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Nikon D50 Digital Camera Preview
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Written by Dennis Hissink
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Nikon D50 - Page 6/6
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| Design |
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User-friendly operating |
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| Nikon D50 Design |
Nikon D50 User-friendly operating |
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When we handled the Nikon D50 digital SLR camera for the first time it immediately felt very good. The body is easy to handle, small, but not too small and more important your hand can really embrace the grip of the body. The body is light weight, only 540 g (without battery) and dimensions of 133x102x76mm. The compact, lightweight design of the Nikon D50 makes it easy to carry, while its body contours and accessible controls make it efficient and easy to operate. Redesigned on-screen menus on the Nikon D50's large 2-inch LCD monitor present clear, helpful user information in easy to understand language, reinforced by intuitive help dialogs linked to respective menu selections for on-the-spot reference. The high-capacity rechargeable lithium-ion battery delivers enough power to shoot up to 2,000 images on a single charge. The operation of the Nikon D50 is intuitive and familiar with ergonomically designed and sensibly located buttons and controls, including the handy multi selector and mode dial. The new 2-inch LCD display is a great format; it displays the large fonts of the easy-to-view, easy-to-understand menu design, and the intuitive help system dialogs that make understanding camera settings easy. The quality optical viewfinder features dioptre correction and information display.
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During our first impression we felt comfortable immediately with the ergonomics and operation of the Nikon D50. The menu is structured and the settings are easy to learn. Whenever extra help is needed the user can activate the Help function to get informed by the D50. The operation in record mode is straight forward and versatile LCD playback options include single image playback, thumbnail image playback (4 or 9 pictures at a time), zoom playback, slide show, easy Histogram indication for determining highlights and shadow values, and highlight point displays for even quicker highlight information, with automatic image rotation for vertical shots. The small LCD panel on top of the Nikon D50 makes it easy to confirm settings and camera status. The new Small Picture function enables the user to save photos within the camera at reduced sizes of 640x480, 320x240 or 160x120 for Internet use, etc. And thanks to the PictBridge support the user is able to print directly from the Nikon D50 to a PictBridge compatible printer via a direct USB cable connection. The Nikon D50 digital SLR camera incorporates a video interface and an USB 2.0 (Hi-Speed) interface. The video connector and supplied video cable make it easy to connect the Nikon D50 directly to a television for playing slideshows or viewing individual images. The USB 2.0 Hi-Speed interface ensures a very fast data transfer.
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| Long Exposure NR |
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Small Picture |
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AF-Area mode |
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| Nikon D50 Long Exposure NR |
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Nikon D50 Small Picture |
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Nikon D50 AF-Area mode |
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Photographs taken at slow shutter speeds are subject to 'noise'. If Noise Reduction is activated, photos taken at shutter speeds slower than about 1 sec will be processed to reduce noise before being recorded to the memory card. Note that the time required to process images more than doubles when noise reduction is on; during processing, the display shown at right appears in the control panel and viewfinder. The next photo can be taken when the display stops blinking.
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This new function creates small JPEG copies of selected image files for e-mail or web use. By choosing Select Pictures to select the pictures desired and select Choose Size to choose a size from 640x480, 320x240 or 160x120 pixels. To understand the shrink factor; a 640x480 pixel copy is about 1/20 of the size of a Large photo (3008x2000 pixels). This functions is handy to do some processing within the camera and could save some time here and there.
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There are three AF-Area modes to be selected; Single Area when the user selects the area manually and camera focuses only in selected area, Dynamic Area when camera uses information from multiple focus areas to determine focus and Closest subject when the camera automatically selects focus area containing subject closest to camera.
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Nikon D50 SLR |
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| Editors conclusion: |
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| "The first time I took the Nikon D50 in my hands it immediately felt comfortable and like I would have expected a Nikon body to feel. I mean no plastic feeling, light weight, but not too light, easy access, intelligent software built-in with lots of 'giving difficult out of your hands' features, built-in flash but also possible to use external flash, manual control options to get more out of it when desired, etc. Personally I like the Nikon D50 a lot, it just gives you the right combination for an excellent price. For me as a photographer I really like the idea of getting an entry-level product to your consumer, but it's not a product that is very limited for its task. Nikon gives their consumers a product that will help them understand more about digital photography without having to learn, just play with it. A great combo!" |
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| Nikon D50 The two bodies of the Nikon D70s and the Nikon D50 next to each other |
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| < previous page - Nikon D50 Preview |
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Also read our Nikon D70s Preview |
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