How far behind is my D50 now?

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Deleted member 4644

I like taking night shots, esp shots of landscapes and architecture. I just bought a Tonika 11-16mm f2.8 for that purpose.

So.. Considering the above, how much is my D50 body holding me back? I know its fairly old, I am aware of the D80 and coming D90. And the Cannon 12mp model..

Are any of those going to change my world, or can my D50 do decent shots? So far I have never printed any shots, I enjoy them on the computer screen. Someday I wan to get into printing them.
 

Kirby64

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Apr 24, 2006
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Looking at the specs on wikipedia, (I don't know Nikons very well :p) I would say I doubt it's holding you back. The camera body has FAR less to do with image quality than the quality of the glass. Even further, your skills as a photographer have even more to do with picture quality than the glass.

The question you have to ask yourself is: "What does <insert newer camera here> offer than my current camera doesn't?"

6 megapixel isn't that bad really. The whole megapixel thing is pretty pointless once you get past a certain amount. (I'd say anything past 8 starts gaining massive diminishing returns, and even from 6 -> 8 isn't that noticable)
 

soydios

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Mar 12, 2006
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It's still able to capture the same great images as when you bought it. The camera's abilities are not declining.

I <3 my D50. It's the best value for your dollar in the Nikon world right now. The top LCD, in-body autofocus motor, 5-point autofocus, and EN-EL3 battery put it far ahead of the D40.

How's the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8? I'm thinking of picking that lens up for DX wide-angle.
 

QuixoticOne

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Nov 4, 2005
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For viewing on a low resolution (i.e. anything that exists) computer monitor, a 6MP D50 is just fine.
If you wanted to print 13x19 or 11x14 or larger then the 6MP resolution would be a little less than optimum.
If you wanted to do a lot of digital enlargement, again, resolution higher than 6MP can help.

The main effective problems with the D50 in your situation might be:

a) The image gets kind of noisy at 1600 ISO (the D50's maximum); some other CCDs/cameras may have better high ISO lower noise performance. But the D50 is definitely "decent" or at least "average" AFAIK.

b) The autofocus may not be good enough depending on the contrast / sharpness / luminance of what you're photographing. For something like a night sky shot, for instance, where the camera often has basically nothing it can "see" easily to focus on, you'll have problems. Same if you wanted to do a long exposure night landscape shot where the landscape is so dark that the AF system doesn't have enough light / contrast to work.

c) The manual focus is not very usable in many cases, certainly there have been better split ring focusers and bigger viewfinder optics, viewfinders with magnification accessories, viewfinders with diopter corrections, et. al. on other cameras that make it easier to manually focus a shot in cases where AF doesn't work.

d) The D50 has limitations in its exposure timings, I forget whether it is 30 seconds or 60 seconds on manual mode, and how much longer it can usefully go on 'bulb' (hold the button down manually for the duration of the shot) mode. Certainly there are cameras out there that have somewhat longer programmable exposure times. Certainly there are ones with more kinds of 'cable release' options, though the IR remote for the D50 might help in this case.

5) Certainly some cameras other than the D50 support 'mirror lock up' mode where you can leave the mirror up so you don't get any body / lens / tripod shake due to the motion at the beginning of the exposure.

6) Some cameras have a live preview or continuous shooting mode where you can attach the camera to a computer over USB and see continuous or iterative previews or video of the scene so you can adjust your focus, exposure settings, framing, zoom, or whatever. You can do some subset of these things in a limited way with remote capture / computer control utilities on the D50 but other models may have superior features depending on your needs. Certainly having a mode where the image isn't stored to local FLASH at all but just is uploaded to the computer can be handy for various kinds of astrophotography or time lapse continuous shooting type situations.

7) Other models may have somewhat more advanced light metering or auto focus that may help.

8) Other models may have more flexibility for hotshoe or wireless flash / TTL flash et. al. modes depending on your flash gear and needs.

9) For best results with advanced photographic techniques like certain kinds of night photography or astrophotography, it is usually far superior to shoot in RAW mode and do corrections on the computer since you don't lose so much information / dynamic range in the conversion to JPEG in the camera. You may not like the NIKON based or compatible RAW processing software as compared to other tools / vendors / formats. It is up to you.

10) You might prefer shooting with a different lens selection or in a wider format than the D50's DSLR or whatever depending on your needs. Of course getting a body to match the lens / mount you need is important if you find one lens set is superior to another for your work. Certainly the bigger the aperture and faster the F/ratio the more light you'll gather and the shorter night exposure times will be. Using something like a telescope or whatever can sometimes be superior to a conventional lens in these criteria depending on your needs. The D50 isn't especially good at telescope mounting due to various of the limitations discussed above, but it is not unworkable by any means, there just are bodies with somewhat improved features that make it easier to do.

Those are about all the reasons why the D50 might compare favorably or unfavorably to another camera body. There are relatively few "consumer" DSLRs that will do much better than the D50 in these respects. There are more prosumer / professional bodies that are significantly superior in most of these categories, though I haven't seen that they compare favorably in value as of yet personally to justify prices that may be 4x that of the D50.

Certainly there's nothing "wrong" with the D50, and it is a great body for the generation and value that it had. I use one myself. Compare the work that Ansel Adams or many of the astrophotographers of the 1800s-early 1900s had to do with glass plates, box cameras, et. al. and you'll realize that there's little to complain about concerning the sensitivity / resolution / noise of the D50.

Pragmatically I'd say that if you eventually (next year?) found a good 12MP unit with comparable noise at ISO 1600/3200 than you presently get at ISO 800, and which had some superior focusing / exposure / ruggedness / whatever characteristics and good/better lenses then it might be worth $200-$400 to upgrade if it is a big deal for you. Otherwise I really doubt you're going to do MUCH better than the D50. If the D50's limitations were wholly unsatisfactory to you, I assume you'd already know it and would be more seriously looking for an alternative.

 

Deadtrees

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Dec 31, 2002
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It's not about what others have to say about it, it's about how you feel and what you think.
If you don't feel limited by D50, it's good enough, no matter what others say. For me, D50 would feel terribly outdated. I need a lot more megapixels, AF speed, fps, and IQ.
 

dblevitan

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May 1, 2001
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Actually, I think the D50, specifically for night shots, is way behind the top end of the market. This is coming as a D70 owner who agrees that for most things, a D70/D50 is perfectly fine. However, for high ISO work what the D3 (and now, I believe, the D700 as well) can do is amazing. Specifically, take a look at the review by Bjørn Rørslett. He really showed what the D3 can do for night shots and it was rather impressive. Whether the D300 or D90 can emulate this as well I don't know, but I'm sure they're much better than the D50 for high ISO work.