I'm a complete noob to the photography scene. The two cameras listed in the title are the ones that have caught my eye first. The problem I'm having is the P80 has a higher megapixel and zoom feature but is not SLR whatever that is. The D40 seems to be the cheapest Nikon SLR camera but it only has a megapixel rating of 6.1. Can someone tell me if I choose the D40 will I loose picture quality and if it were you which one would you go with and why. As always thanks in advance for any advice.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Nikon P80 or D40?
- Thread starter jlwilsonjr
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Hate to ~judge~ but I think that you will be satisfied with the P80. The D40 will give better image quality provided that you're willing to learn.
I just bought the D60 because I got a $450 deal with it - the same price of the D40 in every major retailer.The D40 will blow the p80 "clean out of the water". It's not even a fair comparison.
Don't worry about "mega pixels". That is a marketing term that really means nothing. It tells you how may little squares the sensor has been divided into. What you really care about is how large each square is. The SLR has a much larger sensor that is less finely divided, so yuo get much larger pixels. Larger pixels means less noise and better low light performance.
What is an "SLR". It is a camera which an optical viewfinder that loks out through the same lens that takes the picture. You see a perfect picture of the sunject, NOT the subject on an LCD screen but the actual subject.
SLR also allow you to change lenses so your "zoom" ratio can be literally anything you want it to be, just buy the correct lens
I'd say D40 just on the basis that Nikon's point-and-shoot cameras are horrible while their SLRs are fantastic.