More Nikon D80 info...

[priller]

In case anyone is interested. From here:

http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news.php?newsId=4246

Although not officially launched until the 9 August, Pocket-lint has learned that the new model, called the Nikon D80 D-SLR camera, will sell for £699.99 in the UK and feature a 10.2 megapixel CCD sensor.

The camera will also feature 11 area wide autofocus, an advance image processing engine, 0.94x viewfinder, a 2.5inch LCD screen with 170 degree viewing angle, a wide range of image enhancement options and a start up time of just .018 seconds and 3 frames per second continuous shooting.

Nikon will sell the body only for £699.99, its new AF-S DX 18-135 lens for £299.99 and a new AF-S VR 70-300 lens for £399.99

So basically, a lot of features from the D200, but in a D70-sized body (and build), and about $700 cheaper. I'm intrigued!

[regnaD kciN]

1. I think they had little choice...

...what with Sony's Alpha 100 out (and getting great reviews) at around the same price-point. Now, it will be interesting to see what Canon's next move will be. Although they have yet to budge from the 8MP limit, even for the 30D, I would think the Digital Rebel XT looks more and more untenable at anywhere near its current price.

[priller]

2. The announcement is official now

Go here for dpreview's thorough hands-on preview:

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/nikond80/


Go here for a good opinion column on it:

http://www.bythom.com/d80comment.htm

[Deep13]

3. 700 U.K. pounds roughly = $1400. Just saying.

[regnaD kciN]

4. They can't possibly sell it at that price in the U.S....

Not only would that be $500 more than the Alpha 100 (with less of a feature set than the latter!), but that's also way too close to the price of the D200.

[priller]

5. US price is $999

UK always get gouged with higher prices. Sorry guys.

[regnaD kciN]

6. According to DPReview, that $999 is body-only...

...so it will be slightly more expensive than the Alpha 100, which goes for $999 with Sony's 18-70mm lens.

The D80, apparently will come in an unusual kit with a new 18-135mm zoom. Much longer range than the usual kit lens, but the price jumps to $1299. For around the same price, you can get the Alpha body and a Tamron 18-200mm lens, which has gotten good reviews on web forums.

[Deep13]

8. I heard that the Sony was pretty noisy at iso 800 & 1600.

Compare that to the Canon D30 which is reported to have very low noise even at high speed. I'm also concerned that, like automobiles, the first model year will be a bit buggy. Nikon is a known quantity.

[regnaD kciN]

10. Actually, the Sony uses the exact same sensor...

...as the D80 will (Nikon gets its sensors from Sony), so the noise results should be identical.

The D200 uses a faster version of that same chip (modified to read four lines at a time instead of two). If you look at serious reviews (i.e. not Ken Rockwell's "everything Nikon puts out is perfect, even if I haven't even used it before writing this review" fanboy stuff), you'll find that it, too, gets criticized for noise at higher ISOs.

If shooting at ISO 800 or above is really, really important to you, you need to either a) go with Canon, whose CMOS sensors have lower inherent noise than Sony's CCDs (also used by Nikon), or b) go with a lower MP count. 6.1 MP sensors, having larger photosites, will usually have inherently lower noise than 10.2 chips.

And, since you mention bugs, it was noted on various photo websites that the D30 had some bugs in its initial release that, while preserving its low-light quality, actually produced visible noise under some conditions at ISO 100. I don't know if a firmware upgrade has taken care of that or not. Similarly, Nikon's D200 (despite Nikon being a "known quantity") had some serious problems with the circuitry associated withe the four-line readout, resulting in a quite notorious "banding" in many of the early units, requiring many of them to be sent back for factory repair. In general, a new camera model is a new camera model, and may be buggy no matter the reputation of the company it comes from. (And keep in mind that "Sony" is really Minolta, so it's not like they put together a whole camera division from scratch.)

[TahitiNut]

7. Today's market, 1 U.K. £ = $1.9036 at 7:36AM ET

Yep.

[priller]

9. Another hands-on preview

Here: http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/D80/D80A.HTM