The Nikon D80 was one of the most hyped and eagerly anticipated 10 megapixel DSLRs which has been rated as a superb camera to own. At the time it was being favourably compared to its only other competitor, the Sony A100, but a lot has happened in recent months. The Nikon D80 has proved to be an overwhelming success. It is a 10 megapixel digital SLR that is designed to be affordable but an upgrade from some of the budget model digital SLRs on the market. The extra money you spend on the Nikon D80 will give you a more solid and sturdy feel as well as an 18-70mm lens as opposed to an 18-55mm lens found on less expensive models. The Nikon D80 offers a number of features not found in any of its competitors in this price range, many from the fantastic D200. One of the most interesting and misunderstood features is weather sealing, giving good all weather performance.

The Nikon D80 has some extra buttons but apart from that, the casing is practically identical to earlier Nikon ‘D’ series. The similarity, however, is purely cosmetic and does not mean that the Nikon D80 is in the same league as the entry-level D50. The Nikon D80 offers two control dials, enabling one to be used for aperture and one for shutter speed when shooting in full Manual mode, a very handy feature.

The Nikon D80 offers the serious underwater photographer many of the attractions of the professionally aimed (and priced) D200. With much of the technology packed into the smaller and less expensive D80 originating with the Nikon D200, it’s no surprise to find demand for the Subal ND80 housing so strong. The Nikon D80 is a powerful digital SLR camera that has a lot of features for you to leverage. If you’re not already familiar with how you can use aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance and metering to improve your digital photos, I encourage you to learn. The Nikon D80 shows very little noise but has significant softness at ISO 800 and above. These results are not surprising considering the same sensor design is used for all top Nikon DSLRs cameras.

The Nikon D80 is obviously not aimed to Nikon fans with huge collections of vintage MF lenses. But if so, they can be used. The Nikon D80 digital camera is one of our favorite cameras to have been released. Not only does it set a value point for digital SLR’s, but the D80 is feature-rich, lightweight, and takes incredible photos. We have yet to read a poor report on this super model. The Nikon D80 supports i-TTL, TTL and non TTL flashes and offers a maximum flash synchronisation to 1/200 seconds. The Nikon D80 is a dream come true for the enthusiast: excellent image quality with low noise at high ISOs, instant response, and excellent handling — at an affordable price.”. The Nikon D80 offers 95% scene coverage and 0.94x magnification. The viewfinder has built-in diopter adjustment (-2.0 to +1.0m-1).

The Nikon D80 is a fairly inexpensive digital SLR that packs spectacular performance and excellent (though somewhat soft) image quality into a well-built, solid camera. For under $1000 you get quite a lot of camera, and it will certainly make people think twice about spending hundreds more on a D200. The Nikon D80 Digitutor site – view the photo gallery where they show samples of images taken with various pro-level lenses such as the Nikkor 85mm f/1.4D, Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 Macro VR, Nikkor 12-24mm f/4 DX, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR, and the Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 DX. Left and top menus also allow you access to operational notes and tutorial videos.

The Nikon D80 inherits technological advantages developed exclusively for Nikon’s latest professional digital SLR cameras, combining color independent analog pre-conditioning with improved 12-bit digital image processing algorithms. The result is natural looking images that benefit from faithful color and tone reproduction.

From Ezinearticles.com

You may have noticed the extra cash required to buy a pro SLR over the great looking so called Simi-pro or prosumer DSLR cameras found at big box stores. DSLR budget cameras are often called “entry-level models,” These DSLRs were designed with the serious amateur in mind and are a giant leap above point and shoot cameras and are priced in the $500 to $800 dollar range. That’s quite a bit of cash over point and shoots but one to three thousand dollars less than the pro versions!

The entry-level or prosumer DSLRs have plenty of great features that allow you to control aperture settings, focal-length, and shutter speed and look pretty much like the Pro versions on the outside. These cameras also take great photographs and do pretty much anything a photographer needs. Lots of pros use these cameras for back ups and even on some assignments.

What’s the advantage of a PRO DSLR over a less expensive Simi-Pro Camera?

Why all that extra money for a camera body that’s a little faster and has a few more features? The answer is that pro camera bodies are stronger, tougher, better protected from the elements and have extra features to help you get that important photograph. Pro bodies will last far longer and tolerate the thousands of pictures some pros dish out. The viewfinder is larger and more accurate and the electronics much better protected from weather and shock.

But they won’t take better photographs. Only you can do that with your experience and hard work. Remember that the most important part of any camera is the LENS. If a choice must be made go for the better glass because it will give you good things like color and contrast and little or no distortion.

Those prosumer DSLRs come with what is called a boxed lens. This lens is good for little more than the trash dump. (in my opinion) It’s included because of competition in the camera business because most people won’t buy a camera without one. That’s why Pro Cameras are sold body only. To get a good lens call a big camera store in a big city like LA or New York and ask for a good quality medium zoom. Want to learn a lot and have fun at the same time? Visit a huge (HUGE, LA or New York) camera store and ask questions.

Many times when a photographer gets a new expensive pro camera body his photos get worse. It’s like going from a nice normal car to an all out race car and it takes a while to get used to.

Construction and Environmental Seals

Pro Photographers never know where they may be working. What if they get an assignment to a far away rain forest? Pro Digital Cameras will work in extreme cold, heat or dusty desert conditions up to a point if taken care of. They have much higher quality components and environmental sealing. Most have a magnesium body under high quality plastic and super strong strengthened seams with environmental seals.

Most pro level cameras use at least an APS sized sensor or even a full frame sensor. This larger size increases the quality of the megapixels in the sensor. One advantage of a larger sensor is much better performance in dim light that makes for more natural looking pictures. These sensors also handle highlights without purple fringing and distortion.

