D80 just arrived yesterday

[clockdoc]

Hi all,
After several years of using my trusty Sony F707 5 MP camera, I have made the move to a dSLR, a Nikon D80 with the 18-55mm, 3.5-5.6 AF S DX Nikkor. It arrived yesterday and I have been studying the manual with great interest.

I would appreciate hearing from any D80 owners about anything of interest since you have been using your D80 such as set up modes, lenses you have or wish you had ( I hear the 18-200 VR is VERY popular) and external flash. Since I need to purchase an SD card (I have a 512MB older one from a Kodak EasyShare of several years ago I can use in the interim), I'd like to hear your recommendations regarding make and speed. I assume not all 1GB SD cards are the same.

Thanks for your time in fielding these questions.

[Nicole]

Ummmmm.... your new camera arrived yesterday, so where are the pics? :D

As far as SD cards (that's all I can talk about in your question), I've had pretty good luck with Sandisk (both extreme II and regular), Toshiba, and PNY. I think as long as you watch the sales at the stores you'll be able to get pretty good deals. I always get my parents who still live in the US to watch for deals on SD cards, so most of the time they aren't more than $40 for a 2GB. You might find the Extreme cards better if you're doing lots of shots quickly, otherwise I haven't found that it makes much difference.

[Sime™]

Yep - SD Sandisk extreme II's get my vote too!... Congrats on the "new extension of yourself".... look forward to seeing some photos!!... (if you are the sort of person that likes to find a deal on eBay on memory cards, beware with eBay and Sandisk as there are LOTS of fakes) Sime

[jdepould]

I use the Ultra IIs with my D50, haven't had any problems. I'd suggest shooting P or A depending on your comfort level. If you do shoot P, pay attention to what settings the camera is using, it'll help you learn.

[mikem12188]

5:31pm today, still no pictures.....

[kirbinster]

Sandisk Extreme II is on sale at Costco thru tomorrow I think for only $20 for the 2 gig cards.

[Saralonde]

Can't help with the D80 questions, but congrats on the new camera:)!

[RussHeath]

Congrats! As you can see from my signature, I think you made a great choice.

Lenses:

You can see the three I use. After having them for a while my thoughts are:

--If I leave the house with only one lens, it's ALWAYS the 18-200 with a circular polarizer on it (I shoot mostly outdoors).

--Despite the above, the 105 macro is my favorite lens, and I often end up hiking with it and the 18-55 as a weight compromise.

--The 18-55 is impresively sharp and provides excellent results. I don't often find myself wishing I had something more expensive on there.

--The area I feel most limited is very wide angle. The next lens on my list will probably be the Tokina 12-24 f/4 (I don't normally even consider third party lenses but this one gets rave reviews) or the Nikor 10.5 f/2.8 fisheye.

SD Card: I buy cheap cards and they work fine. I actually own two 4gb cards (I also use them in my PDA) which I bought for less than $50 each by finding some online sales and they have not caused me any problems yet. I format each card EVERY time I put it in the camera (there's a quick way to do this holding down two buttons on the D80) and I think that goes a long way in avoiding file problems. The speed is meaningless when you're out shooting, because the main thing determining how many continuous shots you can take is the camera's buffer, not your write speed. The buffer in the D80 is great, so don't worry about it. Card speed will only effect how long it takes to download your images when you get home.

External Flash: I have lots of fun with my SB-600. It easily works as a remote slave with the D80's popup flash working as the commander. If you don't need the remote feature, consider an SB-400 which is smaller and cheaper.

Settings, manuals, etc: Despite his controversial nature, I recommend Ken Rockwell's site. His style is very opinionated, but I think that makes his information much more usable in the real world. You either agree with why he does something and you try it, or you disagree and you don't. I found his D80 Users Guide (http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d80/users-guide/index.htm) very informative and a nice place to start. He also reviews nearly every lens Nikon has ever made. If you want a more basic user's guide by Nikon, their D80 Digitutor (http://www.nikondigitutor.com/eng/d80/index.shtml)(flash based) is a nice place to start.

It's a wonderful camera and will bring you much joy. We all look forward to seeing some pictures! :D

[matthewchj]

Congrats on the new camera!

As the others have already said, Sandisk cards are really the best.

[Jamesc359]

Congratulations Clockdoc.

