D50 or D70

infokill said:
Yup i've been going to b&h for years now. Thanks.
Just orderd my d50 and 50mm lense!!!!!!!!!!! :)
Thanks everyone!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

I made a post earlier that Overstock.com has the D50 body kit for $459... That's $100 less than B&H.

-Jeremy
 
Thats body only right?
I wanted the stock lense too, with the 50mm. The deal i got also comes with a 1gig memeory card, so i wanted that too.
Im now looking for a cheap wireless flash set up for the d50.
 
I have a question for you D50 and D70s guys... if you could get a D70s for $140 more then a D50, and as part of that $140 you get a 3 year warranty instead of 1 year, and a nikon bag... would you pay the extra $140?

I'm thinking that makes the most sense for me, but I read the reviews that you guys linked and they make the D50 sound superior to the D70s in a couple of performance details (and then the D70s gets the nod on some other performance issues).

So what would you do? Should I put that $140 towards a better lens and go with the D50 or should I get the D70s?
 
The D70 has some features that the D50 doesn't have, but the D50, according to dpreview.com has lower noise and a couple of features the D70 doesn't have. I think the D70s is a step above the D50, but the features it has don't seem to merit the significant increase in price.

If it was MY money I would go for the D50 because that extra $140 seems better suited towards buying lenses (especially if it was you, and have expensive tastes in glass). That is just my opinion, but then again, is the extra money between a MKH60 over a MKH416 (about $140) make that big of a difference?

If you have a wolf camera or ritz camera you can go down there, hold them both and see the differences. I don't mind the menus and buttons of the D50 and think it is very user friendly, but then again I haven't shot with the D70s, only read stuff about it.

-Jeremy
 
I'm leaning pretty heavily to the D50... it's just that for $140 to cover a crappy bag and a 3 year warranty... that alone seems pretty good. At this point the only thing pulling me towards the D70s is that you can get a flash and use it wirelessly and it's automatically controlled from the D70s... I always wanted to use a wireless flash with my Canon, but I had to buy a transmitter that goes in the hotshoe... which was about $200... so having that function built-in would be really cool. Just as you use lighting for video you can set up strobes for stills... and there's no deciding levels, the cam decides... so all you have to know is that girl will look good with a bounce flash from the side... orginating from nowhere near the camera... or maybe you want to light up a car in a parking lot... with the flash on the ground and way out to the side... so that the parking lot lights give you a nice star, but the car also gets perfectly lit independently. See how that could be a really cool tool?

The only problem is that at this point NOW I've read everything you've read... and they sure make it seem like the D50 is actually the BETTER camera of the two! Aside from the couple of controls and that wireless flash ability built-in... it seems that the D50 actually is more capable of producing a pleasing shot... and the tracking AF is more advanced then even the D70s.

So that kind of sucks, because ultimately I care more about getting overall pleasing images then anything else... so I almost HAVE to go with the D50 because in the end, I think most of the pictures will be more visually appealing... wireless flash tricks notwithstanding.

The other thing is I think the D50 is really ergo... I felt one locally and it feels great in the hands... I have big hands and it feels way better then the Canon Rebel XT (which was right next to it)... but it still SEEMS kind of compact... so ergonomically I think the D50 is the best of both worlds... big enough to be comfortable in big hands, but still compact for a DSLR.

I only WISH the D70s would have been at least EQUAL to the D50 in the tracking AF and overall image quality... that would have made the choice easy! If I go with the 70 instead of the 50 I'll feel stupid at least until I get the flash... the only other thing that's even remotely significant to me is the mirror lock up and DOF preview... so there's 3 things in the 70's corner... but when you compare those "features" with the 50's "performance" I'd feel weird paying more for the 70... even if they were the exact same price I'd still have the same tough decision on my hands.
 
MattinSTL,

Tough choice.

I know I wrestled with both and for me, the d50 just made more sense. The good news is I don't think either is a bad decision.

Chris
 
I think I'm about to make the plunge to the D70s at some point soon, for the simple reason that I own two CF cards already, and intend to get a Marantz PMD660 soon, as well. Otherwise, the cams seem close enough to me (but for the regrettable RAW compression on the 70), that it's a toss-up.
 
From cord camera you can get the D70s for $639 w/ 3 year warranty... and the D50 is the same deal at $519... so it's only $120 difference. Bodies only of course... don't be stupid noobs.

