advise needed

• Asterix

  Participant

  November 1, 2006 at 8:47 am

  Hi all,
  Wasn’t sure which tread to put this in but here goes…finally secured my Nikon D80 with 18-200mm Vr lens and picking it up at the end of the month. I have a Fuji s5500 at the moment and learned how to use most functions with some pleasing results solely from the manual and experimenting with functions which it don’t fully understand. My question is (considering i am new to dslr’s) how much will i be able to learn from the manual and what would be a good book to teach myself about using dslr’s? As i dont have the time and i am in the wrong location for a digital photography course this is my only option for the moment.
  Cheers in advance!
  KPM

  Participant

  November 1, 2006 at 10:37 am

  There is a large amount of books available for the D80. One of the most popular series is the ‘Magic Lantern Guide’ which usually are quite easy and user friendly. Check through this websites bookstore and you will see a large number of options.

  Initially however, your best bet would be to use the web resources. Ken Rockwell has a lot of Nikon related reviews etc. on his site (http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech.htm) and as well as the D80 he also puts the 18-200 through its paces. He tends to be a bit over-enthusiastic, but if you take everything with a pinch of salt, there are some very good hints, tips & how-tos etc. on the site.

  Another good place is dpreview (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond80/).

  Both of these sites should give you enough detail to get started, and they have have more of the advanced details as well. The best way of learning however is to learn the basics and start shooting. Based on your results you can then start on the more advanced features.

  Hope this helps.

  Regards

  Kevin
  Asterix

  Participant

  November 1, 2006 at 11:42 am

  Great thanks, i was aware of those sites alright. I think ill send away for the magic latern guide too. That should help ‘educate’ me about the D80, can’t wait now!
  Thanks again
  Eoghan
  Gwen

  Participant

  November 1, 2006 at 1:19 pm

  Nikon also does D80 specific courses as well; I don’t know if there are any running locally to you but it may be worth checking into!