I love me some D50s

[joeymas]

In light of the fact that I just bought another D50 this weekend, I decided to blog about why I did so on my site. - I felt I would share with the forum as well.


My secret is cheap cameras! I once had a professional look and my camera while I was shooting out on the beach in Miami. We got into a geek discussion on equipment when out of nowhere he started picking on my D50. For those that do not know, the Nikon D50 is over a decade old when it comes to DSLR cameras.

I have a love affair with the D50 and always have. First off... They are a workhorse and built incredibly solid. I have never had one fail on me as I have had with newer models. Second, I can get amazing quality out of them because I know the camera inside and out.

Being a professional, I have several cameras in my collection. My D50s are great back ups should something go wrong on a job. They are awesome to take places where you may not want to have to worry about your equipment. The beach or shooting in bad weather or maybe even night club and bar events where a camera can get ruined.

The greatest part about keeping D50s around is that they are easily replaced for under 200.00. It is a nice quality, professional DSLR that is expendable.

Would I ever take a D50 to a wedding? Hells yes! I shoot weddings with a D7000 however I usually have that 7000 on manual and I am trying to be artistic with it. While shooting a wedding, there are always guests that may tug at your arm and ask for a photo. Instead of changing all the settings on the 7000 for a quick snap shot, I can reach down to my D50 outfitted with my trusty 18-55 lense and fire off the shot in seconds.

When you consider the D50 is fast, durable, cheap and produces good quality photographs, I feel that it is the perfect back up camera to have in an "Oh ****" moment.

 

[pixmedic]

interestingly enough....
Since your a fan of the older Nikons, I dug out one of the last boxes of old photo gear I have left and found this.
D100 with OEM MB-D100 grip and the good old 18-70mm kit lens.
she still works great and is in mint condition! I even got the 3 batteries charged up.

 

[shadowlands]

I've often considered grabbing a clean D50 to play around with. Had a D40 back in the days. Nothin' but love.
But today, I'd go for a D50 because it has the AF motor. The last small body to include it, I believe.

 

[pixmedic]

Lordy...
I forgot how small the D100's screen was.
especially compared to a D600.

 

[Derrel]

The D50 was the first Nikon to have a "punchy" JPEG engine in it...the SOOC images were quite different from the muted look of the D100. Pretty sure KmH picked himself up a used D50 a couple of months back. They really don;t cost much these days.

Those tiny little rear LCD's!!! Man, oh man!!! it's like old TV sets! Remember when a 32-inch TV set was considered a big tee-vee???

 

[pixmedic]

The D50 was the first Nikon to have a "punchy" JPEG engine in it...the SOOC images were quite different from the muted look of the D100. Pretty sure KmH picked himself up a used D50 a couple of months back. They really don;t cost much these days.

Those tiny little rear LCD's!!! Man, oh man!!! it's like old TV sets! Remember when a 32-inch TV set was considered a big tee-vee???

I was surprised to see that the D100's have dropped under $100 on ebay.
my poor D100...It was nice seeing it for a few minutes. Back to the closet it goes!

 

[fjrabon]

haha, I was just saying the other day that the D50 is probably the oldest camera I'd feel comfortable shooting paid work with, if I had to. But I wouldn't hesitate if I did. Nice images, built like a tank, controls still feel at home to me.

 

[goodguy]

Sorry but I am just not too impressed with the D50.
Maybe it was impressive then but not anymore.
For me impressive is flexibility, and not limiting gear.
I have a D60 (not comparing it to the D50) excellent camera but only in good lighting, high ISO performance is very poor so using it in low light is a bad idea.....thus not a flxible system for me.
Hey I love using the old gear, it cute, its environmentally friendly and its plain cool but nothing more then a backup in a worst case scenario.

 

[pixmedic]

haha, I was just saying the other day that the D50 is probably the oldest camera I'd feel comfortable shooting paid work with, if I had to. But I wouldn't hesitate if I did. Nice images, built like a tank, controls still feel at home to me.

Theres really nothing wrong with what the D100 produces....as long as you shoot in raw and don't let the camera do the editing. We got our first D100 in 2003, then D200's late 2006. (we skipped over the D70 in '04)
they may seem like dinosaurs now, but back in '02, the D100 was prime time state of the art badassery at its finest.
Its so much easier now...10 years ago, ISO 800 was "high ISO",Focus points were in the single digits, and VR was a sci-fi dream of the future.

 

[fjrabon]

haha, I was just saying the other day that the D50 is probably the oldest camera I'd feel comfortable shooting paid work with, if I had to. But I wouldn't hesitate if I did. Nice images, built like a tank, controls still feel at home to me.

