A Wonderful Entry-Level Digital SLR ... And It's A Nikon!

Author's Rating:

Pros: Excellent color, sharpness and definition. Ink jet prints are beautiful.

Cons: Heavy, auto-focus occasionally struggles, controls and viewfinder info display could be better.

The Bottom Line: 
The D50 takes wonderful photos with the color and definition you'd expect from Nikon. But there are a couple of minor flaws.

Author's Review
It's funny how things go full circle sometimes. My first serious digital camera was a Nikon and now that I'm trying out digital SLR photography, once again, I'm using a Nikon. I've known about Nikon's legendary picture quality for years – both from experience and from others – and figured it would be worth it to get a Nikon again. The reason I say "again" is that the period of time between my Nikon Coolpix 800 and the D50 were filled with two Fuji's, a Sony and a Pentax – all of which left something to be desired.

I'm not going to cover all the stuff I've read in other reviews – like the exploding popularity of the emerging digital SLR market – so I'll stick to what made the D50 selection personal for me.


WHAT DROVE THE PURCHASE

I consider myself a notch above a mere photographic hobbyist – I create photos for competitions, so the image quality must be top-notch. While preparing for one such competition, I noticed that the set of photos that looked so great on the monitor, in print, were actually a bit fuzzy – more than I realized. The Sony camera with which I took these images (the DSC-H1), while it's a very easy camera to use and has a lot of nifty features, sometimes let me down in the image department, the device's reason for being.

So rather than going with another high-end digital camera I decided to try a different tack – going with a digital SLR. The two "finalists" on my lists were the Nikon D50 and the Pentax *ist DL . (How do you pronounce "*ist", anyway?) I decided on the D50 because it's a Nikon and I figured the photo quality would be superior.


APPREHENSIONS

When viewing the D50 on display at camera stores and electronics retailers, several things concerned me right away. First of all, the D50 is considerably larger and bulkier than the Sony DSC-H1 I've been shooting with. I wonder why a digital SLR has to be that much bulkier; their 35mm film cousins still manage to retain a somewhat trim appearance. I'd like to see future digital SLRs as a class work on that.

Next is a personal pet peeve – the non-AA battery pack. I have always preached to others the virtues of rechargeable AA nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries. The Pentax *ist DL has them; the D50 does not. I've heard good things about the D50 battery pack being able to deliver over 1,000 exposures but I'm always going to feel a bit vulnerable, even with a backup battery pack, of having a situation where I'll forget to charge up one or both and not be able to run to 7-Eleven and get a pack of alkalines. I would like to see Nikon address this in future releases of their digital SLRs.

Finally, in reading reviews from other web sites I dreaded that the D50 was a "dumbed down" digital SLR aimed at family folks with kids (why else would the camera have a pre-set for taking children's photos?) and that in its attempts to come into this price class, it cut corners on image quality and usability.

So it was not with total optimism that I approached the D50. I sensed that even though I might be getting better photo quality it would come at a price, and was reminded that for the truly finicky, there is no "perfect" camera and that compromises would have to be made.


FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The D50 that I bought was a kit put together by the retailer. Most D50's available at retailers include the 18-55mm Nikkor lens but, for some reason, that kit sells for $700, a full $100 more than my de facto kit – the D50 body and a separate, more powerful 28-80mm Nikkor lens. My kit was $600.

As soon as I got the D50 I tripped over one of my pet peeves – you have to charge the battery before you can use it, so be prepared to wait 135 minutes (as it says in the manual) – that's two hours and 15 minutes – before you can snap your first image. (Go see a movie or something.) Thankfully, the D50 includes a separate battery charger that blinks while charging and shows a steady lamp when completed.

The package includes a nicely formatted Quick Start guide and a reference booklet that I would say is, arguably, one of the best on the market. I don't think most instruction manuals are written that well for cameras so Nikon's is a noteworthy exception.


EASE OF USE

The D50 is not a particularly hard camera to use. When you turn the on-off switch it powers up virtually immediately. A reminder for those not used to digital SLR's – you have to compose your shot with the optical viewfinder; the LCD is only for reviewing shots just taken or working with the on-screen menus.

