Nikon D50 or D70

Shelster · 3 Jul 2006 at 11:38

Hi all. Firstly, could you please excuse my ignorance/stupidity/full on neewbishness (not sure if thats a word or not) about photography.

I currently have a Fuji Finepix S650z, which whilst a good camera for taking shots with, i would really like to move up to a full on DSLR.

Have been searchin on the tintyweb and like the look of the Nikon D50. Was thinking of getting this with the Nikon 18-55 and Sigma 70-300 DG lenses.

Looking throught the specs, it looks quite comparable to the D70 with a few exceptions. The one that i noticed most was the aperture preview. Is this a needed option or will this be visable throught the view finder (told you i didnt know much).

Also, is this a good lense choice?

Cheers all

Paul

mrk · 3 Jul 2006 at 12:53

The 18-70 is a far better lens for sharpness and resolution but the 18-55 is also good (Canon 18-55 good, probably better in fact)

the d50 has a newer revision sensor and has less noise at iso800+ and is probably quite similar to 350D noise from samples on the web so take that into account but the d70/s is faster and has a lot more features that will allowyou to progress further so you wont need to buy a new body in like a year or 2.

Joe T · 3 Jul 2006 at 19:58

D70 is/has:

- bigger body
- separate aperture and shutter controls
- not much else tbh

hoodmeister · 3 Jul 2006 at 20:06

Aside from what has been mentioned above, it's lots of little things which seperate the 70 from the 50. Things that are very handy if you have them (and know you have them) - but that you likely wouldn't miss.

reddeathdrinker · 3 Jul 2006 at 21:29

I went for the D50 and the Tamron 70-300mm LD Macro 1:2 lens. There's a couple of samples on show at http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17595903

I have used my old mans D70 previously, and I find nothing lacking in the D50. It 's a great "starter" DSLR (if there is such a thing. Enough settings to keep you amused for hours, but not to such a degree that it gets tedious learning.

Adam Senior · 3 Jul 2006 at 21:39

iv got a d50 and i was a Uber NUb before i bought this...its a nice camera for the beginner but im finding allot of new features every day..worth every penny.

jhmaeng · 4 Jul 2006 at 09:19

mrk said:
The d50 has a newer revision sensor and has less noise at iso800+ and is probably quite similar to 350D noise from samples on the web so take that into account

I'm pretty sure that D50 has exactly the same sensor as the D70 - the difference in the JPGs (especially noise) are apparently down to a more aggressive noise reduction algorithm in the processing engine, and the exact same (if not better) can be achieved by using RAW from the D70.

Certainly, when I use the Noise Reduction on the Nikon Capture on my D70 RAW files, the noise is reduced dramatically and chroma noise (coloured blotches) is more or less gone fairly swiftly.

mrk · 4 Jul 2006 at 09:24

It's a newer revision sensor

The D50 incorporates a new 6.1 effective megapixel Nikon DX Format CCD image sensor and a highly advanced image processing engine

jhmaeng · 4 Jul 2006 at 09:39

Actually, I just checked and you're right. The resolution is also different (albeit only by 40 odd pixels per axis).

Which begs the question.. why didn't they use the same in the D70s, then? They were both released basically at the same time, so if the D50 sensor is actually better than the D70s, there's no reason why Nikon wouldn't have used the same on the D70s as well...?

bigredshark · 7 Jul 2006 at 21:49

The D70 is worth the extra if you plan to stick with the same body for a while. You might need more than the D50 gives you in 12 months if you get into it seriously. Look at a second hand D70 as well, I'm about to sell mine as an example and it's pretty well mint condition, it'll be even cheaper than a D50 as well.

Lens wise the 18-55 is a very good value lens, it's better value for money than the 18-70 in terms of image quality, though it feels a bit plasticy. I have the sigma 70-300 apo dg (like nikon ED glass) and it's a good lens, if only a stop gap until I can afford the 70-200VR.

Rikki · 11 Jul 2006 at 18:39

I had a look at the D50 and 70s before plumping for my S3 a couple of weeks ago. There isnt a lot in it with the 50 and 70 and things like the DOF preview is something I have never used in 3 years of using an S2 Pro. The only thing I didnt like abou the 50 was the size, it is quite small and next to a larger body looks quite cheap.

R.