Tell Me What You Think Of This Guys/Gals

[bp4life71]

As alot of you know, I am looking to buy a Nikon D60. I came across this ad, and the gentlemen has agreed to meet me in person to sell me the following camera:

NIKON D80

I have a Nikon D80 Body which is in excellent condition.
- Comes with battery, charger and Nikon Digital Field Guide (by David Busch).
- Lens - Nikon 24 - 120 mm 3.5-5.6 f Very sharp and quick focus
- Sd Card - 512

What do you guys think of this camera and lense setup (obviously used-he states 2 years) for $575.00?

Would this be a better alternative than the Nikon D60?

Let me know what you think, We are to meet Tuesday for the transaction.

 

[bp4life71]

Nobody with thoughts on this?

 

[Garbz]

Short answer: No.

It's an ok deal, the card is crap so it's about what you'd expect to pay anywhere else, but the reality is that bigger number does not make it better. The D80 is OLD, the D60 is relatively new. The lens... 24-120? 24mm is not a very wide angle and may frustrate you quickly on a D80. Most kit lenses the wide side is around the 18mm mark.

There are some caveats. The D80 has an autofocus motor, thus allowing you to autofocus with lenses that are not marked (AF-S), read this as it lets you use a wider variety of lenses and opens you up to a very large second hand market.

If you're only going to buy one camera and one lens, than this is not a good choice for you. But if you're looking into cheaply getting into the SLR arena with the goal of expanding your lens collection and taking advantage of cost savings in the second hand market (105mm f/2.8 macro, or the 80-200 f/2.8 are two great low cost excellent quality examples), then the D80 pack may be a good choice.

Oh I'm sure lots of us have opinions on this too, just not between 2am and 5am. Be patient

 

[kundalini]

Yes, the D80 is a few years old, but as an owner of one, I can testify that given using it within its comfort zone, it can produce some very nice images. The comfort zone is up to ISO400 and decent up to ISO800, but beyond that forget it for quality. Pair it with good glass and you can extend its useage. It does shoot a little hot, so for outdoor shooting, I usually keep the EV Comp at -0.7EV. IMHO, one.... no make that two advantages that the D80 has over the D60 is 1) the Commander mode for out-of-the-box wireless flash control and 2) more lens choice that AF and meter. Almost all the good glass that I have was purchased while I had only the D80. See here.

The 24-120mm doesn't get rave reviews from photozone.de and seems an odd range of focal lengths (totally agree with Garbz).

The 512 card is a nothing. Shooting RAW, you need at least a 2GB card.

The Busch book is a throw away IMO.

At under $500 I'd say it's a buy it, sell the lens for an upgrade........ otherwise find another deal.

 

[KmH]

How many shutter clicks on the D80? It's recorded in the EXIF data.

Shutter life database.

 

[Garbz]

Disclaimer: As always watch the above statistics. People who's shutter die early are much more likely to complain and report it, while people who's shutter are still alive give no meaningful example of when it will die.

The manufacturers puts their cameras under stress tests. Mean time to failure on the D80 is 50000 clicks.