The Nikon D80 offers full manual control of ISO, exposure, focus, white balance and recording parameters. The manual controls are straightforward and simple to access, though some of them are slower to use than the corresponding controls on the Nikon D200.
The Nikon D80 has an 11-point auto focus system – the same one that’s in the Nikon D200. The Multi-CAM 1000 has a single cross focus sensor in the middle of the frame. The other 10 are conventional. Cross sensors are equally sensitive to horizontal or vertical detail, while conventional ones have a single orientation.
In practice, the D80 focuses quickly and surely in good light, and maintains very good performance in low light as well. The center point stands up best in dim, flat lighting. The 11 points are spread well across the frame, limiting the need to focus and recompose.
With a bright screen and 0.94x magnification, the Nikon D80 is easier to focus manually than its close competition. Its magnification is greater than other cameras, so the image appears larger in its viewfinder. Its pentaprism passes light efficiently, and the focusing screen has a snap to it – the image seems to pop into focus suddenly, rather than drifting.
Exposure (9.25)
The Nikon D80 offers full manual, aperture-priority, shutter-priority and program exposure modes, in addition to its full-auto settings. It offers an unusually wide exposure compensation range of plus or minus 5 EV in either 1/2 or 1/3 EV increments. In aperture-priority and program modes, the ISO Auto setting can be set to vary the ISO to keep the shutter speed above a user-defined threshold. The D80 offers program shift, allowing the user to change the aperture-shutter speed combination without changing the exposure value. This is a full range of options. Except for the odd placement of the exposure compensation button on the left side of the lens mount, the options are convenient to use.
Metering (8.0)
The D80 has Nikon’s 3D color matrix metering II system, which uses a 420-segment RGB sensor to take readings. It offers spot, center-weighted and matrix modes. Spot takes a reading on the active auto focus sensor site. Center-weighted takes a single reading that incorporates the whole frame, but emphasizes the center 6, 8 or 10mm of the frame. Matrix metering takes a large number of separate readings, and uses an algorithm to integrate the readings into an exposure setting. It’s supposed to recognize and compensate for backlighting, dark backgrounds and other tough lighting situations, but many of our tests fooled it. Careful users will get better results with the spot meter.
White Balance (7.75)
The Nikon D80 has 6 white balance presets, an auto mode, direct Kelvin input, and custom white balance. The 6 presets are Incandescent, Fluorescent, Direct Sun, Flash, Cloudy and Shade. Of these, Incandescent leaves the subject a little warm, which is flattering; Flash and Direct Sun are accurate; Fluorescent depends entirely on the type and age of tube; and both Cloudy and Shade are flattering, but more neutral than Incandescent. Nikon brags about its Auto white balance feature, but we found it less accurate than the presets – incandescent is too warm, daylight and flash are too cool and fluorescent is purple under the tubes we have. The D80 can create custom settings two ways – it can pick up a white balance reading from an existing shot, or it can measure one by shooting a gray or white object. We had good results measuring from a white card. The D80’s fine-tune option works with Auto or the presets, but not with Kelvin (it would be redundant) or with custom settings.
ISO (8.0)
The Nikon D80 offers ISOs in 1/3 EV steps from 100 to 1600, then three more 1/3 EV steps that it refuses to call 2000, 2500 and 3200. They are called H.03, H.07 and H.1, and are really noisy, but they’ll be useful to someone at some point. The D80 sets ISO automatically in its full auto mode and with custom presets. Using a custom menu function, the user can set the D80 to vary ISO in program and priority modes. That custom function doesn’t kick in unless the D80 can’t get a good exposure at the maximum allowable shutter speed; it doesn’t work if the ISO is set above 1600, and it won’t push the ISO over 1600.
Shutter Speed (7.75)
With shutter speeds from 30 seconds to 1/4000, plus bulb, the Nikon D80 covers the practical range of exposure for a general-purpose camera. Its maximum flash sync speed of 1/200 is a limitation, though – even with direct flash, 1/250 or even 1/500 would make fill flash easier in daylight.
Aperture (0.0)
The Nikon D80 is sold body-only or with a choice of kit lenses. The D80 controls aperture electronically, and is compatible with CPU lenses with or without aperture rings. It will also shoot manually with many non-CPU lenses, starting with the AI-series. The light meter does not function with non-CPU optics.
The 18-135mm f/3.5-4.5 kit lens is a half-stop brighter than many kit lenses, but a maximum aperture of f/4.5 at telephoto does not make it an all-around lens. It’s simply not fast enough for available light shooting.
