Use your browser's "Back" button to return to the previous page, or the links at the top and bottom of this page to navigate to related information. If you have difficulty fitting the text on this page onto your printer output, simply resize your browser window to a narrower width and print again.

Dave here: Have our reviews been helpful to you? (Is this article you're reading right now useful?) Preparing this level of information on as many products as we do is incredibly hard work, not to mention expensive. Things on the Internet may look like they're free, but they're not. (As a lot of big dot.com companies are finding out these days.) Somewhere, somebody has to pay to produce worthwhile content. YOU can help us though, by remembering us when it comes time to make your purchase. Would you consider coming back to our site and clicking-through to one of our advertisers to make your purchase? Every dollar you spend with one of our advertisers helps us directly (in affiliate fees) or indirectly (the advertiser will keep renewing their ad contract with us). To make it easy for you to support us, here's a URL you can visit, to see all our current advertisers, with links to click on that will register your visit to them as having come from our site. It's up to you where you buy, but Mike, Mike, Kim, Yazmin, Marti and I would be really grateful if you'd help us out by choosing one of our advertisers to purchase from.

Back to Full Nikon D50 Review
Go to Nikon D50 Data Sheet
Go to Nikon D50 Pictures Page
Up to Imaging Resource Cameras Page

	*	Price breakthrough brings high-quality digital body for under $750.
	*	6.1 megapixel CCD, 3,008 x 2,000 pixel images
	*	ISO from 200 to 1600
	*	3 frames per second with instant power-up
	*	Part of Nikon "Total Imaging System"
	*	Compatible with >90% of all Nikon F-mount lenses ever made!

Nikon D50 Manufacturer Overview

As I always seem to say, Nikon is truly a name that needs no introduction in the world of photography, long associated with superior lenses and rugged, functional cameras. In the digital world, they arguably kicked off the era of the mass-market professional digital SLR with their original D1 several years ago. They went through a bit of a lull a bit over a year ago, which ended with the breakthrough D70, a particularly strong product that combined an excellent feature set with an excellent "kit" lens and equally good picture quality to become one of the leading cameras of the last year.

Now, the Nikon D50 extends most of the capabilities of the D70 down to a lower price point and in a somewhat simplified format that seems intended to capture the hearts, minds, and pocketbooks of the vast "family photographer" market. As you'll see in the review that follows, the Nikon D50 provides a superb combination of ease of use and advanced features, in a trimmer, more compact package than the previous D70. As the digital SLR market continues to move more mainstream, the Nikon D50 appears perfectly poised to capture a broad segment of it, providing great ease of use without "dumbing down" its capabilities for more advanced users.

There's still clearly a place for the D70 (now updated as the D70s), but from what we've seen in our tests, the new Nikon D50 seems poised to be another huge success for the company as the SLR market expands into the more purely consumer realm.

High Points

• 6.1 megapixel CCD delivering a maximum image resolution of 3008 x 2000 pixels.
• 1/500 flash sync, 1/4,000 second top shutter speed.
• SLR design with true, TTL optical viewfinder.
• 2.0 inch 130,000 pixel TFT LCD with adjustable brightness.
• Polycarbonate body over a metal frame for strength with low weight.
• Interchangeable F mount lens design accommodates a wide range of Nikkor lenses, type D and type G recommended. 1.5x multiplier applies to focal length.
• Body supports both mechanically-coupled and all-electronic AF-S lenses.
• Program, Digital Vari-Program (Scene), Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority and Manual exposure modes.
• New 3D color matrix metering II exposure system, integrating 420-segment RGB white balance sensor.
• AF system offers single and continuous servo modes, as well as new Auto Selection (AF-A) mode, in addition to manual focus.
• Depth of field preview button.
• TTL flash exposure metering in three modes (with the SB-800 or SB-600 flash units).
• ISO 200 - 1,600 exposure range.
• White balance has auto, six manual modes, and preset option.
• Three color modes, plus contrast, saturation, hue, and sharpness adjustments.
• Built in, five-mode popup flash.
• External flash hot shoe.
• Continuous shooting, Auto Exposure Bracketing, and Self-Timer modes.
• JPEG, RAW (NEF) and JPEG + RAW (NEF) file formats.
• Uses SD memory cards.
• USB cable for computer connection
• Five-area AutoFocus.
• Included CD-ROM loaded with PictureProject software.
• NTSC Video cable for connection to TV. 

Given all that's new and improved with the D50, I thought it would be helpful to readers to compare its features against those of the earlier D100, as well as against various other manufacturer's models. Here's the results of our (myself and news editor Mike Tomkins) poring through the spec sheets for the various cameras, as well as my own previous tests and reviews. The first table below compares the D50 with current and recent Nikon models in its price/performance range, while the table on the following page shows how it stacks up against various models by other manufacturers.

D50 vs Competing Models