[Dave]

Real or spoof ?

[stepheno]

I wouldn't know a Nikon from a pair of Nikors

[Steve]

Originally Posted by stepheno

I wouldn't know a Nikon from a pair of Nikors

Actually Dave, how different are those pictures from a D70?

[Dave]

From the front we have an extra button at 10 o'clock to lens mount
From the back one less button, a much larger LCD & a dial insted of slider to adjust viewfinder
From the top that missing button from back is now on the top, to right of LCD
From last shot looks identical

I assume the buttons that have been moved are to make operating the camera that little bit easier. A larger LCD is always good. No idea what the button to front is for Overall dimensions of camera look the same.

[VikingPhotography]

Real

The original pictures appeard very briefly on a Nikon european ftp directory, then quickly dissapeared. A few folks were smart enough to download them whilst they could and, since then, they've been posted all over the web.

This is similar to what occured prior to the official announcement of the D200 a few months ago; I'm beginning to suspect that Nikon is engaged in a form of guerrilla marketing insofar that they know that certain sections of their websites and ftp servers are trawled by net newshounds and deliberately drip-feed tidbits of information.

It's all about building anticipation for a product and, so long as the goods live up to the hype, it's a worthwhile tactic to engage in.

Personally I think the D80 is going to put Sony's new α100 camera under a whole lot of pressure.

What I'm looking forward to more is the official announcement regarding the two new lenses that are set to debut with the D80; a reliable source cites that one of them will be an 18 - 135mm DX lens sans VR... all I'm interested in is what f-stop range it will cover.

I don't think it will be an f/2.8 lens, but an f/4 constant would be nice for a general walk-around piece of glass covering 27 - 202.5mm effective, so long as the optical quality was decent enough.

[DavidUK]

I wonder how much this will be priced at... and how many megapixels? I love my D70, and am hesitant to shell out for my desired upgrade.. the D200.

I wonder if it will be a case similar to Canon, i.e. the 20D to 30D

[VikingPhotography]

David:

10.2 MP count and it'll be priced at somewhere between £599 and £699 as a body-only option. Think of the camera as a hybrid between a D50 and a D200 and you'll have a rough idea what to expect.

Oh, and the D80 uses SD cards for storeage, so that might factor into your decision, though hopefully it'll allow for the use of the newer SD-HC media and thus card sizes of more than 2GB.

[ln1977]

I'm only guessing but with regards to the buttons on the front one is to release the lens the other has to be DOF preview the third I have no idea quite interesting. I have a D70 which I love and was toying with the idea of upgrading to a D200 but its simply to much £££££. I for one cant wait for this it my well be my next camera Provided I can sneak out and get it when the wife aint looking lol She won't be happy either way