I’m new to SLR photography, yet some of the photos I have been able to capture on “assisted” mode have been wonderful. This is an amazing camera.

The main reason I went with the 30D over the RebelXT is because of the better build quality. The camera is very solid and the shutter has been built to last 100,000 clicks.

The battery life is AMAZING. Coming from a wimpy Sony Cybershot (where battery life was 70 minutes with a lithium-ion), I’m blown away. I’ve taken hundreds of pictures, looked at all of them on the LCD monitor, and the battery still barely takes a hit. Canon includes a lithium ion battery along with a charger, which also blew me away (considering I had to special order $150 worth of parts from Sony for a battery, charging pack and cable).

NOTE: I’d recommend buying the BODY ONLY and put the extra $150+ towards a better lense. The kit lens is decent, but I regret that I didnt buy a better lense with it.

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I’ve owned a Nikon D80 for over two months and made 1200+ shots with the D80 so far. My experience with the image performance of the D80 reveals that: Pros of this camera (most important in my opinions):

1. Nearly instant start up.
2. 10.2 MP sensor offering better possibilities when it comes to cropping
3. Prism viewfinder with grids
4. Excellent usability
5. Most default settings are very reliable
6. Bright LCD monitor on the back
7. It is small and light enough so that the middle finger of my right hand don’t hurt after 200 shots in an afternoon without a tripod. Highly recommended to anyone has small hands like mine.

and on and on…

Cons:

1. Metering. The D80 has a very strong tendency of over exposing and its over exposing behaviour is not consistent. I was constantly turning the exposure compensation up and down between 0 EV and -2 (!!!) EV when doing landscape or street shots. On D80 it is very easy to adjust the compensation but still you need at least 10 seconds to press the +/- button, test shoot, looking at the monitor, if not right, execute the action loop again….it has been very frustrating to me sometimes. During a time-critical shooting like a sudden event on the street, the need of twiddling the exposure compensation all the time might make you miss the most interesting moment. And since the memory capacity is always limited no matter how high it is, doing bracketing or shooting raw all the time is not really practical. I really really really wish Nikon could fix this problem in the next version of the firmware for D80.

2. The diffraction is easily visible when the aperture is smaller than f/13. However for “tact sharp” landscape shoots, f/22+ is usually desirable.

These are the only two things which have been bothered me. I would like to give it a 4.5 star, rounded to 5.

When I am on the run, I use the automatic/default setting a lot. The most impressive automatic setting on the D80 is “night scene (landscape)” mode. The over exposure in daytime might be a failure of D80, but it turned out such a nice feature at night. All my night shots using the automatic night mode look brilliant and vivid. D80 not only outperforms other DSLRs on the automatic night scene (landscape) mode, but also beats my manual settings most of the time when shooting city lights.

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I’ve owned a Nikon D80 for over two months and made 1200+ shots with the D80 so far. My experience with the image performance of the D80 reveals that: Pros of this camera (most important in my opinions):

1. Nearly instant start up.
2. 10.2 MP sensor offering better possibilities when it comes to cropping
3. Prism viewfinder with grids
4. Excellent usability
5. Most default settings are very reliable
6. Bright LCD monitor on the back
7. It is small and light enough so that the middle finger of my right hand don’t hurt after 200 shots in an afternoon without a tripod. Highly recommended to anyone has small hands like mine.

and on and on…

Cons:

1. Metering. The D80 has a very strong tendency of over exposing and its over exposing behaviour is not consistent. I was constantly turning the exposure compensation up and down between 0 EV and -2 (!!!) EV when doing landscape or street shots. On D80 it is very easy to adjust the compensation but still you need at least 10 seconds to press the +/- button, test shoot, looking at the monitor, if not right, execute the action loop again….it has been very frustrating to me sometimes. During a time-critical shooting like a sudden event on the street, the need of twiddling the exposure compensation all the time might make you miss the most interesting moment. And since the memory capacity is always limited no matter how high it is, doing bracketing or shooting raw all the time is not really practical. I really really really wish Nikon could fix this problem in the next version of the firmware for D80.

2. The diffraction is easily visible when the aperture is smaller than f/13. However for “tact sharp” landscape shoots, f/22+ is usually desirable.

