So this camera seems the ideal choice for me. Features, quality and price are all what I'm looking for in a SLR.

Now I need the pro and cons from those who have more experience. From what you've all read and maybe have had first hand with the camera, what can you tell me? Is it a good choice?

Am I over looking something with the same qualities and in the same price range?

 

The Sony Alpha and the new Rebel XTi are both in the same price range with similar specifications. I'd go with the Nikon purely for the ergonomics myself, but I've been using Nikon DSLRs for a few years now. I assume you've read and re-read the dpreview.com review of all of these.

Lens choices are good and the Nikon Creative Lighting System is really nice if you're going to get into flash photography.

Mike

 

Check out the Pentax K10D as well as the others mentioned. I love Pentax's unique lens lineup. That pancake 40 with the k10d would be such a beautiful walk-around setup.

 

Cool, thanks guys.

The Pentax is one manufacturer I never even checked out. I'll give it a look.

 

I have always been a Nikon person so my response will definitely be biased towards Nikon. However, read these excellent reviews and decide for yourself:

*** The best review site: http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d80.htm
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/D80/D80A.HTM
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_...nikon_d80.html

PS: I just got one for myself.

 

Ken's site is a good one.... if you want to read biased reviews of Nikon gear.

Some curious observations of his 30D review:
The 30D is magnesium, not plastic. The D200 is made from Aluminum, which of course is heavier than magnesium, hence the camera is heavier.


I don't know how it could be any easier to adjust. You just have to go to the white balance menu and tweak it to whatever value you want. To set a custom balance, you take a picture of a grey card or an expodisk, then go to the "Set custom white balance" menu option. How is the process easier on a D200?

Or, you could just shoot RAW and not worry about it at all.

Is this really a problem? I'd need a 10GB card installed before I hit that limit. Oh, I forgot, he only shoots JPG...

Why on earth is he using Program mode for flash work? He might as well just leave it on green box mode if he's not going to use manual.

There are only two flash modes: regular and high speed. In some of the auto modes, it will choose a longer shutter speed and fire a low-power fill flash in darker situations. I guess this is what he's calls slow speed sync. In manual mode you get full control of the balance between flash power and ambient light. As good as a camera is, it can never be as good as your eye when deciding how much flash to use. If you're using flash, use manual mode. Period.


I can't argue if his LCD had an issue or not, but I can say mine is fine. The bigger question is why is he adjusting colors on his camera? Who does that? I guess he must be the one guy who actually uses the direct print feature on the 5D.

This is completely customizable. If you want, you can set up the camera to stay awake until the battery is dead.



Anyhow, this is pretty off-topic for a D80 thread, but this is the first time I've ever seen his 30D review. Like his other Canon reviews, I'd say he's pretty uninformed. He should read the manual that comes with the body, because most of his gripes could be solved easily. There's nothing wrong with being a site that only reviews Nikon gear. He should stick with what he knows best.

If you'd like an equally-biased site for Canon gear, The Digital Picture is quite good. He owns every piece of gear he reviews (practically the entire Canon lineup) and he's not affraid to say something is crap when it is crap.

 

^^ there are a good number of people on the net that think KR doesn't know what he's talking about... and I have to agree to some extent - some of the things he writes make me ..

 

I know absolutely nothing about photography and even I knew you shouldn't be adjusting pics via the LCD. Thats common sense.

 

How can that review possibly be taken seriously?