 Viewfinder (7.25)
The D80’s viewfinder shows 95 percent of the image, at a 94 percent magnification, with a 50mm lens. Competing cameras offer less magnification, so the image is a little smaller and it’s harder to evaluate focus. The D80 keeps up with Nikon’s more advanced, more expensive D200, which offers the same specs. Both cameras use a pentaprism to get the image to the eyepiece, which is good: prism systems are usually more efficient and more durable than less-expensive mirror systems.
The D80’s viewfinder shows its 11 auto focus sensor sites on-screen, along with indicators for battery charge and black-and-white mode, along with a warning when no memory card is in the camera.
Below the image, the viewfinder shows camera settings. They include a focus indicator, flash exposure lock, exposure lock, auto ISO indicator, shutter speed, aperture, analog exposure scale, compensation for both flash and ambient exposure, flash ready light and a bracketing indicator for both exposure and white balance. There is also a numeric display which, depending on the camera mode, shows values for shots left in memory, shots left in the burst mode buffer, exposure compensation values, white balance preset recording, or connection to a PC. That’s an awful lot of information to cram into the viewfinder. We found some of the icons very small. The numbers are easy enough to read, but the differences between the flash and ambient compensation icons are hard to distinguish.
LCD Screen (8.0)
The Nikon D80’s 2.5-inch, 230,000 pixel LCD is pretty much the standard size and resolution for DSLRs this year. Though we haven’t looked at the cameras side-by-side, our notes suggest that the D80’s display is visible over a narrower range of angles than the Canon EOS 30D or 5D. Though it’s important to look at histograms to get an accurate take on exposure with any digital camera, the D80’s display is more accurate in showing color and highlight detail than its direct competitors.
The LCD is also a clear, readable display for menus. In bright outdoor light though, it’s overwhelmed. Users will have to cup their hands over it, or otherwise find some shade on bright days.
The Nikon D80 has a monochrome LCD on its top deck that shows more camera settings than the in-viewfinder display. Much of the information is visible only when the applicable control is active, though. The shutter speed numerals also show exposure compensation for flash or ambient light, ISO, white balance fine tuning or Kelvin color temperature. The display also shows f-stop, burst mode, self-timer, battery level, flash sync mode, file size and quality, white balance preset, auto focus mode, auto focus area, and metering mode. Other settings include bracketing increment, bracketing mode, bracketing progress, multiple exposure mode, beep setting and black-and-white mode.
Flash (9.0)
The small flashes on DSLRs are useful for providing fill light at moderate apertures and moderate distances. In our tests of the Nikon D80, we got an acceptable exposure at 20 feet with f/3.5 and ISO 100. The D80 offers flash sync up to 1/200th of a second with the built-in flash or other conventional flashes. The flash’s output can be manually controlled, and set to a repeating flash mode. In repeating mode, the output can be set as low as 1/128th. At that level, the flash can be set to go off as many as 35 times. The interval between flashes can also be set.
Nikon’s dedicated flashes offer an FP mode which allows shutter speeds up to 1/4000. The D80 offers conventional sync, rear-curtain sync, slow sync, and red-eye reduction in each mode. Like the D200, the D80 has a control to set the slowest automatic shutter speed available with flash when the camera is not in slow sync mode.
The built-in flash also acts as a commander module for wireless control of Nikon’s current dedicated flashes. It can control two groups of flashes as well as fire itself.
Lens and Mount (8.5)
The D80 is available in a kit with an 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 or 18-135mm f/3.5-4.5 lens. We tested the camera with the 18-55mm, which is a relatively lightweight, small-aperture lens. Like kit lenses from other manufacturers, it’s cheaply made. The focusing elements wobble slightly, and its non-optical parts are mostly plastic. The D80 accepts Nikon F-mount lenses and can mount older Nikon lenses, including manual focus lenses, back to the AI series. The camera will not meter with lenses that do not have CPUs, however.
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