These are the only two things which have been bothered me. I would like to give it a 4.5 star, rounded to 5.

When I am on the run, I use the automatic/default setting a lot. The most impressive automatic setting on the D80 is “night scene (landscape)” mode. The over exposure in daytime might be a failure of D80, but it turned out such a nice feature at night. All my night shots using the automatic night mode look brilliant and vivid. D80 not only outperforms other DSLRs on the automatic night scene (landscape) mode, but also beats my manual settings most of the time when shooting city lights.

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Yeahhh! my first DSLR,

Got this one to take better pictures than my regular point a shoot Sony Camera, let me say the picture quality is awesome. just crisp and very nice if you set it right.

Pretty fast turn on to shoot time. built in touch up utility, ability to save RAW pictures to edit later with Pro Software.

The lens with the VR function does help as i have taken pictures with it on/off.

Feels very sturdy and very expensive, i got mine at a great deal was going to go with the D40 and may be get extra lenses but settled on the Gold Edition D60. If you have the $$$ you can get the D60 but if you want more bangs for the bucks go with the cheaper D40 and use the left over money to get a spare lens or whatever.

Overall, i am very happy with it, picture transfer is pretty slow when use the Camera direct to PC via USB, if you have a memory card reader use it.
Sorry Guys, not a technical person like the other pro shooters. so that’s my review….

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I’ve had my 580 for about 3 months now, having captured thousands of images in a variety of lighting and other situations. I shoot mostly macro,landscape and general nature photography. This camera has been endowed with virtually every feature that a professional and most certainly non-professional would need. There are a number of ‘auto’ modes that are easily employed to ‘figure out for you’ the proper aperture, shutter speed, flash, etc., to capture images from a variety of shooting situations. Macro-photography, when done correctly, must make use of a depth of field preview. I shot professionally many years ago with Minolta XKs and I am very happy to see that a lot of the ideas, as well as Rokkor lenses, were brought up to date but retained. This camera retains the features of that great XK professional body and adds on to it with incredible technology. Put it this way, the sensor that Sony has built for this camera is purchased by Nikon and Canon (at a minimum), so software is the only variable, obviously not including lenses. That said, Sony has a lot of top Zeiss lenses, specifically made for their cameras and nobody but Leica (Leitz) can argue top quality there.

I have cranked up the iso to the roof to look at noise issues and have found them so minimal as to not justify those talking negatively about it. The LCD screen is large, clear, sharp and downright creepy for someone who has always used an eye level viewfinder. It is really ‘real-time’, with absolutely no shaking or anything. It has allowed me to advance in my own technique when it comes to macro-photography. Regardless of where you find your interests, this camera is excellent and I am left without regret.

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I’ve had my 580 for about 3 months now, having captured thousands of images in a variety of lighting and other situations. I shoot mostly macro,landscape and general nature photography. This camera has been endowed with virtually every feature that a professional and most certainly non-professional would need. There are a number of ‘auto’ modes that are easily employed to ‘figure out for you’ the proper aperture, shutter speed, flash, etc., to capture images from a variety of shooting situations. Macro-photography, when done correctly, must make use of a depth of field preview. I shot professionally many years ago with Minolta XKs and I am very happy to see that a lot of the ideas, as well as Rokkor lenses, were brought up to date but retained. This camera retains the features of that great XK professional body and adds on to it with incredible technology. Put it this way, the sensor that Sony has built for this camera is purchased by Nikon and Canon (at a minimum), so software is the only variable, obviously not including lenses. That said, Sony has a lot of top Zeiss lenses, specifically made for their cameras and nobody but Leica (Leitz) can argue top quality there.

I have cranked up the iso to the roof to look at noise issues and have found them so minimal as to not justify those talking negatively about it. The LCD screen is large, clear, sharp and downright creepy for someone who has always used an eye level viewfinder. It is really ‘real-time’, with absolutely no shaking or anything. It has allowed me to advance in my own technique when it comes to macro-photography. Regardless of where you find your interests, this camera is excellent and I am left without regret.

