November 12, 2006 in Photography by Mark Levison

D80_2 Want to to find the best reviews of the D80 and skip rest? This post is place to start. By now I’ve found over twenty reviews of the D80 and mostly they just repeat themselves. This post is your guide to the reviews.

The Best:

  • As usual Phil Askey publishes a 30 page report at dpreview. At 30 pages this review packs in all the detail. Phil includes comparisons to the Canon EOS400D and the Sony A100.
  • Dave Etchells at Imaging Resource has an equally large review.

  • Thom Hogan’s (original commentary on the specs) has been supplemented by a full review.  BTW he points out the D80 is really just the body of a D50 combined with parts from the D200. Thom has especially good (and succinct discussions around exposure and noise). Finally he’s also writing the definitive guide to the D80 – assuming its anything like his his previous guides it will weigh in at about 400+ pages and will explain everything that Nikon left out of the manual. If you’re only going to read one review – make it this one.
  • As always Ken Rockwell publishes a short review including comparisons with the D200, D50/D70. Finally he also has a DSLR Noise Comparison page (compares the D80, D70, D200, Canon 20D, 30D and oddly the SD700).

Good Reviews:

  • Camera Labs has a longer comparison of the D80 vs Canon 400D and Sony A100. This review is focused on the comparison and adds some details that Phil Askey missed
  • Photograpy Blog has another solid review – it doesn’t add anything that you haven’t already read. BTW the reviewer makes a small mistake and says that the D80 is based on the D70 body – actually is based on the D50.
  • Megapixel.Net (never heard of them before researching this post) offer another megareview. However there’s nothing amazing to distinguish it from Imaging Resource or DPReview.
  • DcView has a short side by side comparison with the Canon Rebel XTi. Cute idea – but it adds little to Phil Askey’s efforts here.
  • Local Viewfinder has a quick review on their use of the camera. Written on Sept 14th it can’t have been written long after this camera was released.
  • DC Resource – one very long page.
  • Steve’s Digicam’s – over the years many of their reviews have sounded like cheer leading for the manufactures. It makes it hard to like even a fair review like this one.
  • Ephotozine – good review
  • Nikonians – a good user review

The Rest:

  • PopPhoto – the less said the better.
  • PC Mag – computer magazines reviewing camera’s? Next we will have camera magazines reviewing laptops :-) .
  • Hardware zone – ditto
  • CNet – is there anything that these guys give a bad review to?

Updates: Nov 24, 2006 – add new reviews from Thom Hogan and Photography Blog