Nikon N80/F80

My first Magic Lantern book was their guide to the N-60. At that time, and as a novice photographer, I greatly benefited from the book. The N-80 book was less valuable to me, mostly because I was farther down the learning curve by the time I read it.

So, it's a great source for beginners, and it's value diminishes thereafter.


Worthwhile   August 26, 2001
 41 out of 42 found this review helpful

This is a useful manual for the N80, even if the text is imperfect. Unfortunately, the publisher merely released a new printing in May 2001, not a new edition and therefore missed a chance to correct the errors that the other reviewers on here have previously mentioned. The reviewers who suspect that some of the technical information was extrapolated from Nikon's F100 camera are clearly right. Not only does the text occasionally describe functions unique to the F100 and not present on the N80, but also on page 179 the author forgot to switch the text and inadvertently calls the N80 camera a F100! That being said, the book has redeeming qualities. I disagree with the reviewer who felt that the Nikon Manual was perfectly adequate. Although the manual supplied by the manufacturer is fairly complete, I was still left with some questions after reading it. Perhaps this is because the whole autofocus SLR concept is new to me. If you are used to more traditional SLR's, this is a whole new ballgame. Comparing this Nikon to my 20-year-old Nikon is like comparing a computer word processor to a typewriter. This manual helped bridge the culture shock for me. And despite some inaccuracies, I have learned some useful information from this manual. One of the better speedlights for this camera is the Nikon SB-28, which is available as the older SB-28 or the newer, more expensive SB-28DX. However, the improvements in the SB-28DX can only be used if one is using the Nikon D-1, not the N80. Sparing me the unnecessary expense of buying the DX model of the speedlight more than paid for the purchase price of the book. And I picked up some other helpful tips as well. The book is useful, but flawed. Its small enough to tuck into your camera bag and for most of us, it probably has something to teach about this complex and wonderful camera.


Help in gray area that manual does not cover   April 28, 2001
 5 out of 7 found this review helpful

I'm the owner of N70 of this book, because this book is not expensive, I decided to purchase the n80 book too, after I aquired my N80, expecting some redundancy.

In general, the book replaces a lot of topics topics compare with the N70. the great benefit of this book is it covers some gray areas either the manufacture manual does not mention, or the manual mentioned implictly but readers might not aware of the implication. For example the book warns you, if you use speed priority exposure, but your len maxium aperture is not big enough to result correct exposure, the camera still fire in auto exposure mode and result underexposed. In additon, if you use shutter speed exceeding 1/125 that exceed flash max sync speed, partial flashing will result. Such problem you can understand but may easily ignore if simply reading the manual.

Another benefit is some general advices, which is especially plus for beginers, I enjoy the coverage of len comaptibilities and some info on recent Nikon Len line up.

As the other reader points out, the book has some errors, F80 frequently refer to as F8, default custom setting for change aperture is to turn subcommand dial (but the book ask you to use main command). Those are simply careless or editing typo. What appalling me is on page P152 , it mentioned customer setting 19, not only the setting is not for the topics discussed there, but also in all custom settings, there is simply no such function for N80/F80/F80s, making me wonder if the author really testing the N80 or simply imagine many mechanism should be the same as F100 (which maybe largely different).