Pressing the shutter release feels good and solid, something I hadn't experienced in a decade. While the shutter on this camera is mechanical, the shutter release is pleasantly soft.

The D50 has auto-focus (AF) that works well most of the time, but in certain situations I was surprised – it seemed to struggle to find its focal point. A look through the optical viewfinder shows five focal areas, with an inside-the-viewfinder LCD indicating which area is currently being used. The few times the AF motor whizzed and whirred to focus, I was able to switch to manual focus instead. You may find yourself using manual focus more than you expect.

There's about a half-dozen white balance settings – including a PRE (preset setting) that lets you sample to set the white balance.


FLASH

The D50 has a pop-up flash unit as well as a hot-shoe attachment for external flash units. All I was seeking was a flash that wouldn't wash out or blanch a subject the way my previous Sony DSC-H1 did, and the Nikon D50 did not disappoint me. The camera is correctly set to 1/60 of a second and the flash fills well. It is a relief to finally have a full-size digital that does flash correctly.

The flash unit pops up when the D50 determines that more light is needed, much as you'll find on many other cameras these days. But sometimes the flash pops up unexpectedly in situations you don't expect and I have yet to understand why. On one occasion I shot in automatic mode and it was late afternoon, but still fairly bright. The flash popped up for the picture, but did not fire. I can only surmise that the flash unit is, somehow, being used for light metering, but I don't think that's quite right, either.

You can turn off flash completely with the controls on the camera in one of the program modes but in full automatic mode it doesn't seem like you can … not good. Every camera I've ever owned you can suspend the flash.


IMAGE QUALITY

I wanted a Nikon for the color and sharpness that I consider their trademarks. I've been pleased; the camera's Automatic mode does a super job. When you copy the photos off the SD card to your computer and view them in Photoshop or another photo editing tool, you'll see that the photos are natively 300 dpi, rather than the 72 dpi you get on other cameras, which is excellent if you plan on doing enlargements. Colors are bright and accurate. Printing the images to an ink jet color printer produces good results – they look as good as what you'd get from a conventional 35 mm camera.

One thing I'll caution newbies about is that the aspect ratio for this camera simulates that of conventional 35mm camera film – meaning the photos are not aspected for a video monitor, and are more oblong than those for a monitor. You may also have a little bit of a challenge figuring out how to print such images, since photo papers also tend to have an aspect ratio similar to that of a computer monitor. You will probably wind up having to do some creative cropping to get the D50 images to fit; it's either that or trying to find 8" x 12" ink jet photo papers (which I have not yet found).

The D50 is excellent for low-light photography, another reason I wanted this camera. The ISO sensitivity can be set up to 1600, although 800 will probably be more than adequate and even 400 is not unthinkable. Just remember that you will get more noise in your photos the higher you go on ISO. I have to say, though, that the noise is far less offensive than regular point-and-shoot digital cameras, and that an 8" x 10" print, while you may notice noise (if you look really closely) won't render the image unusable.


ERGONOMICS

The D50 is a solid camera, but I have to warn you – it's not that light. It feels like it's between 1.5 and 2 pounds – on the neck strap you'll find yourself wanting relief from time to time.

The controls are easy enough to use, but could be more convenient. There's a rocker switch next to the LCD to select options on the LCD menus, but the "OK" or "Select" button is not beneath the rocker switch as I would expect. To check the ISO and white balance settings, there can't already be a photo displayed on the LCD, and you have to press and hold the appropriate button and view it on the LCD readout on top of the camera.


DESIGN FLAWS

As wonderful a camera as the D50 is, there are a few flaws, one of which pertains to the ISO setting in the previous section. It is not displayed on the LCD on top of the camera body unless you press a button, and it's not displayed in the TTL (through-the-lens) viewfinder at all. You can go through the camera's LCD menus to set it, of course, but that's not as immediate.

There were a couple of situations I encountered where knowing my ISO setting would have been helpful; you need to be able to see all the variables to make a picture decision.

Oddly enough, when you copy the photos from the SD card to your hard drive and check the EXIF data, there is no listing for the ISO setting. I like knowing that so I can learn what settings were better than others. Better plan on taking good notes if you vary the ISO a lot while you shoot.

