First experiences with the D50

[yardcoyote]

Thanks to the Other Old Pentaxian, who produced two 512 MB SD cards out of a junk drawer somewhere, I was able to take my new old D50 out for the first time this morning. It's everything the posters here and elsewhere said it was, particularly as regards color rendering. It's also a very nice camera to handle-- it may be simply a matter of it being a good fit for me, but it points like nobody's business. Can't wait to try it with a small, light prime lens, although as you will see here, the kit zoom is (as several people told me) just fine outside and indoors in good light. I am also finding the light meter notably accurate in center weighted mode. In general, this seems like a good, sound camera that is going to be a lot of fun to explore, and I am extremely grateful to the friend who passed it on to me.

But the test of any camera is the images, and here are a few jpegs from this morning. Files are maximum size, color set at normal, sharpening at medium. All are straight out of camera, though I have added a 30 second tweak version of the last one. The dusty phone in the shop was the first successful shot.











And the tweaked version of the above:

 

[ggbutcher]

Nice!

Still using my D50; it's our grab-n-go for around the house. If you shoot in normal light and post on the web or print small, it works really well still. I did eventually upgrade, primarily to get a little more dynamic range. I just welded the 18-200mm zoom to it, and it shoots nice all day.

Edit: Looking through my old D50 images when I was shooting straight to JPEG, ran across this one from 2014:

 

[New Day Rising]

It's a gem, isn't it? Lovely shots that really show up the colours.

Of course, if you're shooting in low light or you need really fast AF or lots of focus points for sports, or you want to do wildlife and crop heavily, newer cameras will be better. But point it at the right subject (it seems to love leaves and flowers) and it is very satisfying.

 

[Hansa Yindee]

.

Good little camera used it for a few years

before upgrading to a D300.

Produced some outstanding photos .. ;-)

.

 

[yardcoyote]

Can't argue with that railroading image.

 

[yardcoyote]

I too love leaves and flowers. Beginning to wonder if I should buy it a macro lens ...

 

[New Day Rising]

I too love leaves and flowers. Beginning to wonder if I should buy it a macro lens ...

It would love it - but the 28-80 has a very nice close focus on its own. Not the same as macro of course...

 

[Moofner]

Very nice samples of what the D50 can do. That little contrast tweak of the last image was just the right touch. It is as you've found out a great handling camera. It's one of the main reasons when shopping for my first DSLR that I chose it over the Canon counterpart (Rebel, I believe) when I bought it back in 2006. No comparison, just felt great in the hand and pointed so naturally.

As others have mentioned, high-ISO ain't the D50's strong suit. Noise has always been the curse of any CCD sensor when cranking up the ISO, not just peculiar to the D50. Okay, so you use a flash indoors when necessary and/or faster lenses. I also recommend that if you're going to be shooting under incandescent light, use a grey card to create a custom white balance setting, thus no pumpkin people.

Regarding print size from a 6MP sensor, plenty of D50 users have reported getting beautiful, sharp prints up to 20x30, especially if shooting RAW and with a good lens. I've seen some myself and you'd never know they hadn't been taken with a 24MP+ camera.

By the way I downloaded one of your sample images and peeked into the EXIF data a little further. Your D50 has a shutter count just under 1,900 shots, so it's still just a baby.

 

[yardcoyote]

First of all, thanks for the shutter count-- I hadn't gotten that far into it and you've saved me a step. And what good news it is. I should have this nice little camera for many years to come.

I agree 100% with your handling comment. About 5 years ago, when I was shopping for my first DSLR, everyone I know was shooting Canon and I tried a couple and found them very blah in the hand. Then I discovered that Pentax was still in business and went with my first love from my film days. (Not that I'm sorry-- my K-5IIS is a great camera.) But I never got around to giving Nikon more than a glance, and maybe I should have. This one fits me like a glove.

Luckily, I don't have to make the D50 into an all purpose camera. I have other gear that's good indoors, with excellent high ISO performance and highly tweakable white balance and several good fast lenses. I love outdoor walkaround and photographing plants, and I think this little guy will be happy doing just that. (I am going to get it a prime lens, though.)

 

[BGD300V1]

Or the newer 40mm f2.8 DX

 

[yardcoyote]

Thanks for the tip. The 40mm is already on the list.