D80 vs Coolpix 8800

Hi All,
I have been in to photography for a long time purely as an amateur. when I decided to go digital I went down the Nikon route having owned a 35mm Canon EOS5 for many years.
Anyway I was playing around with my two current cameras the other day (D80 with 18-135mm kit lens and a Coolpix 8800) and I took a shot with each camera of a for sale sign down our road and was surprised to note that the shot from the Coolpix was sharper than the D80. Thinking this could be camera shake I repeated the shot with a tripod with not much improvement. This got me rather worried and I started taking comparison shots and I'm dismayed to see that the Coolpix seems to take better shots most of the time.
I am in the process of toying with the idea of a 18-200 vr lens but I'm worried that this is not going to improve matters. I am now considering a Nikon p520 or a Lumix DMC FZ200.

My instinct tells me that the D80 should be much better, will a 18-200 VR be significantly better than my current kit lens?

Has anyone else had this dilema?

Best regards

​Tugman

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Thanks

Wow, pretty interesting little camera. Interesting to see the little red swath on the grip to. Now, in regards to your issue, you are going to need to post some sample pictures along with the EXIF data. It's kind of hard to beleive that the IQ from the 8800 is better than the D80. 8800 has 8mp, D80 has 10. Max ISO sensitivity on the 8800 is only 400.... anyhow. Please post some pics for us to look at.

The sensor size and the processor make a pretty big difference. I'm guessing the 8800 sensor is the size of a normal point and shoot, which is around the tip of your pinky nail, as supposed to the D80 which is much bigger, which lets in much more light, and can capture much more detail. It's like comparing a D4 @ 6,000$ with 16MP to that Nokia phone with a 41MP @ I'm guessing 400$. It may have over twice the MP, but the quality of the image, and the capabilities are obviously way better in the D4. Go with the D80 DSLR.

And if you ever decide you want a different lens... well, only the D80. And trust me, you'll decide you want lenses. Lots of them. haha