Well I've wrestled with it for a long time... and it is a really tough decision... I can't believe Nikon would have those cams positioned like this! Clearly the deal is that the D50 is actually the latest generation and the D70s is on the cusp of an upgrade. I'd bet my left... that the D70s becomes something else in less then 6 months at the MOST... AND that the sensor in the D50 finds it's way into the D70s' successor.

Remote flash control is a big deal... that ALONE is easily worth the $120... but the really stupid thing is that you must CHOOSE to get worse images! Did you guys see the moire examples? Moire is next to non-existent in the D50 and it's a serious factor in the D70s... and we all know from doing video what a huge pain in the ass moire can be! The other thing is digital noise... which is admittedly low on both cameras... but it's lower AND more pleasing in character on the D50! On the D50 going to a higher ISO looks exactly as it does when in FILM you go to higher ISO! The images just get grainy... not grainy bad (on the D50) but film grainy! This again... is a BIG deal! I don't know how Nikon did it... but the D50 behaves more like a film SLR and less like a digital cam...

So yeah... the choice freakin' sucks! To be honest I REALLY want to go with the D70s because of the flash thing... if you've never done that you can't realize just how huge of a deal that is... INFOKILL was perceptive to make that such a big deal... he/she kept asking if the D50 could run a flash wirelessly... and I didn't know at the time or I would have answered him/her.

So what a ***** of a decision that is...

D70s The Good: wireless flash control built in, backlighted LCD, 1 dial for shutter PLUS 1 dial for aperature, gridlines on the screen/viewer for composition, compact flash memory.

D70s The Bad: slightly worse images then the d50 when shooting an apples to apples comparison.

D50 The Good: $120 cheaper then D70s ($ to put towards 2.8 glass), better AF tracking of moving objects, slightly better images then the d70s when shooting an apples to apples comparison... gap widens on high ISO, and way better if moire is involved!

D50 The Bad: Lacks all of the features listed as D70s the good.
 
I've been trying to get an answer on the net... can I use ANY SD card in a D50 if I go that route?

Newegg has 4gb SD in really high speeds for $85 approx... various brands. Where is the compatibility chart from Nikon? I'd hate to buy a card and have it not work in the cam.

This actually raises another + for the D50... if I get a 4gb SD card I'm just going to treat it like built-in memory and never take it out again, thanks to the high-speed USB 2.

So what's up with that? Will any 4gb SD card work okay?
 
You answered your own question... The D50 has a better image. What more is there to look at?

I know the wireless flash is a big deal, trust me, the more I am looking at things the bigger of an issue that becomes, but at the same time, there are after market things you can do, plus sometimes it isn't about the flash, just the lighting. That's how I'm approaching this. You can still get the speedlights and bounce the flash, but you just can't do it wirelessly.

At the end of the day, image quality, and the D50 does that. Regarding the seperate dials, well it is just then hitting a button as you adjust the dial, really simple and never a problem. I like the D50, so I might be in the fan boy camp here. Regardless, break it down like this:

Option One: Spend $120 get wireless flash and worse image
Option Two: Spend $120 less get better image but lose wireless flash.

I disagree with the CF being a pro or con... SD works just as well.

Personally I would save the $120 and use it on 50mm 1.8 lens.

-Jeremy
 
MattinSTL said:
I've been trying to get an answer on the net... can I use ANY SD card in a D50 if I go that route?

Newegg has 4gb SD in really high speeds for $85 approx... various brands. Where is the compatibility chart from Nikon? I'd hate to buy a card and have it not work in the cam.

This actually raises another + for the D50... if I get a 4gb SD card I'm just going to treat it like built-in memory and never take it out again, thanks to the high-speed USB 2.

So what's up with that? Will any 4gb SD card work okay?
Click to expand...

Nikon only guarantees that certain brands will work. That said, I am using a 1gig card that works perfectly even though it wasn't listed on the Nikon site. I know that you won't have a problem with a card up to 2gig, but I don't know about the 4gig card. Transfering from the camera a 1gig card takes about 4-5 minutes when it is maxed out (then again, I don't think I have USB2.0 on my computer)...

I don't think that you would have any problem with a 4gig card, in fact, I'm tempted to buy one and find out for myself as 4x the memory I currently have excites me.

-Jeremy
 
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