Theres really nothing wrong with what the D100 produces....as long as you shoot in raw and don't let the camera do the editing. We got our first D100 in 2003, then D200's late 2006. (we skipped over the D70 in '04)
they may seem like dinosaurs now, but back in '02, the D100 was prime time state of the art badassery at its finest.
Its so much easier now...10 years ago, ISO 800 was "high ISO",Focus points were in the single digits, and VR was a sci-fi dream of the future.

Don't have a problem with the D100. Just never used one, so couldn't say Id definitely be comfortable with it.

 

[pixmedic]

haha, I was just saying the other day that the D50 is probably the oldest camera I'd feel comfortable shooting paid work with, if I had to. But I wouldn't hesitate if I did. Nice images, built like a tank, controls still feel at home to me.

Theres really nothing wrong with what the D100 produces....as long as you shoot in raw and don't let the camera do the editing. We got our first D100 in 2003, then D200's late 2006. (we skipped over the D70 in '04)
they may seem like dinosaurs now, but back in '02, the D100 was prime time state of the art badassery at its finest.
Its so much easier now...10 years ago, ISO 800 was "high ISO",Focus points were in the single digits, and VR was a sci-fi dream of the future.

Don't have a problem with the D100. Just never used one, so couldn't say Id definitely be comfortable with it.

its basically a D100 with no front command wheel.

 

[fjrabon]

haha, I was just saying the other day that the D50 is probably the oldest camera I'd feel comfortable shooting paid work with, if I had to. But I wouldn't hesitate if I did. Nice images, built like a tank, controls still feel at home to me.

Theres really nothing wrong with what the D100 produces....as long as you shoot in raw and don't let the camera do the editing. We got our first D100 in 2003, then D200's late 2006. (we skipped over the D70 in '04)
they may seem like dinosaurs now, but back in '02, the D100 was prime time state of the art badassery at its finest.
Its so much easier now...10 years ago, ISO 800 was "high ISO",Focus points were in the single digits, and VR was a sci-fi dream of the future.

Don't have a problem with the D100. Just never used one, so couldn't say Id definitely be comfortable with it.

its basically a D100 with no front command wheel.

Ah, I think I'm confusing the D50 and D100 then. I was thinking about the two wheel model, never used the single wheel version.

I don't want to get into this whole war again, but 1 command wheel is essentially a no go for me. I would honestly take a D90 over a D5300 without the slightest hesitation.

 

[pixmedic]

haha, I was just saying the other day that the D50 is probably the oldest camera I'd feel comfortable shooting paid work with, if I had to. But I wouldn't hesitate if I did. Nice images, built like a tank, controls still feel at home to me.

Theres really nothing wrong with what the D100 produces....as long as you shoot in raw and don't let the camera do the editing. We got our first D100 in 2003, then D200's late 2006. (we skipped over the D70 in '04)
they may seem like dinosaurs now, but back in '02, the D100 was prime time state of the art badassery at its finest.
Its so much easier now...10 years ago, ISO 800 was "high ISO",Focus points were in the single digits, and VR was a sci-fi dream of the future.

Don't have a problem with the D100. Just never used one, so couldn't say Id definitely be comfortable with it.

its basically a D100 with no front command wheel.

Ah, don't want to get into this whole war again, but 1 command wheel is essentially a no go for me. I would honestly take a D90 over a D5300 without the slightest hesitation.

nope..im with ya there bro.
2 command wheels and built in focus motor have always been dealbreakers for me. gotta have 'em.

 

[KmH]

Yep.
I have a D50.
The D50's ISO performance is excellent for the years it was made.
The D50 (D40, D40x, D70, D70s) also can x-sync non-dedicated flash units all the way up to it's max shutter speed of 1/4000, and dedicated flash units up to 1/500.

These were shot (Raw) at the D50's max (native) ISO - 1600 at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa last June when the World of Outlaws Sprint Car series came to Knoxville.
I batch added 1 EV of exposure (to the equivalent of ISO 3200) to all the shots I made that night and did no - none - nada - noise reduction. Do that with many of today's DSLRs and a bunch of noise will become visible.

He hit the outside wall coming out of turn 4 onto the straight and slid almost all the way to turn 1 (note the broken right front suspension).

Knoxville Raceway is the Capital of the Sprint Car world and puts on the yearly, week long, Knoxville Nationals - THE premier Sprint Car races of the year.

The AMA National series was also on the card that night.

 

[KmH]

The D50 was Nikon's 1st single command wheel, lower entry-level DSLR and it proceeded the D40.
The D50 hit the market in June of 2005, so the model will hit it's 10th anniversary this year.

I did miss having a second command wheel, so I bought a D200.

And then got to thinking it would be fun to make stills, some video some and time-lapse with a DSLR on a long distance (5176 miles) train trip I'm taking in May, so I bought a D300s. I'm not taking the D50 on the train, just the D200 and D300s.
It remains to be seen if I will have sufficient motivation to edit it all into a presentable travelogue video when I get back, or not.