Help needed, is Active D lighting a MUST have?

Im fairly new to photography and Im about to go buy a Nikon D80.I had a D60 for a few weeks but didnt like it that much for several reasons and managed to sell it for price I had paid it.

Now, for me the Active D on the D60 really made a big difference and I know the D80 doesnt have that.Realistically I wish I could buy the D90 but its 500$ more than the D80 and I cant afford it.

Should I really pass on the D80 ( and hope to find a used D90 for a 1000$ which is unlikely to happen) or buy this brand new D80?

Thanks

Active D lighting is doing something that you can reproduce in post-processing. It underexposes by about a stop and changes the tonal curve to lighten the mid-values. The overall result is that you have preserved the highlights and brought extra light into shadow areas in contrasty conditions. I quite often use the D-lighting option in NX2 to make a contrasty, backlit photo look the way it was to my eyes.

This is fine as long as:

1. You are shooting in RAW (you can do this sort of thing on JPG's but it quickly looks unnatural)
2. You have a decent RAW editor
3. You understood what I said in the first paragraph

If not - save up for the D90.

Brand new d90 bodies sell on eBay for $900 everyday.

The free software from nikons website CaptureNX offers 3 levels of d-light.
I use it sparingly with my d80 RAW files.

hth

I don't think D-Lighting is a necessity. I tested it on the D40x (before the "Active" version) and thought it was pretty impressive. But I do all of my own processing. Good exposure and post-processing are always the best bet, I think. Tools like Active D-Lighting make some image adjustment easier and more accessible. But you can do the same stuff in post-processing. And with a little practice you can do a much better job.

My question is, what's wrong with your D60? Why do you feel the need to buy a new camera? new cameras are fun. But for most of us, that's not the best place for us to invest our photo dollars.

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Originally Posted by Photo-John

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My question is, what's wrong with your D60? Why do you feel the need to buy a new camera? new cameras are fun. But for most of us, that's not the best place for us to invest our photo dollars.

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The D60 has one huge advantage over the D80 - the sensor shaker + venturi that removes dust.

I took my D60 out on Sunday. I've been using the D200 and D300 all winter and I wanted to make sure I remembered how to use it because it's all I'm taking on holiday next week. Looked at the results in the evening - saw I'd picked up a large dust speck right in the middle of the frame. Blast. Next morning got out the sensor swabs, did a photo of empty sky before starting the operation - and the dust spot had disappeared. Very pleased about that.