As I mentioned above, the pop-up flash seems to pop up in situations I don't expect. But one time I wanted to force the flash and wasn't able to figure out how. The camera has three settings for flash, but none of them force the use of flash. I think all cameras should have such a setting.


EASE OF USE

If you're accustomed to using SLR cameras, the D50 will be comfortable for you to use. The vast majority of the camera's settings are done with a multi-level menu system on the LCD, and it's logical enough but could be a little more intuitive. I can't think of any usability issues with the D50 I would cite as needing attention.


BATTERY LIFE

The battery life on the D50 is very good, and it needs to be because this camera does not use standard AA cells. You have to use Nikon's own battery cells. I have been able to shoot over 1,000 photos on one charge of the batteries and I have heard other folks getting at least that many. If you expect to shoot a lot, you'll probably want an extra one.

In this era of battery technology, though, I don't see why Nikon couldn't have issued a 15-minute (or 30-minute, tops) charger for their Li-Ion battery. I have an Energizer 15-minute AA battery charger and it indeed does recharge batteries that fast. Nikon should be able to do the same.


USAGE HINTS

When you get the camera, it will be set so it resets the numbering each time you shoot a set of pictures (restarting from #1 each time). Be sure to change this so it uses consecutive numbering, or else you'll run the risk of overcopying photos when you download them from the camera to your computer.

As I mentioned before, get comfortable using manual focus; you'll need it if the camera struggles in Auto-Focus mode. It's not hard to use, but it will add to the time between photos.


OTHER POINTS

I couldn't close without mentioning a couple of other interesting things about owning the D50. The D50 looks very much like a "professional" camera – that is, the sort of camera body that people associate with being a professional photographer, such as the paparazzi. If you're the sort of photographer that enjoys shooting candids in public places like parks, you may find that people treat you differently (better and worse). I was photographing a street sign in a downtown area and a wino ran up to me and practically hollered at me not to have his photo taken (which I wasn't anyway). I have also heard anecdotally that some people strike up conversations with you because they think you're "somebody", and that one guy even had "the look" with this camera that he managed to get backstage at a concert of a national touring act. Unless you strictly use this camera for photographing family and friends, if your photography goes a bit wider, you'll feel different – more "serious" using this camera.

The other issue dovetails with that point. You may find that the D50 – along with other digital SLR's – are not permitted in or at special events or performances. I took the D50 to a major outdoor music festival and was turned away at the gate because it has a detachable lens (it's considered a "pro" camera at that point, apparently; luckily I had a little Sony point-and-shoot I was allowed to use). If I can get on a soap box for a little bit, I have to say that I think this is a silly policy. The concert and entertainment industries are making plenty and all fans want is to be able to carry away – in as crisp and colorful a manner as possible – the memories of their event. For event promoters and producers to lock the door because THEY want, exclusively, to sell THEIR version of those memories is, to me, just flat-out greedy. As the popularity of cameras such as the D50 continues to rise – and as of September 2006, this is just picking up steam, believe me – this will become more of a problem. I hope those industries will wise up and recognize that people aren't out to get over on them, but I'm not holding my breath.

Enjoy your D50, but expect a few hassles from time to time – but not with the camera.

Also, if you plan on using the camera in "L" (large) picture mode with the highest photo quality (and why else would you use anything else?), make sure you have a huge hard drive, or at least a good DVD burner. A 1 GB card will hold about 288 photos at the highest picture quality and if you shoot a lot of photos you'll fill up your hard drive pretty quickly. External USB 2.0 burners can be had now for about $100.


FINAL VERDICT

If you want to see this camera at its absolute best, I recommend using it to take short-range photos of people in natural light. Sit or stand about 2 to 3 feet from your subject and take the photo, then have a look at it. You'll be blown away. And for a street price of $600 (28-70mm zoom lens) it's well worth it. The D50 is a good, solid camera that performs well and produces wonderful photos. Be sure to shop around for accessories, too – I bought a 70-200mm lens from Ritz Camera and saved $80 off the same lens that Best Buy had for $279!

Get a D50. You'll learn more about photography and you'll enjoy the experience.