Review: Nikon D80 Delivers Excellent Photos

Since its debut last August 9, the Nikon D80 has earned praise after praise from hard-nosed professional photographers and rave reviews from online photography publications.
The latest to gush at its performance is Imaging Resource, who says the D80 is a superb photographic tool. Dave Etchells and Shawn Barnett of Imaging Resource have just posted their own thorough review of the Nikon D80, where they reported that the camera is “solidly built, well-balanced in the hand, highly responsive, and delivers excellent image quality.”

The included 18-135mm kit lens of the Nikon D80 offers unprecedented versatility with its 7.5x zoom. This zoom range, equivalent to a 27-202.5mm lens on a 35mm camera, used to require two zoom lenses.
“Having now thoroughly tested a production sample of the Nikon D80, all our initial impressions have been confirmed, and we can give it our wholehearted endorsement.” they said.
Of course the Imaging Resource folks were not the only ones who gave the thumbs-up to the D80.
Canada’s Megapixel.net gave it near-perfect scores in functionality and photographic qualities in their review. DPreview, while examining the Canon EOS 400D, could not help but compare the Rebel XTi to the better qualities of the Nikon camera. In its own review of the D80, DPreview “established that the D80 is a great photographer’s camera.”
Indeed, the distinguished “Class of 2006″, that bunch of excellent 10MP digital SLR’s that came out this quarter – Canon EOS 400D, Sony Alpha 100 and the Nikon D80 – clearly now has a valedictorian.
But wait. There’s a belated entrant to the “Class of 2006″. The Pentax K10D promises to be excellent too with its feature set. Aside from the usual 10MP, 2.5-inch LCD, etc., the K10D touts a waterproof body and 22-bit analog-to-digital conversion (ADC). Will it make a difference? Well, we’ll know when it comes out in November.
[Via: Imaging Resource]

October 25th, 2006 at 8:38 pm
I own the Nikon D80 and love it. I also bought the SB800 Speed Flash and love it as well. This is a must for any digital camera geek.
October 25th, 2006 at 11:07 pm
Hey, I wonder if you can help me. I have a Toshiba PDR-M71. It’s about 3 years old. When I put fresh batteries in, it will take one photo then shut off, showing no battery power. I’ve tried several sets of batteries. Is there anything I can try short of taking in to be repaired?
October 25th, 2006 at 11:38 pm
You know Teri, something similar happened to me too with a Canon A10 that I own and still use occasionally. I put a freshly charged set of batteries in, shut it off after some shots, and then when I pick it up again after several minutes to take more shots it tells me to change my batteries and then shuts off. Repair with Canon will cost significantly (proprietary repairs always are exorbitant!) so I tried a new trick: I take out the batteries after every shooting session with it, and every time I need to take a pic I just put them back again. (Seems like some digital monster is sipping all the battery juice in there.) My old camera’s working again, albeit with a minor hassle. But it beats taking it for a very expensive fix. And to think I nearly threw it out into the river!