The Nikon D50 in the Field

Now for what really matters: how the Nikon D50 worked in the field. After a small amount of initial familiarization, Eric and I took the Nikon D50 on several photo excursions, along with our other equipment. We went to several favorite areas around Colorado Springs, Colorado, which is where we live. We first ran it through its paces at the Greenland Ranch area north of town, a large, undeveloped expanse of grassland and buttes with view of Pikes Peak. We also went to Red Rock Canyon Park, a newly opened city park similar to the famous Garden of the Gods. Finally, we used the camera on a variety of other subjects that included pets, people and moving subjects.

As mentioned earlier, this is a compact, lightweight camera that has a surprisingly solid feel. All controls operate smoothly and precisely. If you’ve used a Nikon D70, you know what it feels like. The viewfinder is similar to the D70 as well, which means it’s smaller than what you would find in a 35mm camera, and it also has a bit of the “tunnel vision” feel common with many DSLRs. You get used to this over time, but a larger magnification image would be nice. The LCD display on the back is slightly larger than the original D70 (2.0 inches vs. 1.8 inches), and the same size as the newer D70s. It’s plenty large enough to check composition and sharpness via the zoom feature. It offers the typical histogram view for gauging exposure accuracy as well as the blinking highlights to indicate areas that have been burned out through overexposure.

The autofocus system worked well for the subjects we photographed. We weren’t able to photograph any really high speed subjects, but in normal usage the autofocus system was quick and precise. Nikon states they’ve altered the autofocus algorithms for improved performance, and we found no reason to doubt this. The new AF-A mode worked well. Like the D70/D70s, the Nikon D50 has five autofocus sensors distributed around the frame, so it handles off-center subjects with ease.

One thing that enhanced its aura as a quality camera was its noise level. The Nikon D50 is perceptibly quieter than other Nikon DSLRs. When you press the shutter release, it sounds like a well damped mechanism and that makes using it a pleasure. Nikon is putting more of an emphasis on sound and vibration attributes lately – the F6 is another good example of this.

Images from the Nikon D50 looked great. They were very Nikon D70-like, but with slightly lower noise levels at higher ISOs. In the default Mode IIIa color setting, D50 photos had a pleasing amount of color saturation and crispness. Unlike the very flat looking images produced by earlier DSLRs that required a bit of levels/curves adjustment in Photoshop to bring out their best, images from the D50 looked remarkably good right out of the camera. That’s an important thing because many new DSLR owners don’t want to fool around with a computer or learn Photoshop. They just want good quality prints that look like film. Nikon clearly heard the message from this group of photographers.

There’s a lot of emphasis placed on megapixels these days. Are more pixels better? They are to an extent, although not as much as many people believe. Most photographers don’t make prints larger than 11x17 inches, and the D50 will produce great images in that size or beyond with its 6.1 megapixels. The benefit to not having 12 or more megapixels is storage space and processing speed. Anyone who has processed D2X files will tell you that RAW file processing is definitely slower, although it improved recently with Capture 4.3.1. If you don’t need the extra image size, you don’t want the larger file size.

Like many of Nikon’s preceding lower end camera bodies, the D50 has a variety of automatic modes that match common shooting situations.

Here are some of the available settings: - Portrait - Landscape - Child - Sports - Close-up - Night Portrait

A set of parameters are altered for each of these program modes. The shutter speed and aperture combinations are a little different, sharpening settings are altered, ISO’s are changed and color modes are modified from higher saturation to lower saturation. While these modes aren’t usually of interest to more experienced photographers, they can be a great help for new photographers who just want to get good photos.

For experienced photographers, the normal program, aperture priority, shutter speed priority and manual exposure modes are all available, as well as an “automatic” setting that automates about everything imaginable. We played with these settings a bit, but primarily used aperture priority and manual exposure modes.

WHO SHOULD BUY THE NIKON D50?

I envision several categories of people who will purchase the Nikon D50:

- Those moving up from a point and shoot and wanting the advantages of interchangeable lenses, but not wanting the expense of a higher end DSLR. The high quality images that look good right out of the camera will appeal to this group.

- Film users who are not planning to purchase an expensive DSLR, but who want compatibility with their Nikon lenses. Photographers in this group might want something small, light, and inexpensive, but don’t plan to use digital for more serious subjects. Not that the Nikon D50 isn’t capable of serious photography – it is. It’s just an issue of storage media compatibility. A Nikon D70s is a better choice if a photographer might eventually move up to a D2 series camera in the future since cards are compatible between the cameras.

SUMMARY

Should you as a Nikonian feel comfortable recommending this camera to others? Absolutely! This is a great little camera and a fine choice for a new photographer. It has a very agreeable personality that makes photography a pleasure. More advanced photographers might want to step up to the Nikon D70s for some of the additional features and greater media compatibility that camera offers, but many might be satisfied with the Nikon D50. The money saved could pay for accessories or a number of prints to hang on the wall. When we had to send this camera back to Berger Bros., we were sorry to see it go.

Congratulations on another great DSLR camera, Nikon!