Rating (out of 10)
Build: 8.5
Ease of use: 9.0
Image quality: 9.0
Value for money: 9.0

[ia] Designed and priced to attract 'family' photographers, Nikon's D50 is the second DSLR on the market to use an SD card for image storage, rather than the CF card type used by other DSLRs. The saving in space has produced a slightly smaller and lighter camera than the D70 model, which remains on the market in the form of the D70s. The D50 is cheaper than the D70s, which will make it attractive to newcomers to DSLR photography. It has many similar features, although some functions have been eliminated and others made simpler to use.

Unlike the D70, the D50 will be sold in black and silver versions but its body also consists of a polycarbonate shell that covers a metal frame, the combination providing both lightness and strength. The new camera feels comfortable to hold - but is slightly less refined in construction than the D70s and has only one command dial. This is located on the rear panel and is used with various buttons to control camera settings.

The lens mount supports Nikon's latest DX-series lenses, along with most of the company's 35mm optics and accessories. Nikon has equipped the D50 with the same large 2-inch display as is found on the D70s and the menu design uses the same font sizes and colours. The top LCD data display is also identical to the D70s' but lacks illumination. Neither a depth-of-field preview button nor mirror lock-up are provided and there's no cover for the LCD screen.

Most control buttons are in familiar places for users of Nikon cameras and, with the supplied 18-55mm AF-S Nikkor lens, the camera's overall balance for shooting is very good. The grip lacks finger mouldings, although the back panel has a subtly-textured thumb pad. A significant design weak point is the rubbery cover protecting the USB, Video and DC-in ports, which is attached by a narrow strap and fitted poorly on the test camera.

Significant improvements have been made to the diopter-adjustable viewfinder, which now boasts a larger, more comfortable eyecup plus a new on-screen warning that appears when no memory card has been loaded. However, on-demand grid lines are not provided. Although sharp and clear, the viewfinder doesn't quite cover the sensor's field of view so you record a little more of the subject than you thought. This may - or may not - be a good thing!

The data display along the bottom of the viewfinder window shows shutter speed, exposure compensation, flash status, focus point and mode, focus lock and flash status plus other information, as required. Five focus areas are overlaid on the field of view, the selected area changing to red or black depending on the brightness of the frame.

The pop-up flash now covers the full field of view of the 18mm lens setting, eliminating vignetting. The D50 also sports the standard Nikon flash hot-shoe, which accepts most Nikon Speedlights and supports Nikon's iTTL flash system. Flash synch is at a fast 1/500 second.

Sensor and Exposure

Although Nikon claims the D50's sensor is different from that of the D70 and D70s models, it is difficult to see exactly where the differences lie because it has the same active area and photosite count as Nikon's other 6-megapixel DSLRs. Like them, it also supports RAW and JPEG image capture. However, there's only one RAW+JPEG setting, which records JPEGs at 3008 x 2000 pixels with high (1:16) image compression. The new camera's image processing algorithms have been fine-tuned to provide better reproduction of highlight details than earlier cameras offered. In addition, the default sRGB colour space is IIIa, which is optimised to provide vivid colours for landscape and nature photography, rather than the more subdued Ia sRGB colour space, which is set up for portraits and is the default setting in the D70. Some button pressing is required to access the colour space settings, which are adjusted in the Custom sub-menu in the Optimise Image menu. This sub-menu also provides controls for tweaking image sharpness, tone (contrast) and saturation. Tone curves can be set to Auto (the default), Normal (0 adjustment), Medium Low (-1), Low Contrast (-2), Medium High (+1), High Contrast (+2), and Custom. Custom lets you download a custom tone curve created in Nikon Capture 4 (RRP $349) on a PC and apply it.

The D50's AF system has been tweaked to improve autofocusing and a new Auto-AF mode, which automatically switches between single and continuous to match subject requirements, has been added to the standard single-shot and continuous AF options. Manual focusing is also provided, via a switch on the camera body below the lens mount.

Metering has also been improved, with a new, second-generation 3D Matrix Metering system inherited from Nikon's professional cameras. The dedicated 420-pixel metering sensor works separately from the main image sensor that covers the entire frame. However, the spot metering circle on the new model is larger than the D70's and covers 2.5% of the field of view instead of 1%.