I know everybody has suggested a lot about memory cards, but for what it's worth I really like the Lexar cards I bought for my camera here a while back. So far they've proved to be reliable and are pretty fast too. I haven't tried the SanDisk Extreme cards though.

Any of the major brands should be reliable and reasonably fast though, and as newbie pointed out, thanks to your camera's large cache, speed shouldn't be a major issue.

Given that the price for memory is dirt cheap anymore I'd suggest you get more than 1GB. Either by getting one large card or multiple smaller cards. Especially if you'll be shooting in RAW mode. It really stinks to run out of space!

Happy shooting,
~James

[Nicole]

Given that the price for memory is dirt cheap anymore I'd suggest you get more than 1GB. Either by getting one large card or multiple smaller cards. Especially if you'll be shooting in RAW mode. It really stinks to run out of space!


You can't go wrong with several 1-2GB cards. They have enough space to keep you shooting for a while, plus, they aren't so large that you'll lose everything if your card has an error. If you look back to the weekly poll (http://digital-photography-school.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4902) on how much memory people carry, you'll see a lot of people carry multiple cards of smaller amounts (me included... 2x 2GB, 2x 1GB, 2x 512MB, 1x 128MB)

[NaturesPixel]

wooohooo congrats!!!

what do you like to shoot mate and then i can help you with lenses...

i have what ever is in my signature :)
my ideal line up will be an 18-200mm VR for every day walk around, a Nikon 105mm macro, and i have not decided quiet on which Zoom i want.. stuck between 2 choices the nikon 80-400 VR or sigmas 170-500mm or simlar

i love my nikon 50 1.8 and i love my Nikon 18-70mm both have come invaluable to me
My mum just brought a D80 and got the 18-135mm kit she has major problems with focusing in low light the AF is not soo hot it also has NO focus scale soo it makes it extremely hard to gage where you are .... i know i couldnt live with out my focus scales...

what i wanna know is why on earth would they not put one on even painted...lol


um PICTURES????? where are they ;)

[Markus]

Nice choice. The D80 is a real weapon in good light, very solid feel too.

I say 'in good light' because anything 800/1000 ISO and above it quite unsightly... especially compared to the performance of the new D300 and D3 is this area.

As for exposure, i've found the D80 tends to over-expose slightly with blown highlights occasionally. Set the exposure compensation to -0.3 if need be, problem solved.

If you have the post-processing ability to shoot RAW, then I'm jealous. Otherwise, shoot Fine/Large/Jpeg. Shooting in Vivid mode works well as it really gives the images that little bit of extra punchyness and contrast, Normal is fine though.

Explore the menus, it's a great menu to use and there is certainly a lot to look through and choices to make inside.

Enjoy ;)

[clockdoc]

Hi all,
Just a quick note to say, "Thank You" to all who have responded to my note. I hope to be able to get out and take some shots today. As you can imagine, this is a big jump from my old Sony F707. I have been reading many of the very helpful tutorials some of you recommended and have gone through the Nikon's 'Digitutor' which I found to be an excellent intro to many of the D80 features.
I have also learned quite a bit about memory cards from you. With the Sony Memory Stick on the F707 you were limited to 128MB. This equated to about 50 shots in the highest JPG mode (no RAW capability). So over the years I have gotten into a '50 shot' frame of mind even though I carried several extra sticks with me. Speaking of RAW, I have no experience with that mode but have heard rave reviews from those who have. I am looking forward to working with it. I assume Photoshop 7.0 can handle RAW. If not I know of a free program called "RAW Shooter" that friends have used with good results.
The line of lenses available is mind-boggling to say the least. I know many say they will only use Nikon lenses and others speak highly of brands such as Sigma and Tamron. Several of you have recommended a dedicated macro lens and that is something I would like to pursue. I just viewed a tutorial on the Tamron site where the photographer was using a 180mm macro. He liked that focal length because it gave him more shooting space between him and his subjects (wasps). Back in the days of 35mm film, a friend had a Nikon 105mm lens that produced the sharpest images I think I had ever seen.
Again, many thanks for all the advice, comments and words of encouragement. I am sure I'll have a few more questions as I 'flight test' this D80. 8-)

[clockdoc]

OK, I have finally gotten some time to do some shooting with the new D80 and the 18-55mm kit lens. I saw this cat jump into a neighbor's bird bath. I took several shots as I approached him very slowly. This was the last shot before he said, "I'm outta here!", and jumped down.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8359753@N07/1438303576/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1005/1438303576_046753ca85.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="DSC_0005_cr" /></a>

ISO 180 (camera was set to Auto), 1/125 sec., f/5.6

[mikem12188]

Ummm Lee,

The link doesn't work.....

