Nikon D80 or Canon 400D

    Oh a pickle indeed.

    Personally I love Nikons, however for my first DSLR I am a bit...stuck.

    I did originally intend to get a D50 but they are now hard to find, the D40 is good but the lack of internal AF motor will be a pain later on. So the D80 was the next choice and I've used them a lot and I like them.

    However....

    D80 + 18-135mm standard kit lens = ~£700

    Canon 400D + Canon 18-55 + Tamron 55-200mm + Centon Backpack = £600

    I do love Nikons but is there a compelling reason to spend the £300 more on it? I'm not so sure anymore.

    i havent used both but my dad has a d80 and it's real nice, cant say much else about it. i'll have some pics we took from this trip tomorrow

    I shoot using a Nikon D50 and love it. At the end of the day, the Nikon and Cannon lines are almost identical at this point. Judge what lenses you want in the long run and make your choice based on those costs.

    P.S. Tamron lenses suck. If you're going 3rd party, use Sigma.

    I think it's kind of worse then generic. A fellow member of m-t.de showed pictures made with the lens and complained they would not get sharp. He did a little research and the final result was that the 18-55 was not capable to lighten out the chip in the correct way. I don't know if this is correct but it scared me. I used a Sigma 18-55 instead and got some very sharp pictures out of it (i write in the past because i made it fell half a meter down and it is kinda weird now)

    Quote from e-freak

    I think it's kind of worse then generic. A fellow member of m-t.de showed pictures made with the lens and complained they would not get sharp. He did a little research and the final result was that the 18-55 was not capable to lighten out the chip in the correct way. I don't know if this is correct but it scared me. I used a Sigma 18-55 instead and got some very sharp pictures out of it (i write in the past because i made it fell half a meter down and it is kinda weird now)

    sample photos! i get sharp photos with my 18-55mm. maybe he used jpeg files so he screwed his images with DCT reduction/compression.

    I think I may just get a D40 or D40X. The D40 + 18-55 is currently £280 after rebate.

    The D50 is all but gone, I had a good look round town and online and they are pretty much all gone or overpriced now. The D80 is perhaps just a notch too far in cost. Can get a D40 + 18-55 and 55-200 for half the price of a D80 and 18-135mm.

    I don't think the 18-55 stock lense was that bad. The main bad thing about it was the toyish look, and that the front of the lense spinned when you zoomed and focused the picture, which causes problems with some filters etc.

    On the other hand, I wouldn't by a 350d anymore. I had one which was stolen, and I bought another one when I got the insurance money after thinking for a long time wether to buy a 400d or a 350d. 400d has some features that I really could use now, and a couple of megapixels extra wouldn't be that bad either.

    One thing is for sure though. A Nikon d80 is a lot more manouverable camera than these small Canons. I'm not sure what the shell is made of, but they're a lot more sturdy and fit a hand better, thus giving better support for heavy lenses.

    everyone says that canon 15-55 sux but I don't think so. tamron is good too. i also recomend sigma 17-70 f2.8 - really nice lens!

    the main problems of 15-55 kit lens are: AF accurancy, f 3.5-5.6, sharpless pictures

    here are some photos made with 15-55:

    [Blocked Image: http://images26.fotosik.pl/2/b515820a2eaf3b12.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://images22.fotosik.pl/159/4e571099a9fbdb16.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://images21.fotosik.pl/371/6eef16ddd8c3f0ba.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://images22.fotosik.pl/148/9afaaed754c4daca.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://images22.fotosik.pl/140/a7e247d758b0a989.jpg]

    So I got the D40 Kit in the end, after Nikon send me my £60 back the camera and kit lens will have cost me £258/$530

    Approximatly half what a standard 400D would have cost me or about 1/3 of a D80. I'm liking it a lot so far.

    Paired it up with a SanDisk 1Gb ExtremeII SD Card, lowepro slingshot 100 bag and hoya skylight filter. In total the whole shebang has probably be about £310/$635.

    i was able to get one of the last d50s (body only) from ebay a few weeks ago. and so far its awesome. i bought a nikkor AF-S 18-135mm / 3,5-5,6 along with it and it came in at about 760€ which is an awesome price too.

    some early photos (colours/contrast retouchted in ps), i still need to learn a lot about the settings and stuff. its my first dslr:

    [Blocked Image: http://www.sa74n-design.de/photos/goe-session/DSC_0042.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://www.sa74n-design.de/photos/goe-session/DSC_0084_2.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://www.sa74n-design.de/photos/goe-session/DSC_0046.jpg]

    (a bit shaky )

    [Blocked Image: http://www.sa74n-design.de/photos/goe-session/DSC_0040.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://www.sa74n-design.de/photos/outinthenature/DSC_0059.jpg]

    The last picture is awesome but - zomg - lacks an ISO-Value?

    For the first picture: I really like it but using ISO100 (or lower if possible) and a longer shuttertime would have given it more imho - longer shuttertime caused by iso values often allow a higher color-range, especally then shooting in RAW. - that's my next question - did you do them in RAW or JPEG?

    anyways: I really like all the fotos, the "penner-foto" especally looks very well.

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