Heh, congrats, enjoy it! I myself have to keep fighting off naughty thoughts of upgrading (or even thinking about upgrading) to an A700 which I simply can't afford at the moment.
The D80 is going back first thing next morning. After doing some shots on Saturday afternoon, I ventured into RAW post processing later that evening. Noticed plenty of stuck pixels repeating in same places shot after shot.
I had done just normal shooting with ISO 100–400, shutter time 1/8–1/60 – definitely nothing extreme – and I could see the faulty pixels without even zooming in 100%. Any bets whether they'll offer a replacement or am I forced to wait for 2–3 week turnaround after having the camera for only three days?
Hmm, that is same story as with my D40, quality trouble perhaps?
Oh yes, still haven't got around to send it as it would require printing form and my printer is other side of country, well I have few others but I'm too lazy to install and find out ink is dry
I don't know if it's the same for Nikons, but Sony/Minolta cameras automatically map out any bad/hot/stuck/dead pixels at the end of every month. Of course the trick to making the camera do it when you want it is to set the date to the end of the month, switch it off and back on again, and hey presto, any bad pixels will usually be gone. If Nikons can do this as well, it's well worth a go. Image sensors are, I presume, much like LCD monitors, in that a certain fault rate of individual pixels is to be expected.
JTbo, the local electronics store guy wants to sell me one of these D40s. Apart from bad pixels (how many bad pixels? ) how are you finding this camera?
Yes, faulty pixels are part of the business in the sensor and display world. I'm just bummed that I've done plenty of shoots with D70, 350D, 20D, A100 and when I finally buy my own DSLR it turns out to have defects that I've never had the pleasure to encounter first-hand before.
Not sure if Nikons map out the faulty pixels on their own. That's what they'd do at the warranty repair and I'm completely cool with remapping. I can live with dead pixels but seeing few to a dozen hot pixels in photos is somewhat annoying.
I do own (purchased with money instead of a torrent) Adobe CS3 and Camera Raw does automatically map out faulty pixels in RAW format files based on camera serial number. I shoot mostly RAW anyway but still... having plenty of hot pixels in JPEGs is an unnecessary annoyance.
I'll try to get a replacement tomorrow morning on the basis of the camera was faulty on arrival and I contacted them ASAP.
I don't know about where you are, but in the UK you'd be perfectly entitled to a full refund. You should be able to expect a digital camera like a D80 to perform perfectly out of the box. If images are corrupted by highly visible dead pixels, the camera is not capable of performing the job for which it was purchased. You have *at least* 14 days for an over-the-counter refund, and probably more if you can demonstrate the fault at the counter. If you walk once around the shop and back to the counter to buy another D80, they'd be happy anyway.
This is my first digital SLR, so I practically jumped from Ixus 75 compact to this, before world did go to digital I had SLR too, so I compare this a bit to that too.
First thing what I found is that camera is made to hand, when you grab camera it kind of becomes part of your hand, that much there is difference when comparing to Ixus 75 at least.
Usage is very easy and straight forward in other aspects too, but one thing can get bit annoying as there is only optical finder so in some situations it is impossible to see what you shoot, that is perhaps only negative side, however often when I need to shoot something like that Ixus is better option.
What comes to actual photos, I really can't complain, it is very easy to take really nice photos with this camera and it works really fast compared to Ixus, also Ixus has 7.1Mpx when D40 has 6Mpx, that means Ixus makes bigger pictures but I don't see any other benefits and actually that can be bit problem at times.
Biggest single reason why I did bought D40 was because I did not like amount of noise Ixus has, when taking photos from sky at night noise is very big problem, with D40 there sure is still noise, but it is very small amount, I don't think there is any digital camera that would not have.
My old film SLR can't really compete with Ixus or D40, it is very clumsy and optics are not too good either, also film is expensive compared to memory cards, so it has no any practical use nowdays even it has some gadgets :P
What I recommend is to check out prices of D40X, it has 10Mpx (bigger pictures, kind of help zoom, but also more disk space needed) and less noise + some minor improvements, but it has bit more price, or at least was when I did bought this.
I think that I have had one hot pixel, but today I could not reproduce it in my test shots, maybe this has some sort of remapping really, hot pixels don't disappear by themselfs don't they?
I took test pics to compare with both, colours with Nikon are closer to reality, I did use pretty much automatic settings (Ixus made really dark pic with auto setting, so switched to manual mode but still kept all settings auto and image was bright, wtf?) without flash and illumination was done with energy saving bulp + 19" tft Canon Ixus 75Nikon D40
Overall I'm really happy with D40, that is how camera should be, just big lcd finder to it and it would be perfect to almost any situation, it is not huge but it is bit bulky to carry always around so that is why I think Ixus stays on pocket, but it is day only use, with D40 it does not matter if it is day or night :P
Actually the pictures are blue because of my camera's "snow mode". If I took a regular picture, it would try to focus on 1 snowflake and blur the rest. It would look more like rain. I'm not using any special camera, just a regular sony pos camera, so I can't make adjustments.
And the pictures were actually taken in the morning, though you can't really tell in this weather.
Here's a comparison of the normal mode and the snow mode. I just prefer the snow mode in the winter. Btw it's been snowing for over 24 hours now.
Looks nice (if you are inside with a cup of coffee though). Photos are blue tinted, did you used some filter or modified them PS etc..? Or maybe simply white balance issue
Hmm, now as I'm here, got few ideas, if he has manual mode in camera, there he could set white balance instead of using auto and then took pics in scenery mode, maybe that could work out, if camera just has such options
But then again, blue adds some cold feeling to pics too
I've been using a Fuji s5000 for ages, its ok, but it has its issues. Mostly with every picture being grainy, no matter what you do. It was great when I first got it, (5 or 6 or 7 years ago?), but its surely showing its age when my wifes el cheapo camera looks just as good. (Well, in full auto anyway)
Heres a few random pictures I have kicking around on this computer.
I myself have to keep fighting off naughty thoughts of upgrading (or even thinking about upgrading) to an A700 which I simply can't afford at the moment.
) how are you finding this camera?
