Friday, August 11, 2006

Nikon D80

Nikon D80
Image "borrowed" from www.nikonusa.com

Well, I was right. Nikon will be dropping the D70s and replacing it with this new camera!

The D80 is a new 10.2 Megapixel DSLR camera most likely designed to compete against the new Sony Alpha A100 camera. The estimated street price of this camera according to the Nikonusa.com website is $999.95 for the body only or $1299.95 with a 18mm-135mm DX lens. Not too bad!

It's getting interesting lately how manufacturers are trying to "one-up" the next guy. Consumers are going to really be the ones who win in the end. It's hard to remember but just a couple of years ago, we were all still shooting with film. Today, digital rules and it seems almost everyone has some kind of digital camera whether it's a stand-alone model or one built into a cellular phone.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My husband is all over this camera.
And the nice thing about having the D70s is that I can sell that and buy the new D80 using the money from the camera sell.
But I made a deal with myself that I cannot get new equipment until I'm a better shot! :)

Gina

russlowe said...

Gina:

Keep in mind that if you go to the D80, you won't be able to use any of the compact flash cards you have for your D70.

The D80 only accepts SD cards.

Because of this, it makes it very difficult for those people who have a lot of CF cards to move to this camera. But if you don't have a lot of cards now, you might want to consider the D80.

But remember that if you move to a more "professional" camera, it's going to most likely want CF cards again...

Russ

Anonymous said...

I realized that last night.
I only have 2 1GB cards so that wouldn't be a big deal - I'd just sell them.
But you're right about the upgrade after the D80.

I'm sticking with my D70s for right now. By the time I feel I'm good enough to upgrade, I'm sure they'll come out with something better! :)

*gina

russlowe said...

I wondered why Nikon went to the SD card for this camera considering that many people who own D70 and D70s and D50 cameras might want to upgrade.

It's been said that the SD cards are faster than CF cards. And of course they are smaller too. But besides the performance upgrade, I really think it's because by doing that, if you want to really upgrade and keep your CF cards for your new camera, you'd be forced to move to the D200, which of course is a more expensive camera than the D80. This is just speculation and not based on anything other than my guess.

Really, the D200 is a better camera and has more professional features. But not everyone needs that much in a camera.

Russ