Nikon D80 -- longevity?

Thinking of buying a new camera...

80% of pictures will be of stuff for ebay.
20% family style stuff

1) How tough are the D80s as far as mechanical rubustnness?
2) How many pictures can I expect before it croaks?

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Ignoramus22498 wrote:
Thinking of buying a new camera...

80% of pictures will be of stuff for ebay.
20% family style stuff

1) How tough are the D80s as far as mechanical rubustnness?
2) How many pictures can I expect before it croaks?

From: http://www.photo.co.nz/
"Nikon Cameras are Like the Energiser Bunny
An event photo business in Rotorua has been using Nikon D80s to
photograph the thousands upon thousands of people that frequent the
popular Luge downhill ride. Cameras are mounted in a box, and triggered
by sensor as the luge carts pass. The cameras are thus often fired over
1,000 times per hour, quickly knocking up some serious mileage. Nikon
service reports that one of their D80s, recently in for servicing, had
done 856,570 shots, or, in film speak, 23,793 rolls of 36 exposure film.
The event photographers also have another D80 that's done over 1.2
million shots without a service!"

Set up static on a box, without lenses being changed and controls
fumbled is obviously different from "normal" duty cycle.
As they say, YMMV
Most people seem to expect 50-100k actuations before the shutter fails,
others report less.

On 2008-04-23, Rita Berkowitz wrote:
Ignoramus22498 wrote:

Thinking of buying a new camera...

80% of pictures will be of stuff for ebay.
20% family style stuff

The Nikon D3 fills this bill nicely and you should recoup your outlay well
within 90 days on eBay sales. Great camera for every aspect of photography.
I love my D3 for eBay pics.

1) How tough are the D80s as far as mechanical robustness?

The D80 will be a decent camera for you, but at a very minimum I would get
the D300. The additional price difference well makes up for the image
quality and robustness you get. You can pound 20p framing nails with it.

2) How many pictures can I expect before it croaks?

Well over 100K


Nice. I am still not very decided. What I liked about this Fuji is
ability to shoot videos as .AVI files. That was great. Nikons, do not
do that.

Am I wrong?

Maybe I should get both S700 as well as a Nikon...

i

I really value the ability of a camera to shoot videos along with
pictures. Videos are very helpful in selling stuff. Nothing more
convincing than a video of a motor running, with sound.

Since those upscale Nikons do not seem to support videos, I ended up
buying a Coolpix P5100. I want to try something other than Fuji this
time.

i

Ignoramus22498 wrote:
[]
Nice. I am still not very decided. What I liked about this Fuji is
ability to shoot videos as .AVI files. That was great. Nikons, do not
do that.

Am I wrong?

Maybe I should get both S700 as well as a Nikon...

i

Yes, having a purse-size compact camera, which can do movies as well,
makes for a handy complement to a DSLR.

David

"Rita Berkowitz" wrote
...

Ignoramus22498 wrote:

Thinking of buying a new camera...

80% of pictures will be of stuff for ebay.
20% family style stuff

The Nikon D3 fills this bill nicely and you should recoup your outlay well
within 90 days on eBay sales. Great camera for every aspect of
photography.
I love my D3 for eBay pics.
.................................................. .....
Rita


Rita, really, shame on you!!!!!!!!!!

Rita Berkowitz wrote:
Ignoramus22498 wrote:

Thinking of buying a new camera...

80% of pictures will be of stuff for ebay.
20% family style stuff

The Nikon D3 fills this bill nicely and you should recoup your outlay
well
within 90 days on eBay sales. Great camera for every aspect of
photography.
I love my D3 for eBay pics.

1) How tough are the D80s as far as mechanical robustness?

The D80 will be a decent camera for you, but at a very minimum I would
get
the D300. The additional price difference well makes up for the image
quality and robustness you get. You can pound 20p framing nails with it.
I think that the D90 will be out before the end of the year. But you
can also look at the new Canon DR XSi due out in about a week or two.
For more robustness the Canon 40D may be a better choice than the D80 if
you need something now.

2) How many pictures can I expect before it croaks?

Well over 100K




Rita