Of course, this was the big day that
Nikon unleashed the full details of their D80 Digital SLR upon the world, and every blog and their mother had to have something to say about it, so why should I be any different? Really, the D80 does deserve the attention it's getting - it seems to be a perfect blend of high-end features passed down from the D200 and D2X/H family, and user-friendly elements from the D50 and Coolpix cameras. Here's the bullet points:
- 10.2 megapixel Nikon DX CCD sensor
- New Nikon image-processing engine (Whites whiter! Color-safe!)
- 3D Color Matrix Metering with variable-size center-weighted and spot metering (which can be coupled to the...)
- 11-point AF system
- Pictmotion slideshow allows for various fades between images and music to be added (as seen on the Coolpix S6)
- In-Camera Retouch Menu includes D-Lighting (from the Coolpix cameras), Red-Eye Correction, and Color Filter effects
- Fuel Gauge provides more accurate battery life information
- Accepts SD cards (SDHC compliant)
All this for an expected price tag just short of $1000 when they hit the stores sometime in early September.
Nikon also announced two new lenses today. The first is the 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor. For those not familiar with Nikon's own special brand of gobbledy-gook, that's means it's near the 35mm equivalent of a 28-200mm focal length, a relatively decent aperture range, Extra-Low Dispersion glass (and here you thought ED meant erectile disfunction), Internal Focusing, Silent Wave focusing motor, and a smaller image circle exclusively for the Nikon DX sensors in their digital SLRs.
Perhaps even more appealing is their 70-300 f/4.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR Zoom Nikkor. All the same abbreviations apply, with the addition of Vibration Reduction to minimize the effects of camera shake. Expect to plop down about $400 and $560 respectively.
