aquaman885's Full Review: Nikon N80 QD Body Only 35mm Film Camera
I wholly recommend this camera. I have owned the N80 for 8 months now and have taken color negative, color reversal( slide film), and black and white photos with it. Not only did I buy one I bought two! Before I dive into the features of this particular camera let's touch on the Nikon brand. Nikon has been well known for many, many years for it's quality and dependability. I own a Nikon EM (which is an early 80's model). It still works perfectly and takes beautifully clear photos. Nikon also has the added benefit that the lenses I own for my 20-year-old EM model will fit and work with the N80 (without auto focus and auto-aperture, they must be used in the N80's manual mode), but this backward compatibility is a big plus.
Now on to the fantastic Nikon N80. It has three focus settings, manual, continuous servo, and single servo. Manual allows you to, as the name implies, focus manually, single servo with close subject priority which will not allow you to snap the photo until the subject is in focus, and continuous servo with focus tracking which keeps your moving subject in focus and allows you to snap photos even if the subject is not in complete focus. The N80 has five auto focus areas, which also serve as the auto metering areas.
The five auto focus areas are great when composing the look of your shots using the rule of thirds. They allow you to compose the shot in your viewfinder and focus on it without having to center your subject in the viewfinder, lock auto focus, and then recompose the shot. The N80 has three metering modes, 3d matrix metering, center weighted metering, and spot metering. 3d matrix takes the entire frame into consideration when metering for proper exposure, center weighted which takes into consideration only the center circle area which allows you to focus attention on the subject through metering, and spot metering which allows you to choose from any of the five auto focus areas to meter on a specific spot, again hence the name.
The N80 has an auto-bracketing feature that allows you to shoot two or three consecutive pictures in up to 2 full steps of deviation. It has four flash modes, standard TLL, red eye reduction, slow sync for more natural looking light, and rear sync with the built in pop up speed light or a Nikon SB-27 or SB-28 speed light. The N80 has auto focus and auto exposure locking capabilities and 18 custom command settings including on demand grid lines which help you to line up you shots with say a horizon or building and also assist you in following the rule of thirds.
The N80 also gives you four modes to shot in. Program mode which does everything for you, which is great for the novice, Shutter speed priority mode, which allows you to set the shutter speed and then the camera will set the appropriate aperture, Aperture priority mode, which allows you to select the aperture you wish to shot at giving you wonderful control over depth of field while the camera selects the appropriate shutter speed, and Manual mode which gives you complete control over the cameras settings. The N80 also provides you with a usually overlooked depth of field preview button which allows you to see the depth of field (area of the frame that will be in reasonably sharp focus) before you snap the shutter.
The camera is a little on the light side because of it’s composite construction, lightness having it’s own pros and cons, but is very sturdy. I recommend the optional MB-16 battery pack attachment, which allows you to use AA batteries (regular or NiCad), but more importantly gives you a larger grip surface. Well, I have typed on long enough. This camera has many fabulous features, which can be a little overwhelming for the beginner, which is why I will also suggest getting the instructional video available from Nikon on the N80 it cleared up some things even for me. Beyond all that the camera is still extremely easy to use, but I suggest this so that you can take advantage of all of the N80’s features and get the most out of your photography.
One quick note to be conscious of when purchasing an N80. The US version and International or “Grey market” version appear to be exactly the same (I own both types), the main difference is that the international version can not be repaired under warranty in the United States, so my suggestion is spend the extra $’s and get the US version. We all know how important a warranty can be. If you have any other questions please feel free to e-mail me. Happy shooting!
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2008 Shopping.com, Inc.