One of my favorite cameras I've ever owned was the Nikon D80. It was my first DSLR and I hoped it would make a fine companion for my Coolpix P7700 compact. With its CCD sensor it produced beautiful images at the JPEG Vivid setting. So, I bought a second one (used) in order to have a two-range zoom system for those busy kind of shoots. The second camera died after 48 exposures, and after doing a bit of research I discovered there were at least six different things that could be wrong when one got the ERR code, none of which would prove to be a cost-effective repair on a used camera.
So, after another session of research I settled on replacing the D80's with a pair of D300s' as they were considered to be bullet proof. I shelved the good D80 for sentimental reasons, not wanting to be the one who wrecked it also (I know, it's irrational). The D300s' worked out as very good replacements even though they were a bit larger and thus heavier than the D80. And I had to do more work in post because they had CMOS sensors, and the SOOC JPEGs just didn't cut it like the ones from the D80. I eventually replaced the D300s' with a Z50 in order to not only have a current system, but one that was lighter and easier to handle as my joints aren't getting any better as I age. But I kept shooting JPEGs mainly because my software wasn't up to the task of handling RAW files and my hard drive space was limited.
Recently, there was a discussion on another forum about what other cameras with CCD sensors could compare to the Leica models with said sensor, and it got me to thinking about that good old D80. Still not wanting to destroy my original body I bought another one (they're really cheap now days) and planned on doing a photo trip when the opportunity arrived. I was really busy for about two months before I finally took the time to head on out with my "new" D80 and the bag of lenses I still had. And I shot in NEF RAW, because I had also upgraded my computer to one with a larger storage drive, and installed DxO PhotoLab 9 to handle the files. So, that's two sections of this tread post.
The third section of the post is the fact that it was World Photography Day which is celebrated every Aug 19 as that was the date the French government gave the world patent-free use of the photographic process after procuring the rights from Louis Daguerre in 1839 in exchange for a pension.
I split my photo shoot into two parts, one concentrating on getting images that would showcase the working of the camera, and the second part would be images celebrating WPD. This year's topic was "Home" which I didn't know before hand, but as it turned out I did capture images of homes, just not the human type.
Love Nest by P F McFarland, on Flickr
These were taken fairly close-up but not in macro mode as the DX AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 G II VR has a fantastically close focus.
See all five photos on Flickr at https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjD3iLa
The rest were just random images taken along the way (280-mile round trip) but chosen for their technical attributes to test out the new software, which handled them quite nicely with minimal adjustments.
Waiting To Head Home by P F McFarland, on Flickr
See the rest on Flickr at https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjD3jnU
I also stopped at the Camera Heritage Museum in Staunton, VA to see what they had added to the collection. I should have taken a photo of their wall of Leica's. Maybe next time.
PF