D80 vs. 40D, help?

fallen_mathi

fallen_mathi

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Hello,

So looking for a resonable comparison between these two,

Can someone point me in the right direction? or tell me about there experiances of ether camera?,

I have seen the 40d for around 500 and the d80 for a little less, with no loyalty to ether company, why should i choose one over the other?

Thanks:)
Nathan
 
Try them both. One might just 'feel' right in your hands.

Next step, if they are both equally good, have a look at which lens system you might want to follow.

If they are also equally good for your purposes, pick Canon! ;)

(Also this might be of interest.)
 
1. Do you have any friend(s) / family who use either of the two? If so, you may want to give their a feel and run to see if it "fits" you.

2. If you do have someone close to you who uses one of these two brands, then you may want to go with that brand. I figure this is your first DSLR (otherwise you would have, in most likelyhood, decided on which brand from your first model), as such you may be able to pick-up a lot of pointers and tips from an existing user near you.

3. In the event that you don't have anyone near you using a DSLR, then rest assured that which ever brand you go with you will get a sure winner. This is the same old debate that younget kids have had .. which is better? BMW or Mercedes, and the list goes on.

4. It all comes down to which you prefer most, if at all you have a preference.

5. It may be worth noting that Canon does seem to have a larger range of lenses than Nikon and a different approach to their lens marketing (e.g. Canon have the 70-200 f2.8 and another with the same focal lenths but at f4 making it a lot more affordable).

6. If you can't decide on which way to go, it may be worth renting out each one of the two for a weekend and give them a test-drive. Of course, if you have good relationship with your local camera store, you may be able to get a test-drive for a day or so for free!
 
Thanks for the advice all,

My sister curently owns a canon 400d, and i have experiance using that, however it always felt, slightly small and similar to the bridge camera i curently own,

I have tried both of these cameras out at my local LCE store, and to be honest, compared to my bridge camera they both felt great, so thats why im stuck, no matter how long i felt around and looked, (and belive me, i tried them untill they told me to stop:D) i still couldnt decide, they both felt pretty similar, and would both suit my needs,

So my question is, is there any reason that i should spend an extra 50 pounds to get the 40d?, feeling of the cameras aside,

Thanks for help so far,:)
Nathan
 
fallen_mathi said:
Hello,

So looking for a resonable comparison between these two,

Can someone point me in the right direction? or tell me about there experiances of ether camera?,

I have seen the 40d for around 500 and the d80 for a little less, with no loyalty to ether company, why should i choose one over the other?

Thanks:)
Nathan
Click to expand...
I don't know about the Nikon, but I've got a 40D and it's the best camera I've ever had and I really can't think of anything else I'd want a camera to do. It's fantastic. Get one is what I'd say.
 
Its a difficult one to advise on mate. I use Nikon simply because I use to use it when I shot film many years ago.If I said go for the D80, well it would cause another canon v nikon internet drama. I`ve never used Canaon, so can`t comment.

Basically you`ll have to grab your goolies and make the choice yourself.......:D

Don`t forget there are other makes out there, Canon and Nikon are not the only DSLR`s on the market.

Sorry to be of no help whatsoever......:thinking:
 
Sorry, just realised I gave a link comparing the Nikon with the 400D rather than 40D!
 
The link is for a 40D v D80, thats how I read it anyway.
Just look at the specs, this is the closest either of these two makes ever come to a direct comparison.
I think if there is only £50 in it, the 40D shades it.
The D200 is nowhere near as close, its not fair on the 40D.
 
Wail's advice is good. And in fact I would expand on his point (2) - if you have friends or family that have one brand, then you may be able to borrow leenses from them. (Seeing as how I run a lens hire shop, I guess it's not really in my interest to say that - but it's true nonetheless.)

Wail's point about the range of lenses is also true, in my opinion. Canon do seem to give you more options in the expensive-but-not-stupidly-expensive range. For example there's a thread here where a lady is looking to get into bird photography, and Canon offers a much better range of options than Nikon. Some of Nikon's lenses are absolutely amazing, to be sure - Canon has nothing to compare with the Nikon 14-24 or the 200-400 VR - but they just don't seem to have the same breadth.
 
To give a bit of input as to why I went with Nikon over any of the other DSLR makes ... before digital I was 100% dedicated to Minolta, but since they went out of the SLR market that left me with one of the two big players (Nikon or Canon).

Now, at the time I was living in Saudi Arabia and the dealer with whom I had dealt with for over 30 years stocks a good variety of Nikon, and hence my mind was set .. Nikon all the way! How scientific is that?! Silly? May be, but who's to say which is better?

In hind-sight, I am happy with my choice and have since brought my whole family onto Nikon just for the "buying power" that I can enforce with Nikon (I'm talking about a lot of D40s, D70s, D80s, D200s and a few D2Xs .. not to mention the odd P&S .. along the past 4 years).

So, in the end, just go with what appeals to you .. technologically both brands are superb, and if one of them has the better model now that brand will be leap-frogged by the other brand and the jumping goes forever!
 
You can compare anything with anything if you want, the D200 is 2 years older than the 40D, in camera technology that is a life time.
The D200 is almost discontinued, therefore the models available are d80 and d300, wanna go against D300 ?, I dont think so, its almost twice the price for a start and not fair on the 40D, the bar has been raised.
I think the problem with the 40d is....they didn't make it good enough to be a clear winner, even with 2 years of development advantage.
If you are to compare the 40D with a 2 year old nearly discontinued Nikon, thats testament to the quality of the D200, m'thinks.
Manufacturers place their products carefully, sort of inbetween each other, if the competed directly, it would be a price war nobody could win.
I think the 40D was placed to cover D80 sales and maybe another manufacturer, maybe Pentax's K10D, not an old D200.
 
id always go for the canons over the cheaper nikons due to where i shoot and the need for a high iso at times.

Nikon up until the d3 and d3x really have produced very noisy images at high iso.
 
It's swings and roundabouts - neither camera will give you better pictures - that's YOUR job!!!

Whatever body you buy, the real investment is in the lenses...
 
You are going to get all the Canon guys saying "yeh the 40D is fantastic" and all the Nikon guys saying "yeh the D80 is fantastic".

You are unlikely to get an opinion from someone who has both. If the specs match what you want, follow the previous advice and see 'how they feel' to you - that's how I ended up with the missus :naughty:.

Let us know what you decide upon.
.
 
just to say, thanks to all of you who gave advice, i ended up going to try both cameras for a second time (the first i went without knowing much about how to use a dslr, so was over whelmed by both) but this time, knowing rufly how to work both cameras, i tried and tested, and the 40d came out tops, couldnt find anything bad about the d80, or even the d300, but for the feel of the camera, the 40d just felt slightly more me,

thanks for all your help:)
nathan:)
 
fallen_mathi said:
couldnt find anything bad about the d80, or even the d300, but for the feel of the camera, the 40d just felt slightly more me
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There you go. They're all good cameras, and if one feels more "you" than the other, it's the right choice whichever one it is.
 
Well done on your choice, that is an excellent camera by all measures. Even though I'm purely a Nikon person, by pure chance, you've gone about this the right way ....

... now, go out a lot, shoot a lot more and show us what you're seeing.
 
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