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I am trying to decide which DSLR to buy. I have been using mainly compacts and a Nikon film SLR a bit.

Sorry for the long post, I am trying to anticipate the usual questions I see in
similar threads.

My budget is about $700 although I can go a bit higher if it's worth it. I plan
to do a range of different types of photography (I will definitely be needing
some form of macro lens later on) and would like a lot of control over the
camera.

I have read a lot of reviews (especially DPReview) and threads on various forums (including this one), and have gone into a few shops to have a try of the different body types.

I was thinking of the Nikon D60 for a while, but after holding one I realised
that it was too small for my hands and was painful to hold. I tried a Canon EOS 1000D and it was worse, I may have tried a 450D as well, if so it was just as bad.

I have been put off the Sony models after reading reviews that say the image
quality isn't really good enough (even though they were quite comfortable to
hold).

So the models left are:

Olympus E-510 (520 apparently not worth the price difference):

Pros: The most comfortable DSLR I have held so far, anti dust mechanism, live
view, in body stabilisation.

Cons: Image quality not great, low dynamic range, I'm not too sure about the
future of the brand and lens investments etc.

Pentax K200D:

Pros: Ok to hold, weather sealed body, in body stabilisation.

Cons: JPEG output quality not great, again I'm not too sure about the future of
the brand and lens investments etc.

Nikon D80:

Pros: is a Nikon that I can hold comfortably, I have confidence in the brands
development and lens availability, has a lot more features than lower end models. Seems cheap for what it is now the D90 has appeared.

Cons: is a bit more than my initial budget, even though I can deal with that if
need be. No anti dust or live view.

I am pretty set on getting the D80, I just want to make sure I am making a good
choice. live View would be nice for Macro stuff but I doubt it is essential. If I do get the D80 , which lens shall I get with it? - I am thinking the 18-70 at the moment.

Short answer, YES.

If you been shooting film nikon, then you must still have some lenses for Nikon? If yes, then this is just a no brainer choice to continue on the Nikon mount rather than spending more on lenses on other systems.

I only have the 50mm manual focus lens that came with this FM (it's probably worth <$50). I am more concerned about the lenses and bodies I will buy in the future than what I have now.

Out of the cameras that you have mentioned, the D80 is probably the go. At that budget, even though the D80 is a little older and a little less feature rich it is still one of the best mentioned. Dont worry too much about the LiveView, and the anti-dust is probably not going to be a deal breaker here either, you just are not sure how much dust it will accumulate (if you cant see it you wont know its there) - I stuck on my pinhole onto a mates D300 (has anti-dust, and only 5 months old) and that revealed a nice big dust bunny that does not show up on his pics.

Go the D80, maybe if you can pick it up cheaply with the 18-135 then go that, it makes a good walk around although it lacks VR. Then save for the Tamron 90mm Macro.

Cheers
Cameron

I hope I'm wrong, but I think you'll be hard pressed to find a new D80 for $700. I think they are selling for $900-$1000 (and maybe more). If your budget was a little more, I'd suggest the D90. It is around $300 more than the D80 and is worth every cent of that.

maybe think about 2nd hand D200's ? The prices are coming down....

but I think you'll be hard pressed to find a new D80 for $700

d-d photographics recently had them for $745 + shipping ($30) for the body only. They have run out unfortunately, but I was hoping this might be an indication of
the price drops for grey imports. Bricks and mortar shops seem to go no lower than $1100 - I was hoping they would drop down to less than $900 but I have no idea.
D200s seem to go for $1100 second hand and at that price for a body only, I will have none left to buy a lens!. After trying a Pentax K20 and Canon 40D in a shop,
I am now wondering whether a second hand K10 or 30D might be a better idea, or even a second hand D80. I am not sure where to find second hand cameras though
and I don't like the idea of eBay much, as I imagine there may be more reliable ways of finding second hand cameras. - any suggestions?. I was trying to look at D80 prices form HKSupplies on eBay and they don't seem to have any actual cameras on their eBay store - I thought I saw some there a few weeks ago. Does anyone know what's going on ?

JC_Denton wrote:d-d photographics recently had them for $745 + shipping ($30) for the body only. They have run out unfortunately, but I was hoping this might be an indication of the price drops for grey imports.

How long ago was that? Grey importers are very much at the mercy of the exchange rate and it has moved in a non-helpful direction of late which is why you are seeing higher prices. Oz stock is somewhat buffered from the exchange rate fluctuations or at least there's a built in delay. If the Oz stock has run out, the next batch will be a lot more expensive.

Less than a week. think they were getting rid of the last few D80s they had before they got D90s in
They don't plan to stock D80s anymore.
Photobuff is doing D80 bodies for $845, And I don't think they are grey.

JC_Denton wrote:Photobuff is doing D80 bodies for $845, And I don't think they are grey.

Yep. That is to be expected. The stock would have have come in when the exchange rate was more favourable, which was what I was trying to explain (and has been discussed in a number or threads of late. Unless the Pacific Peso (AKA Aussie dollar) goes up significantly (unlikely), you will find that Oz stock will be cheaper than grey until the Oz stock that was purchased under a more favourable exchange rate runs out and then we'll see the Oz stock get more expensive.

And $845 > $700.

I'd be contemplating a second-hand D200, for perhaps another couple of hundred bucks.

Why is a D200 such a good choice?

Is it build quality or features?

Weather/dust proofing seems like a good idea as I expect to be in different weather conditions a bit.
A D200 is really stretching my budget though, I would need to have a pretty good reason to get one.
People say the prices are dropping fast on them. How fast? will they be even cheaper in a month or two?

The Pentax K10D seems sort of interesting, sounds like it is built well, but I am concerned about body upgrade path
once I have some lenses and want to get a higher level body. I've also read a few other bad points about image processing
and not being able to map out hot pixels. I don't know if I will end up doing any (very light)commercial work, but with a D80 or D200
I think I would have the option, but from reading DPReveiw, perhaps not with a K10D/K20D.

Have a look at the reviews on this site. A D80 seems to be about $1000; a second-hand D200 (with extra battery grip) is about $1100.

However, your budget is your budget.