[Fozzybear]

I bought a Nikon D80 after work on Friday, a replacement for my Nikon D50, and have so far been very, very impressed. The image look is quite different to that of the D50, but I haven't come to any deep understanding of it yet - I've only had it a day.

When I got it home and unpacked it the first thing I did was stick on my Tamron macro lens and take it out in the garden. It was a bit dim and windy out so the first shots were with flash, this one was my 12th shot after a few of rather blurred leaves which moved from the wind (grr!):

I went back indoors and after dinner tried a long exposure of my D50, leaving the camera on auto to see how it would cope. I had to do a little exposure compensation (well it was rather a dark subject! ) but otherwise it coped very well, the white balance being better than I'd got with the same lighting on my D50:

I also had a go at high ISO, this was taken at ISO3200 (HI 1):

more (better photos!) in the next post...

[Fozzybear]

I took the D80 for a walk yesterday, fitted with my old 18-70 Nikkor and we went around Galleyend in the south-east of Chelmsford:

Deaman's Lane, Galleyend

The old chain home RADAR tower, south of Great Baddow.

A lone tree in the fields of Little Seabrights Farm, near the RADAR tower.

A tree-enclosed footpath near the lawn cemetery and RADAR tower.

I also had a go last night at using the D80 in commander mode to remotely fire my SB-800 speedlight. It was simple to set and worked brilliantly:

My impressions so far are that noise is higher than the D50 (which I'd expected) but not significant, and the image 'feel' is quite different, although I've yet to work out exactly in what way. The white balance works very well, better than the D50, I really, really like the big LCD and viewfinder, the top plate LCD illumination has already been useful and the wireless flash is absolutely brilliant!

Well worth the £523 I paid for it!

[Steve N]

Originally Posted by Fozzybear

......the image 'feel' is quite different, although I've yet to work out exactly in what way.

I was slightly disappointed with my first images from my D80 - underexposed and a tad dull.
Being a newbie at that time I was sure it was down to user error.
I altered some settings in the menu, notably Colour Mode, after reading Ken Rockwells:
D80 User Guide
It made a big difference to all my shots, especially those taken in Auto mode.

[Fozzybear]

I haven't found them dull or underexposed, I tried jpeg for a few shots and they were fine. The images just have a slightly different look compared to the D50 - colour rendition and the way tones are handled is not the same. The sensor plays a big part in this, just like with different film stock on film cameras.

Ken R mentions using -0.7 stop compensation and I have to say I'd noticed a lot of my shots have ended up like this so far. Interesting!

My experience so far suggests that the D80 might be more susceptable to colour fringing than the D50, I had to remove some blue fringing on the Deadman's Lane photo, but otherwise I really like it.

[horribleman]

New camera buzz.

The D80 is such a nice camera. I loved it when I had one for a while.

Hope you have fun with it.

[beachy]

some nice shots there fozzy, i'm thinking of getting a D80 myself just need to sell my D50 first though to fund the purchase, missed out on one in jessops the other day,refurb for £428 what's the max size sd card they take ?

[Fozzybear]

Thanks Beachy. I'm fortunate that a guy at work has already said he'll buy my D50/18-55 and 70-300g, so I've just got to let him know they're ready to go when he's got the cash.

I know the D80 is SDHC compatible, so you can get 8GB cards for it at the moment. You need an SDHC reader though, I don't think SD readers work with the new SDHC cards (is that right?). I've seen Sandisk SDHC cards with bundled readers for pretty reasonable prices - a 4GB one for £30.

[Gadget Daddy]

pics #1 n 2 looking good #1 great DOF and #2 lovely details considering the lighting you mentioned

Pete

[vulkan75]

Great camera and a great first set of shots...first of many well done

[Fozzybear]

Thanks guys. GD, the first one of the plant was flash-lit with the built-in flash, which did a pretty good job really. The second shot of the camera dial was lit by low window light, so was about a 30 second exposure at f/32.

[Fozzybear]

A few more shots with the D80 and Nikkor 18-70. I went to Ipswich on Saturday and took these in Christchurch Park:

ISO800 - was fairly dark under the trees

&

small as the medium images were over the 200k size limit

small as the medium image was over the 200k size limit

and here's a few from around Ipswich:

The Ancient House at Butter Market

The Ancient House again

Traders setting up the market on Princes Street

from the same spot, the Chelsea Building Society building on Princes Street

[tontoshorse]

That 3rd set looks like you've got it under control. Looks like you're onto a winner.
The last one especially has the exposure spot on.

[Fozzybear]

Thanks Tontoshorse, it does seem to be working out well. I took two shots of that last one, the first being slightly over-exposed. This one I just lightly corrected, it didn't need that much adjustment really.

The white balance is certainly better than the D50. Not perfect but pretty good most of the time.