18-135 Kit lens. While it isn't the greatest lens, it stands above the other kit lenses according to several lens tests done.

**Kirk** · 08-15-2007, 12:47 PM

Alex,

I think Ron forgot to answer your first question .... the RAW file usually takes up around 10MB each. At least they are on my D200, and about 6MB on my D70s. So I assume they are close to 10MB on the D80.

Ronbo*MFA* · 08-15-2007, 02:35 PM

No I didn't forget to ask Kirk....I did ask to clarify what he was saving the RAW too....

**SilentTrigger** · 08-15-2007, 02:43 PM

Ron, thanks for your views on the D80. The D80 use Compressed RAW (NEF's) while D200 has the option to either use uncompressed RAW or Compressed. The said differences are located in the shadows, less quality in that area. Not a whole alot but a slight difference.

The lense I have now is a Nikkor lense of type G so it should work with metering and AF. It will be something to see later on though haha. Will of course consider buying a lens too if I can get that much money freed, I will sooner or later buy more lenses but corrently it's just a matter of cash/time issue heh. Hope to go up north next sommer again (and possibly a winter, the winters up there are great!) so I want a digital rather then film as the primary camera the film will become an extra if the battaries are out and need to get a shot done. And the times when I want to get back into film as it's still is an art not to be able to see the outcome before the film is developed and also the quality and feel of loading the camera with a roll of film. I will continnue to have my camera in my property till the day they stopp making film for them. And as Nikon has not stopped making film cameras it's not dead yet!

They currently make two film boddies. They seem to have added one more, was only the F6 before and now it's also the FM10

I'm pretty sure I will get a D80 as you still talk good about it, can't afford the D200 anyways.

Ment the memory card Ron

I wan't know know how many shots aprox you get out of 8GB SDHC

Ronbo*MFA* · 08-15-2007, 03:36 PM

First of all I am not sure the D80 has the firmware to support 8gb...I shoot 2 gb cards for one reason...if the card decides to stop working I haven't lost that many shots....

I think the RAW shots on 2GB is around 140 shots...but I don't know if that is
exponential...meaning that going with 8GB will get you 4 times the amount of a 2GB card.

**SilentTrigger** · 08-15-2007, 04:56 PM

It is said to support SDHC and HC was made specificly to increase the capacity of the storage. But I'm not sure if it does take the 8 GB but it should, if not I think Nikon needs a slap on their fingers!

Thanks for the info on how many a 2GB can hold!

Does the RAW format change in size depending on the picture shot and it's complexity or is it constant?

Aparently both 4GB and 8GB work:

http://www.nikonians.org/dcforum/DCF...36/1680.html#4 (4GB here and 8 in another thread. Worked great aparently

)

But I do see your reson for 2GB. Cost a bit more to get 4 of those then one 8GB SDHC but you hopefully only lose one or possibly 3 heh. But I still don't know what to get

Ronbo*MFA* · 08-15-2007, 05:24 PM

The size and weight stay consistant from one shot to the other...

Again I only shoot 2 gig because of one goes bad I haven't lost that many pictures...but I know enough people in the industry that can retrieve most if not all pics on a bad media card.

Also if you don't have one get a media reader as the transfer from camera to computer is quite slow...not as slow as it used to be, but still to slow for my taste.

**SilentTrigger** · 08-15-2007, 05:51 PM

Yep got one of those, doubt it's HC compliant though but you did get a reader with the card that I looked at

**Kirk** · 08-15-2007, 08:45 PM

I also shoot with 2GB cards. Like Ron said, if you lose one or one goes bad, there isn't as much to lose. Besides, 2GB is still a lot of pictures. And it only takes a second to throw in another card. I have found the fast 2GB cards are on sale the most frequently as well. Just picked up another 2GB Extreme III for $31 shipped to my door. Going with anything faster than that is a waste of time because the camera can't write any faster than that anyway. The only advantage is when you go to get the images off the card. But it isn't worth all the extra money to save a minute or two when downloading to your PC. The wireless adapter for the camera works nice when used in a studio environment. It copies the images to the PC while you shoot. And also has other advantages like previewing on the larger screen before taking the shot etc.

But long story short ... buy the 2GB cards. They are cheap and plenty fast enough. And when bought on sale you can easily get 4 for less than an 8GB card. I think I have about 16 2GB CF cards, and another 6 or 7 2GB SD Cards. (plus a few mini & micro's for phones and such)

**SilentTrigger** · 08-15-2007, 10:06 PM

Nice collection you got there kirk

Anyways I will take Yours and Rons advice and get 2GB (well first I need to get a camera hah, will be hard with all birthdays and christmas comming up, after that its more presents heh) I will still be amazed with the speed as it's a slight difference between 140 shots and 24 shots and a film takes a few extra seconds. I would guess on about 1 - 2 sec extra for switching the film compared to card but then the camera has to rewind the film, see my camera protects all images that has been shot in the filmroll so it has to outwind the film first which takes 2 - 4 sec. So I would still cut alot on the time

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