The D80 is still a highly capable camera for beginners and advanced users alike. I don't really need the D80 these days to be honest, but I hold onto it as a fun camera to go out with every so often. And as with so many of these older APS-C DSLRs, it can be had at an absolute bargain these days if you're chiefly concerned with just taking pictures instead of examining a spec sheet. The D80 was even there for when I photographed my first wedding. While it's true that in many situations a nicer, newer camera would have made certain photographs easier for me to get, the D80 wasn't really the limiting factor.
![nikon d80 nikon d80](https://i0.wp.com/camerausermanual.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Nikon-D80-Manual-for-Nikons-Affordable-DSLR-with-Sophisticated-Features.png)
Looking back through a handful of images from my early photographic days with the D80 reminded me of something that I too often forget, especially in my current career. Without any stabilized lenses or in-body stabilization, I really had to work on my shooting technique to take sharp shots with slower shutter speeds. That said, working around these limitations proved educational to some degree - instead of firing away at 8 fps during a basketball game, I would do my best to anticipate peak action and capture it with one or two quick frames. Okay, so these days the D80 doesn't really hold up as an ideal action or low light camera. Through some strange process, the EXIF doesn't show the ISO, but I'd be willing to bet I was bumping up to 3200 here. The concert venues in Bellingham didn't always have the best lighting, either. The D80 could also shoot continuously at 3 fps, which more than respectable when it arrived in 2006, but by the time I began shooting more seriously in 2010, newer models, such as the D7000, had arrived that could shoot at double that speed (to say nothing of existing D300 and D200 models).
#NIKON D80 ISO#
So, while the D80 could reach ISO 3200, it was so noisy that it ended up being a setting that I reserved for dire emergencies only. Photo by Carey RoseĪs a photojournalism student in northern Washington state in the winter time, there wasn't an abundance of great light.or any light.during much of my time shooting for school publications. Shame about the (very) clipped highlights, though. I still see people raving about the color and tonality of older CCD sensors, and in good light, the D80 did well in this regard even at moderately high ISO values. Since I was basically living off of student loans at the time, I had a hard time justifying any upgrade. But as I saw my friends around me graduating to new D700's, 5D Mark II's and even D90's, my little D80 began to feel a bit inadequate. The twin dials made it exceptionally easy to control, it was built well, and in good light, took great images. The D80 was a near-perfect camera to really get into photography with. Years later, my dad found himself with a D300, and I found myself borrowing the D80 for the beginning photojournalism class I'd signed up for. I wish I had brought a faster lens, though. Unfortunately, it lost out on the CCD electronic shutter option from the D70S, and the flash sync speed dropped from 1/500 sec to 1/250 sec.Īfter finally getting my hands on one, the D80 quickly became my constant companion, accompanying me on a six week trip to Nepal in 2010. It offered a smaller, lighter body, bigger and brighter viewfinder, larger rear screen and an all-new autofocus system borrowed from the D200. I didn't really know all that much about photography at the time, but that didn't stop me from drooling over it.Īpart from the increase in resolution, the D80 was otherwise a significant step up from the D70S that it effectively replaced. It was also ten years ago that my dad picked up a shiny new one to act as a backup to his workhorse studio camera, the D200.
![nikon d80 nikon d80](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/AD9DM3wnw3Q/maxresdefault.jpg)
It was ten years ago this past September that Nikon introduced its 10 megapixel, twin-dial D80 DSLR. Ten megapixels ought to be enough for anybody.