... Journal Entry
I have just acquired a second Nikon F80D 35mm film camera body, this time in silver finish to sit along side my black finish one. Why? Well read on to find out more...
I acquired this second body as a back up and also to be able to carry a different film type for immediate use just by swapping camera bodies if needed. This might be high speed film like Portra 800 in one body complemented by a slow one like Ektar 100 in the other. I chose the silver colour second body so that I would immediately know which body was which and hence by association which film I had loaded in which body.
BTW the F80D is simply the quartz data back version of the standard F80 which allows you to print the date and/or time on your photographs, a feature I personally find useless so I always leave it switched off. I ended up with two camera bodies with this built in data back as they were more available in excellent (and hopefully little used) condition in the pre-owned market than the standard ones, for some reason.
The second reason to have another F80D camera body is that these cameras are 20+ year old machines that were aimed at "serious amateurs" so serious longevity was not built intentionally into their DNA as was the case for pro series cameras like the F6 for example. They are now after all these years cheap to buy on the used market for a reason. So if one breaks, better to have a back up at hand to take its place.
These are still fantastic 35mm film SLR cameras, one of the best of their era, and one of the last film SLRs Nikon made before they went digital. The F80 also formed the basis of the then new digital machines like the Nikon D100, Fujifilm's Finepix S2 Pro and Kodak's DCS Pro 14n, so they have a bit of a pedigree.
So find one in excellent condition and go enjoy using it, just close the film door gently as the door latch can be inclined to break off if badly mis-treated over time as it is made of plastic. Mind you mine have been just fine so far.
Oh, and there is a fix for this problem if it does happen, kits from such people on eBay as https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404887532360 who supply plastic replacements and also metal ones to be found for example here https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275737997073, but be aware that these new latch kits all require some hand fitting and gluing, but apparently they do work.