Nikon D80: "Incredible Images" The best all around digital SLR camera and digital zoom lens combination with in $1200

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE NIKON D80 DSLR SYSTEM TO ALL PROS AND ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHERS:

I have been using the D80 camera now for about 5 months. Originally, I was trying to decide Between the D200 and D80, but do to budget, I chose the D80. I have absolutely no regrets with the D80 in any way, in fact, I am thankful I did not spend the extra money for the D200. The CCD chips are identical, but the only difference between the two is a slight shift in color profiles. The D80 color profile is actually better in the reds and greens than the D200. Besides that, the D200 is slightly bigger in size and has a few extra features. The D80 more than covered my photography needs. The Nikon D80 is action packed with more features and functions than even your average professional photographer would ever use, it just falls short of making you breakfast. The fact that it has so many options, it makes the D80 with the superb 18-135 zoom lens a very versatile DSLR system for any photographers shooting style,

I have been professionally shooting digitally now since 1995 and I am going to say that digital photography has come a long way. The CCD 10 megapixel chip in the D80 is amazing.
Since 1997 have been working with a professional digital camera back that produces digital files up to 150MB(RGB) or 200MB(CMYK) per image. That would translate to a 50 megapixel camera. After seeing results of a 10 megapixel picture file from the D80, I am impressed. I have taken RAW files from the D80 and magnified them a few hundred percent with out any sign of pixel break up, it looks like continuous film tone, now that's very impressive.

The CCD chip in general is with out a doubt Superior over the CMOS chip, its a fact. I would claim that it takes approximately up to 30% more megapixels for a CMOS chip to be comparable to CCD technology. Have you ever wondered why CMOS chip devices offer more megapixels for the same or less money. CCD chips are more difficult and more expensive to produce. The D80 CCD chip produces excellent results in the shadow details, very clean and un-noisy. The CMOS chip usually has more difficulties in this area.

There is something I need to clarify about image detail and sharpness. There have been some D80 users writing negative reviews of the image sharpness. Well, here are the facts in simple terms. If the picture seems a little soft in a high resolution image, then its a good sign of an excellent quality image file. The higher the resolution the softer the image will seem at a lower magnification.. Not many people have yet seen image files of this caliber. The more you attempt to sharpen an image the worse the image file gets for bigger enlargements. The first thing is this, if you are serious about best quality then you should not be applying any sharpening or any type of filters to an image in the camera. It should all be done in post production like photoshop. I also recommend using a RAW image file for best quality. In post production you can then apply any filter to enhance your image without damaging the original file data, because every time you apply irreversible photo filters to an image you are throwing away data image information. Its like trying to adjust your negatives before developing them, its a bad idea. If you take this so called soft image from the D80 and enlarge it a few hundred percent magnification on your computer screen you will appreciate Nikon's technology. The larger you blow up an image from the D80 the less sharpening(unsharp mask) is required, that's why Nikon limits in-camera sharpening. Have you ever noticed that the photoshop sharpening filter is called an UN-SHARP and not a SHARP mask, some other photo programs call it a sharpening tool so to not confuse people. In order for an image to appear sharper when its used or viewed at less than 100% actual pixel size, some of the image detail data has to be removed, because the more detail data that gets packed in a smaller area the softer the image looks. So in conclusion, a high quality image focused correctly that looks a little soft means its packed with tons of image detail. The Nikon D80 does just that...

Final words on the D80: If I was to make the purchase over again, I would still end up with the Nikon D8O with the excellent Nikkor 18-135 for being the Best DSLR system with in $1200.

Enjoy the D80...
Piero Foto