That $500 SLR may work for a day or two and then come up with green fungus growing inside. Moisture creeps inside the body and all the pictures have a nice fog over them. A little cleaning may help for a while but sooner of later the darn thing shorts out and won’t work at all.

Now this may not happen and won’t if your gear is well taken care of and kept dry and clean. But the point is that prosumer level cameras were not designed for use in jungles and war zones or extreme desert conditions. Most advanced amateurs take good care of their cameras and probably won’t have any problems.

I once knew a photographer that spent most of his time rock climbing in the High Sierra. At the time he was using a Nikon film F4 camera that looked like it had been drug behind a truck. He had a habit of hanging the camera on a small rope so taking pictures was quick and easy. Of course it received a good rock banging over the years and a few drops into rocks didn’t do it any good either. We used to kid him about it and the camera store owner couldn’t believe the quality of the photos that came from that pro quality but beat up camera.

Although prosumer cameras won’t stand this level of abuse they have improved much from the days when manufactures used to glue the lenses in place and the slightest bump would knock them out of alignment. Today photographers demand better quality but it’s still not likely a prosumer digital camera would take severe bumping around so take good care of them.

I’ve had people tell me that they went to extreme climates on vacation and their inexpensive DSLR camera worked fine and they didn’t have any problems. But that’s the big difference you see because they were on vacation and didn’t use their cameras in the same conditions as a pro does.

A pro can take more photographs in a few days then most people do in a lifetime. Also they go to the worst places at the worst times and the equipment takes a real beating. If this happens then the problem will take care of itself because you will be smiling all the way to the bank.

If you aren’t sure how serious about photography you are or are just starting to earn some money taking pictures, it’s best to buy the less expensive DSLR and spend any extra money on a better lens. You can decide later if you need a better quality body and trust me you will know when that time comes. By far the biggest tool you need to earn money with photography is education. Many people earn cash with a simple point and shoot.

From Ezinearticles.com

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In conjunction with Canon boast ‘defined a new DSLR category’ back in 2005, Canon released their EOS 5D model. The Canon EOS 5D model was the first ‘full frame’ sensor camera with a compact body; namely not having an integral vertical grip and have been very popular among camera enthusiasts mainly because it is less bulky then Canon EOS-1D, if you are looking for a full frame DSLR to use with your Canon lenses. With Sony DSLR-A900 and Nikon D700 in the market, it is timely for Canon to upgrade their EOS 5D model to Mark II. Canon EOS 5D Mark II, is superior in terms of both resolution and features such as 21 mega-pixels, 1080p video, 3.0 VGA LCD, Live View, higher capacity battery and many others. In other words, this camera has surpassed both its direct competitors in terms of resolution (Nikon D700) or features (Sony DSLR-A900). The Canon EOS 5D Mark II is equipped with Live View and anti-dust features as well. Other improvement from its predecessor are the DIGIC 4 processor; with 14-bit analogue to digital conversion. This DIGIC 4 has allowed Canon to slightly improve on the original Canon EOS 5D’s 3fps continuous shooting rate to a new rate of 3.9fps. Aside from capturing high quality still pictures it is also the first Canon’s DSLR to boast video recording. The Canon EOS 5D Mark II is able to record video in full High Definition (HD) of 1920 x 1080 pixels (1080p) at 30fps. This is also the first DSLR to record video in glorious full HD and definitely best quality video recording by a still camera. Other improvement comprise of LCD screen size of 3 inch with 920k dot / VGA resolution. Owners of HDTV will be pleased that there is HDMI port for direct connection to HDTV at 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution. As for more traditional photographic features, the Canon EOS 5D Mark II offers an improved viewfinder with 98% coverage, a shutter rated to 150k cycles and 9-point AF system with 6 AF assist points. This definitely the must have for all camera enthusiasts. Following are Canon EOS 5D Mark II full features: 21 megapixel CMOS sensor (very similar to the sensor in the EOS-1D Mark III) Sensor dust reduction by vibration of filter ISO 100 – 6400 calibrated range, ISO 50 – 25600 expansion (1Ds Mark III & 5D max ISO 3200) Auto ISO (100 – 3200) in all modes except manual 3.9 frames per second continuous shooting DIGIC 4 processor, new menus / interface as per the EOS 50D Image processing features are: 1. Highlight tone priority 2. Auto lighting optimizer (4 levels) 3. High ISO noise reduction (4 levels) 4. Lens peripheral illumination correction (vignetting correction) RAW and SRAW1 (10 MP) / SRAW2 (5 MP) RAW / JPEG selection made separately Permanent display of ISO on both top plate and viewfinder displays AF micro adjustment (up to 20 lenses individually) Three custom modes on command dial, Creative Auto Mode Image copyright metadata support 98% coverage viewfinder (0.71x magnification) 3.0 920,000 dot LCD monitor with ‘Clear View’ cover / coatings, 170° viewing angle Automatic LCD brightness adjustment (ambient light sensor) Live View with three mode auto-focus (inclusive of face detection) No mirror-flip for exposures in Live View if contrast detect AF is selected Movie recording in Live View (i.e. 1080p H.264 up to 12 minutes, VGA H.264 up to 24 mins per clip) Two mode silent shooting (Live View) New jump options in play mode HDMI and standard composite (AV) video out Full audio support: with built-in mic and speaker, mic-in socket, audio-out over AV (although not HDMI) IrPort (supports IR remote shutter release using optional RC1 / RC5 controllers) UDMA Compact Flash support New 1800 mAh battery with improved battery information / logging New optional WFT-E4 Wi-Fi / LAN / USB vertical grip Water resistance: 10 mm rain under 3 minutes

From ezinearticlesbase.com

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