Nikon D80 – a high end digital SLR for the consumer market
Those of you who’ve just splashed out on a Nikon D70 should probably avert your eyes. This upgrade from Nikon offers 10.2mp (up from the D70’s 6mp), a 2.5-inch screen (up from 2-inch), a broader ISO range (100-1600) and all kinds of in-camera editing fun for consumers including red eye removal, D-Lighting (one of Nikon’s Coolpix features that lets you improve the lighting of a shot after you’ve snapped it) and image overlay. You can shoot up to 3fps for 100 shots and it’ll fire up in 0.18 seconds.
The design has been tweaked as well, with a few buttons being added and the others having a bit of a re-jig. It’s also a lot smaller than the D70 – more in keeping with the D50 in fact – plus it uses SD cards rather than CF (with support for SD HC cards). This is partly to position the camera more in the consumer market, but also partly due to the fact that Nikon obviously feel that SD is where it’s at for memory cards these days.
The body alone will cost you £699.99 and with the 18-70 lens it’ll
cost you £899.99. The D70 will stay on sale until the end of the year,
but the D80 will be on sale from the start of September. Anyone who pre-orders in August will get an SD card chucked in gratis as a goodwill gesture for those migrating from the D70.
Nikon D80 Product Page