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I’ve had my 580 for about 3 months now, having captured thousands of images in a variety of lighting and other situations. I shoot mostly macro,landscape and general nature photography. This camera has been endowed with virtually every feature that a professional and most certainly non-professional would need. There are a number of ‘auto’ modes that are easily employed to ‘figure out for you’ the proper aperture, shutter speed, flash, etc., to capture images from a variety of shooting situations. Macro-photography, when done correctly, must make use of a depth of field preview. I shot professionally many years ago with Minolta XKs and I am very happy to see that a lot of the ideas, as well as Rokkor lenses, were brought up to date but retained. This camera retains the features of that great XK professional body and adds on to it with incredible technology. Put it this way, the sensor that Sony has built for this camera is purchased by Nikon and Canon (at a minimum), so software is the only variable, obviously not including lenses. That said, Sony has a lot of top Zeiss lenses, specifically made for their cameras and nobody but Leica (Leitz) can argue top quality there.

I have cranked up the iso to the roof to look at noise issues and have found them so minimal as to not justify those talking negatively about it. The LCD screen is large, clear, sharp and downright creepy for someone who has always used an eye level viewfinder. It is really ‘real-time’, with absolutely no shaking or anything. It has allowed me to advance in my own technique when it comes to macro-photography. Regardless of where you find your interests, this camera is excellent and I am left without regret.

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I am not going to break down this camera with the detail that has already been given. I have used other DSLRs and can say that this is a great camera for the money. The pictures are very crisp and clear especially if you use proper techniques (photography basics) Adjusting the settings took a little practice and a full battery to learn, but once you get the hang of it, it isn’t overly complicated (read the manual before poking buttons). Although I seldom use the Auto setting on DSLR’s I use it to guage the overall quality of the camera based on how well the images come out. The images I took with the Auto setting were clear and did not require much touch up. (impressive for a camera at this price level). With proper lenses you can take high quality images that can rival much higher cost point cameras. Even with the stock lens that ships with this camera, you can get a great quality image. For ameteurs, hobbiests, and people looking to make the jump from point and shoot cameras, I would highly recommend Olympus E series cameras. They are cost effective, and of a great durable quality. I would recommend looking into getting a couple of different types of lenses to give you more range and options. I must caveat this by saying if you are just going to be taking pictures recreationally the lens it comes with will more than suffice. I would also invest in a couple of backup batteries and a couple of memory cards so you don’t have to stop what you are doing (theme parks, beach, remote shoots…)
All in all I would say that you are getting a great camera for buck. I have not used the Canon or Pentax in the same price range so I can’t compare them for you, but if you are reading this, you are obviously doing the research. From what I have seen, each of these brands has strengths and weaknesses. Happy hunting.

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I purchased my 5D about 3 weeks ago and I am having a great time with it. I had it up in running in no time and it is quite easy to use with very intuitve buttons/switches. The 2.5 inch screen is a big plus and is pretty vivid and clear even in the daylight. I was fortunate in that all of my old Maxxum (35mm)compatible lenses (Sigma)work just fine. If you have old Maxxum compatible lenses I suggest that you contact the lens manufacturer to see if they will work with the 5D but if they will not, don’t let that stop you from buying this camera. Nonetheless, I did buy the Konica Minolta 28-75 F2.8 lens with the 5D body which, in my opinion, is good all around lens for the camera. While the battery has a very long life, I would recommend getting a second one so that you never run out of juice. I would also recommend a minimum of a 1 GB compact flash card if you are planning to shoot at 6 mega-pixels. I highly recommed this camera as the pictures will speak for themselves.

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I purchased my 5D about 3 weeks ago and I am having a great time with it. I had it up in running in no time and it is quite easy to use with very intuitve buttons/switches. The 2.5 inch screen is a big plus and is pretty vivid and clear even in the daylight. I was fortunate in that all of my old Maxxum (35mm)compatible lenses (Sigma)work just fine. If you have old Maxxum compatible lenses I suggest that you contact the lens manufacturer to see if they will work with the 5D but if they will not, don’t let that stop you from buying this camera. Nonetheless, I did buy the Konica Minolta 28-75 F2.8 lens with the 5D body which, in my opinion, is good all around lens for the camera. While the battery has a very long life, I would recommend getting a second one so that you never run out of juice. I would also recommend a minimum of a 1 GB compact flash card if you are planning to shoot at 6 mega-pixels. I highly recommed this camera as the pictures will speak for themselves.

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