Nikon N80... do you have one?

I bought one for my daughter to use in her photography class in high school - 5 years ago. I think it cost about $80. There were many for sale in LN condition in those days. I see they're much cheaper now.

I guess they are cheap enough that damaging or losing it won't hurt much.
 
Pablito said:
Before I all but stopped using film, I changed over completely to the N80 despite owning higher end "pro" Nikon SLRs. The camera has everything except 100% VF coverage. I had about 6 of them. I found the lower end ones N70, N65 etc can't remember them all ... to be a lot less satisfying and toy-like.
Click to expand...

It seems to me the N70 was very quirky in its operation but felt more substantial than the newer N80.
 
Whew, another long day. What a surprise coming home to see such responses! Thank you all for that and reminding me what I must have been missing all these years. Lots of good information here and it shows how much the little critter is loved by RFF'ers. So I feel validated in wanting one for little money.

I am on the hunt. After that, how can I not go for big brother, an F100?

It is too much fun these days in photography. Lots of affordable choices! 😀
 
Oh yeah, a bonus! I had no idea the N80 could use G lenses!!! Another plus for me since I resurrected a free but dead D3100 recently!

Bohemian photographer here... Lol... El cheapo with great quality stuff.
 
Ok, the hunt has ended... Screw ebay. What a waste of time the last five minutes. I have no patience with racing a time clock hitting a stupid button every few seconds.

I prefer to deal with real people.

So back to the F6. Like inspiration, it will find me.

Update... It may have already done so as I type this... No ebay for me. Lol...
 
jonmanjiro said:
The mind boggles Dave... why would you want an F80 when you have an F6? 😕😕😕

I hope you don't plan on making the F6 a pampered semi shelf queen! 😛
Click to expand...

Ha! No way! I have tons of Double X film to shoot! But no cameras to share with my two grandsons. For me, as a former sports shooter, sitting on the sidelines is boring! As it is when one of the kids is playing and the other is with me. Gator, yep that is his middle name. His first name is Brandon... Anyway, I started him shooting with my S3 2000 while I closely supervised. Now I want to get him shooting with me. I dare not hand the F6 to him but a nice AF (inexpensive) camera would do nicely.
😀
 
To expand on that, I have two FE2 cameras to give them in due time. They will get frustrated with MF. You know how 9-10 year old kids are...

I gave them each an old digital p&s camera (one Canon and the other a Nikon) but dealing with buying batteries is not working for them as they don't want to spend their allowance on batteries.

Besides I want them to enjoy film and I can feed them film as well as develop it for them. There are few things I can pass along but this experience can be one of them.
 
Thank you all for your posts on this subject. It validates my reason for wanting an N80.

It would be terrific to see posts with photos of your own kids/grandkids with cameras like this:

Gator in 2008 with my F3/T:

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Update:

Thanks to John, I am now the happy owner of a nice F80! The custom settings are really cool. The fact that I can use the same 45mm/2.8 P lens on the F80, F6, F2, etc. and even the D3100 is really nice! ( put my Gordy wrist strap on it and I have a very nice compact SLR!

(In fact, all of my Nikkor lenses are interchangeable with any AF body I have. Opens up a nice array of choices.)

Cool as a moose! 🙂)
 
I had one for a while. I can't remember why i sold it. I do remember that i LOVED the mirror/shutter/advance sound and feel. It may have been my favorite camera in that respect—perhaps tied with a Contax RX or some such.

Can't find my notes, but i think i just couldn't justify having an F100 and an FE2 and the F80 when i only had two Nikon lenses at the time, and only one of them was an AF lens. But, yeah, for the price, there isn't much reason not to have one now.
 
CK Dexter Haven said:
I had one for a while. I can't remember why i sold it. I do remember that i LOVED the mirror/shutter/advance sound and feel. It may have been my favorite camera in that respect—perhaps tied with a Contax RX or some such.

Can't find my notes, but i think i just couldn't justify having an F100 and an FE2 and the F80 when i only had two Nikon lenses at the time, and only one of them was an AF lens. But, yeah, for the price, there isn't much reason not to have one now.
Click to expand...

You know, the shutter sound is rather different isn't it? I like it. The whole package is small and has just enough featured to make it quite useable! And with the similar feel that I am used to after all these years. I may just put this one in a small belt bag to carry along with whatever else I am shooting.
 
There was a time when I had together the F80 (gray version of the N80), one F100 and one F5... Just for the heck of it, I tested the shutter sound on one of my cats (meaning, I aimed the camera at him while he was staring at our backyard). He just didn't hear or ignored the sound of the F80. The F100 made him turn his face to see what was making a click. The F5 let out such a clack he jumped.

Conclusion: professional cameras are loud because they're conspicuous. Amateur things are not expected, so they can be sneaky.

Congratulations on the N80, Dave! It was the camera of the year in 2001, I think... and it's pretty much like a baby F100. You'll have some really serious fun! 🙂
 
dave lackey said:
To expand on that, I have two FE2 cameras to give them in due time. They will get frustrated with MF. You know how 9-10 year old kids are...

I gave them each an old digital p&s camera (one Canon and the other a Nikon) but dealing with buying batteries is not working for them as they don't want to spend their allowance on batteries.

Besides I want them to enjoy film and I can feed them film as well as develop it for them. There are few things I can pass along but this experience can be one of them.
Click to expand...
Get some Eneloops and a charger

I'm on the hunt for a compact camera to go with my 35 1.8G FX- guess it's going to be an N80 (my F100 is kinda large)
 
Great camera! What I liked best about my F80, was that it had almost everything that I needed accessible through a button/wheel on the outside, and that its main features were not linked, like on the lower specced bodies (e.g. f65, f75) where the metering pattern changes unannounced from matrix to centerweighted if you press the AE-L button..

It doesn't have the raw power that an F90 or F100 has in racking the heavier screwdriver AF lenses from here to infinity and back, but on the plus side it also lacks the weight of the F90/F100.. So if you want to pack small/light, you could do a lot worse than an F80..
 
i have three, only because they are so cheap. i bought one that looked brand new in a box with the AA battery pack for $15 off craigs list. people are giving this great camera away. its very light, quiet and takes great picts which is what its all about.
 
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