D40 up to D80

[D40]

Well, I have the D40 (only a few months old) and love it but am wandering if I should jump to the D80 while I can still get a good price for my D40. The biggest things are the AF and the Megapixles. I may do Weddings and know that the D40 will not be enough. I am not a pro and will not be a major photographer anytime soon but I need something that will last me a long time and that I can use for paid work. Any advise on this? Thanks


My other option I was looking at is getting the Nikon 18-200mm AF-S lens and the SB-800 for an all around use set up??

 

[dinodan]

The jump from 6 to 10 megapixels is not a big deal. You can make perfectly acceptable wedding photos with a 6MP camera.

As far as the autofocus is concerned, it depends on how much you want to be able to tap into the vast number of available D series (and equivalent) lenses and use them in the AF mode.

 

[Mike_E]

If you are going to do weddings, what is your second body?

As to the lens I'd suggest an f2.8 80-200mm. It's a huge hairy thing but you can use it professionally should the need arise.

mike

 

[D40]

Well the Prime lenses are the ones I was thinking about that only have AF. I will look at that 80-200mm but if it is anything like the 70-200mm that it is $$

Well I can go with getting the new lens and SB-800 and then in the future I can upgrade and use the D40 as my second? Right now I feel very limited with the 18-55mm lens and want a good quallity zoom lens for when I am out and about taking photos. The 55-200mm lens is to cheap in my opinion and I wanted something better made. I really can't afford the 70-200mm lens or that would be the way to go. The Prime lenses are going to be fairly cheap and will be very fast but they have AF not AF-S. As far as the flash goes, I feel the need for an external flash (SB-800) to use the bouncing light to my advantage. Just some thoughts?

 

[brett304]

I'm in the same boat as you are pretty much, but I agree with extending the rest of your kit... Get good lenses and possibly a flash... I hear that the only difference between the 800 and the 600 is that the 800 has features that only come into play when you have more than one flash synched... Thus buying the 600 first then the 800 once you decide to later (if, etc..) This puts you a little ahead on amassing the rest of your kit... I'm also expanding my collection of lenses and learning using the D40... Spend your money buying lenses that will last you 20 years instead of another camera that should be upgraded in 5... I'm waiting for that awesome new line of nikon dslrs that are coming out in 2010... They're going to be fantastic...

 

[D40]

The SB-800 is also more powerfull and has the 5th battery option for for shots and faster recycling speeds That is what I hear but if I am wrong someong please correct me?

 

[D80MAN]

As far as lenses go I have the 18-55 and 18-135 for the d80 and I don't know if it was just me but i could see a noticable difference in speed of focus. plus i liked the placement of the focus ring on the 135 for ease of manual focus.

 

[Garbz]

Not to mention the inbuilt flashcard and the head which can tip around more freely. The SB-800's 5th battery is a godsend at weddings sometimes. You have no idea what you're missing till you try bounce lighting at 1/2 power and miss an all important shot because you didn't wait 3 seconds for the thing to recharge.

Quality wise the D40 and D80 will be very similar. The added advantage is really the AF motor as already mentioned, but as Mike_E said. Forget weddings unless you have multiple bodies / lenses for backup. A friend of mine likes to do weddings but only having a single camera invites me along incase his dies during the event. I always carry an old Nikon Film body so I have something to fall back on if my digital body dies too.

 

[kundalini]

Some of the many deciding factors for the flash was: what do I know (not much other than I'm not satisfied with the built-in). What am I going to do with it (want to make better photographs). What is my budget (sweet FA). Which one will do the trick right now (that's the ***** isn't it).

At the end of the day, my decision came down to the fact that I could get the SB-600 to do off-camera flash out of the box, which was as important factor for me. I figured that I could get a SB-800 later as a master and still utilize the SB-600 as a slave. How could I go wrong? Economics 101. You have to decide what's best for you and what you're doing it for.

BTW, I went with B&H for the 600. No worries.

 

[D40]

Thanks, I also like the focus ring on the more expensive lenses a lot better! As to the flash the 600 says it recycles faster than the 800, the 600 is like 2.5 seconds and the 800 is like 4? The big thing I will be using the flash for is to bounce the light and for fill flash. Not haveing used either before I don't want to get the 600 and then find myself in a big room and feel like I need the extra power.

 

[Garbz]

You're not reading ken rockwell's website are you? He's the type to post that ill researched misinformation. The SB-600 fired at full power recharges faster than the SB-800. Yeah, but the SB-800 has a higher power. So drop it to 1/2 and suddenly it's faster than the SB-600, put the 5th battery on and it shaves another second off.

Bounce light will quickly get difficult when you step outside a house with normal ceiling heights.

 

[jstuedle]

Garbz is correct. The 600 is only faster to recycle because it throws less light. The SB-800 is a far superior flash in my opinion. (no matter what K.R. has to say)