I have a weakness for light cameras with big viewfinders, which comes from being a skinny guy with a bad back and bifocals. After two-weeks with Nikon‘s latest mid-line camera, the D80, I found a $1,700 DSLR (depending on lens and including tax) that was a pleasure to have around my neck at the end of a day.The viewfinder is a significant improvement over the D80’s predecessor, the D70, both in size and brightness – and brightness is what you want when you’re shooting indoors. If you were held back from buying a D70 because of its juvenile viewfinder, this is your machine.
The camera’s shooting speed, measured by the number of frames per second that can be shot at a time, is unchanged at 3fps, although the maximum number of frames that can be shot in a burst is up.
Other features to note are the D80’s 10.2 effective megapixel sensor, a 2.5-in. LCD screen on the back and an 11-area autofocus, all improvements over the previous model.
There are, however, a few prices to be paid in the new model: In a bid to shave some bulk (but not weight), Nikon has switched from Compact Flash to the smaller SD cards for storage. If you’ve invested in CF cards, tough. Maximum shutter speed is now only 1,4000 of a second. In addition, the D80 can only synchronize flash up to 1/200 of a second, compared to 1/500 of a second on the D70. For shooting flash indoors that doesn’t make a difference, but it could be a deal-breaker for those who like using flash outside, where the brightness requires a higher synch speed. To compensate the D80 does allow an ISO of 100.
Other new whiz-bang features are the ability to do in-camera red-eye reduction, shadow enhancement and monochrome creation, things best done in post-processing.
But enough of the tech talk. You want to know what the images look like. As tested with the new 18-135 mm f3.5-5.6 ED lens, images up to 400 ISO were crisp and clean. Digital noise at 1600 is there but not objectionable. However, as expected, at 3200 noise is quite visible, although images remain sharp.
If you want to keep a reasonably-priced high-end camera around the office to shoot detailed images of installations, product shots and executive portraits, this camera should be on your short list.
The controls are in the right place, the weight is right. At the end of a long day, you’ll want to keep shooting with the D80. And that’s what counts.