....and we continue to wait......

[Jamesc359]

Patience Mike. It's a virtue. Which happens to be a virtue I don't have either!

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1005/1438303576_046753ca85_m.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/8359753@N07/1438303576/)
I hope you don't mind me fixing your link Clockdoc.

It's a nice idea, and I like the overall feel to your shot. It's to bad the cat's just a bit out of focus though.

[Maggie]

congrats... reading all of the responses.. nothing I can really add but to agree with starting with Ken Rockwell, but read him with a grain of salt and feel free to change from his recomended settings as you get use to the camera, not sure if anyone mentioned them but a definite buy should be the Magic Latern Guide and the Digital Field Guide for the D80

Where are the pictures??

[HSM]

I have been using the NIKKOR 28mm-80mm and 70mm-200mm tele lenses that I originally purchased with the N80 (film) camera. They work really well with the D80. I've been looking at a better wide angle lens to use and after doing some research have found the Tamron 18mm - 250mm to be the best lens per value. Visit Tamron's web site and read the reviews and latest award.

[clockdoc]

I don't know what happened with my earlier posting of the cat in the birdbath. My thanks to James for fixing the link. I thought I had copied the flickr data for a medium size image but it must not have gone through intact. To complicate matters we have been experiencing major ISP problems throughout the whole state of Alabama yesterday and today.

Here is one more but with the 55-200mm kit lens at 200mm. I noticed some bees were working over a plant in the back yard that had seen better days. I experimented with different focal lengths on the 55-200mm lens but this one at 200mm came out the best. I used a higher ISO of 1000 to get a higher shutter speed of 1/800 sec and f/5.6. Still working through the manual trying to sort out all the settings. Thanks to all for their hints and suggestions. Rockwell's site is an amazing collection of information!

[Jamesc359]

I think the site isn't allowing HTML in posts anymore. Either somebody leaned against the big red button, or somebody willfully pressed it (security reasons perhaps?). It'd be nice if flickr would be so kind to offer BBCode for copying & pasting...

Love the bee pic btw. I've been trying to capture one in flight for a while now, but I never seem to have the right timing. He's kind of cute, unlike most of the bee's I end up capturing. They usually look evil...

[Nicole]

I think the site isn't allowing HTML in posts anymore. Either somebody leaned against the big red button, or somebody willfully pressed it (security reasons perhaps?).

Hey, I think you're right, I'll get the message to Leisa and she should be able to fix it. It may just be that this was one of the sub-forums that was missed when HTML was turned on in the first place.

[ELAY]

Hey Lee,

Congrats on the acquisition. From a selfish perspective, I am happy that you have joined team Nikon so I can benefit from your insights as you figure out your new camera.

Cheers,

EL

[ckmiller81]

I love my trusty old D70 but all the upgrades on your new D80 make me jealous. I may try saving for a used D200. I have heard nothing bad about it, the D80 or really about the D70 come to think of it. I love Nikon!

[Taallyn]

Congratulations on getting your D80, Lee.

I have had mine for five to six months now and have had a lot of fun with it. I'm sure you will too.

[kirbinster]

I can only imagine your glee, mine should arrive tomorrow - I hope!

[clockdoc]

Congratulations, kirbinster! Seeing that you already have the D40, and some great lenses, you should be lightyears ahead of me in the learning curve. 8-) I have been hitting the manual on a daily basis but there is much more to digest and learn. Do you recommend the 50mm 1.8?

[Nicole]

Do you recommend the 50mm 1.8?

I do if that counts ;) Love my 50mm far too much.

[kirbinster]

The lens is great, but it was kind of a pain in the ass to manually focus on the D40. I plan to use it a lot more on the D80 since it will autofocus. While there are those that use it on the D40 I found it very hard to focus. Unlike my old Film SLR (a Canon A1) the D40 does not have a good focus screen so it is hard to get a good focus.

Update:

Wow does the 50mm autofocus fast on the D80!!!