wrote in message
ups.com...

Derek Fountain wrote:
So I jumped. I sold him my Canon Rebel XT body
So I went out after work and bought the Nikon D80 body,
All I can say is, "wow"...

To be fair, you've gone from an early 2005 camera to a current
model
which costs significantly more than the Canon did when it came out.
Hardly surprising such an upgrade feels like a jump in quality -
that's
exactly what it is.

Yeah, apart from the viewfinder (which is admitedly better on the
D80),
I'm hard pressed to think of many things he mentions that he'd not
have
gained by jumping to a 30D.

The 30D is a very good camera, but it just doesn't have the handling
of the Nikon. There are a few minor things I preferred in the Nikon as
well, like a better menu display. The cost was also a factor as the
30D costs $350 CDN more than the D80. That difference paid for the new
flash and remote.

I'm not saying that the 30D is a better
camera, but honestly I can't imagine giving up all of that glass so
lightly.

It wasn't an easy decision...the 70-200 f/4 is an excellent lense and
will be missed. But everything else I was able to match with Nikon
gear and break even on the deal. If my friend had not been interested
in my setup, I would still have the Canon - it's all about timing I
guess.

I also have access to the best glass that Nikon has to offer through a
friend who is a pro and uses some very nice gear. I managed to pickup
the used 18-70 and 50mm from him for only $100, which was also part of
the incentive to switch. The 18-70 is almost as good as the Canon
17-40, so I'm at the same image quality there. The telephoto is the
only area where I'll take a financial loss, but to me it's worth it
for the better handling.

Speaking of image quality, the Nikon is great in RAW. I used the 50mm
f/1.8 to test for sharpness and find the JPG images are a bit soft,
similar to how the D70s would soften them while keeping high
resolution and sharpness in the RAW files. But I turned up the
sharpness a notch for in-camera JPG and it's more than adequate for
quick snaps. For more serious shots I shoot RAW anyways.