Tonight I found out I won't have to spend $1200 on a piece of software I thought I was going to need next year. So... now I have some money to put into another camera.

Until today I'd planned to go ahead and purchase another D50 (6MP). We already have one, and we love it, so we thought two would be nice so we could ditch our old Fuji once and for all. Plus we'll have three lens, and since I expect to get a 28-300mm lens for Christmas, I'll likely never need my 18-55mm or 70-300mm lens again. So they'd be perfect for the other D50.

But since I don't have that huge software expense now, I'm starting to wonder if I should pay about twice the cost of the D50 body and get the D80 (10MP) instead. Since my lens will all be interchangeable, and I know eventually I'll want to upgrade... seems like a good deal.

The D80 is replacing the D70 and is fairly similar to the D200 I hear. I'm a little worried it's more advanced than I'm ready for though.

Anyone have thoughts on this? Anyone used the D80 first hand and/or compared it to the D50?

Course I still have to pass all this by the wife. Since we are taking another two week trip to the Big Island next year (which we hadn't planned on), she might be glad we were saving money and won't want me to go on a spending spree, LOL. She was very receptive to the additional (second) D50 though.

The D80 is GREAT John, i went from a Panasonic FZ5 to this and the transition was easy

Thanks. I think it'd be worth the extra money too.

Well I finally made the big purchase... will have my D80 in a few days.

I plan to also get the Nikon 18-200mm lens when I can afford it. It's almost as much as the camera.

I've about decided against ever buying a generic lens ever again. The Sigma 28-300mm is alright, but it's just not what I need for solid shots and it's a heavy lens that doesn't handle light well IMHO.

I also really want to get the 12-24mm Nikon lens, but it's a real $$ item. I can only drool over the landscape shots with that though.

What I love about all of this... the lens, flash cards, and even the flash work with both my D50 and my D80. I almost got the D40x until I heard about it's conflicts with certain lens. Didn't want to risk it.

Looking forward to playing around with this. Our next major photo shoot is next April on three islands. *Woot*

Thats great John. I had the 18-135 lens, used that for a year. When the motor on it broke and was mailed away for 8 weeks to get fixed, i bought the 18-200 lens, its great. The vibration reduction is a great feature. I checked out the Sigma lenses also, they focus slower and have noisier motors.

I'm glad you mentioned the 18-135, as a lot of folks seemed torn on it vs the new 18-200.

Now I definitely think the 18-200 is the right choice.

I know most everything else is swappable, but is the battery swappable with the D50 as well? I'm assuming it is.

Wow, very nice move John. When you look at lenses, dont be afraid of used. I only bought one or two lenses that were 'new' out of the 10 I own. Nikkor lenses hold up well, B&H Photo and most of the big retailers sell used equipment along with the new. Their ratings are pretty spot on also. Usuallly 1-10, 9+ being like new and so on...
I just checked B&H, and the they have 'buy used' underneath the ones that they have in used as well as new. If it comes from a company like that you can trust them.
FWIW, Im gonna watch and see what you get, good luck.

Got the D80 today, but I think my aperture priority is messed up... can't change it for anything. *sigh* Guess I'll be waiting a bit longer to play with the D80.

Sucks too... bc everything else, so far as I can tell, works fine.

I'm assuming you've sent it back, John? If not, I've read on a couple of photography forums that other people were having problems with various modes on the D80, aperture priority being one of them. The usual response was to try resetting the camera and then updating the firmware to the latest available version. There was something else about bracketing but, not owning a Nikon, I'm not quite sure what they meant about that.

Bracketing is shooting around your exposure. If your taking a photo and you are unsure of the exposure (or dont trust your meter) you over expose and under expose your photos, in increments of half stops (or even third stops). With digital it seems unnecessary (since you can view your image on a small screen, you should be able to judge the exposure). With film it can be a life saver, as well as give you some unexpected results (since with film, unless you have a Polaroid back for your camera, you have no way of knowing till you see the film). Slide film has rather tight exposures, go under or over by less than a stop and it can be unusable. With print film, its not really that necessary either since the tolerances are some what less stringent, or film folks will usually bracket in whole stops vs. fractions of stops.

Good idea to send it back, MHO. No reason to have to 'fix' a brand new camera. And this way, it gets a once over. Cameras are expensive, and when you are doing travel photography (like you do) after putting out all the expense of a trip, getting there and discovering you have faulty equipment can suck.

As a photographer, I carried two of everything on jobs. You never want a mechanical failure to hold you up. As an armature, or even at the budding professional level that you are at, John, its not always that practical to have two bodies, they are expensive. But doing everything you can to insure all your equipment if functioning correctly, makes good sense.

PS- I just checked out the D80, think Im going to try and buy one next year. Seeing as all of my lenses will work with it..you have gotten me interested.