The continuous frame rate has been reduced slightly to 2.5 frames/second but the buffer has been enlarged. Separate buttons now control the burst mode and self-timer, making both easier to set and reducing reliance on the display. The meter mode button has been dispensed with to provide this convenience. Unfortunately, it's easy to inadvertently re-set the self-timer - or accidentally set the camera to self-timer mode as the button works with a single press.

Also new in the D50 is a default ISO control mode that lets the camera choose the ISO in the scene modes. You can turn this off to set your own ISO in the scene modes as before. The six Digital Vari-Program (scene) settings are almost the same as the D70's, with a Child mode replacing the Night Landscape setting to reflect the user target for the new camera. The expected P, A, S and M exposure modes are provided, along with a point-and-shoot Auto mode, which is coloured green on the mode dial for easy identification. Shutter speeds range from 1/4000 second to the longest exposure setting of 30 seconds but time exposures of up to 30 minutes can be made with the optional ML-L3 wireless remote control.

Sensitivity settings start at ISO 200 and range up to ISO 1600 and noise reduction (NR) can be applied for exposures longer than one second. This control doubles the image processing time and significantly slows continuous shooting speeds. In our tests, NR proved worthwhile for long exposures at sensitivities above ISO 400, although overall noise levels in long exposures were remarkably low, even at high ISO settings.

One area that has been pruned in the D50 is the white balance control, which has the same pre-sets and custom measurement facility as the D70 and D70s but lacks facilities for fine tuning settings. Whether users will consider this a problem will depend on how much they like to fine-tune image colour balance. We suspect most users will find it immaterial. The D50 also has fewer custom function settings, again a small deficiency we imagine few users will miss.

Performance

Image files from the test camera with the supplied 18-55mm DX lens had above-average resolution and sharpness. Colour accuracy was very good, although the default colour setting produced relatively high saturation levels for a DSLR. The result was pictures with vibrant colours and a general look that is more in line with good minilab prints than the comparatively natural-looking colour reproduction of Nikon's D70 and D70s models. Swapping to either the Ia sRGB or the Adobe RGB colour space produced a colour rendition that was closer to that of the D70s

Imatest detected a slight fall-off in image resolution towards the edges of shots, particularly at wide lens apertures. Whether users would notice this trivial edge softening is debatable; it's certainly not enough to affect the overall impression of high performance that the D50 creates.

The built-in flash was an excellent performer, delivering enough light to cover an average-sized room at all ISO settings, although it was a little too powerful for close-ups unless flash compensation was used to knock its intensity back by a stop or two. White balance performance was also generally good, with the auto and manual settings both delivering a close-to-accurate colour balance under both incandescent and fluorescent lighting. The Custom (measurement) setting made a slight improvement in colour accuracy.

Our main gripe about the D50 is the bundled software, PictureProject, which is over-automated, non-intuitive and slow. As the 'encrypted' white balance in NEF-RAW files from the camera limits the use of third party RAW converters, such as Adobe Camera Raw, this makes using the camera for RAW capture quite frustrating. You can download the older Nikon View software from Nikon' European website (www.nikon-euro.com) if you want a slightly more functional converter or simply accept the issues associated with fine-tuning your image files once you've opened them in an editing program. We feel it's time Nikon provided a capable RAW file converter free of charge with its cameras. Other manufacturers do. [25]

Image sensor: 23.7 x 15.6mm RGB CCD with 6.24 million photosites (6.1 megapixels effective)
Lens mount: Nikon F mount (with AF coupling and contacts)
Lens multiplier factor: 1.5x
Image formats: NEF-RAW (compressed, 12-bit), JPEG (Exif 2.21-compliant)
Shutter speed range: 30-1/4000 sec
ISO range: Auto, ISO 200-1600 (adjustable in 1EV steps)
Dimensions (wxhxd): 133 x 102 x 76mm
Weight: 540g (without lens, battery, memory card or body cap)
Focus system/modes: TTL phase detection by Nikon Multi-CAM 900 autofocus module; single-area and dynamic area AF plus manual focus
Exposure metering/control: TTL full-aperture metering with 3D Colour Matrix, centre-weighted and spot metering; P, A, S, M plus 6 scene modes
White balance: Auto (TTL white balance with 420 -pixel RGB sensor), six manual modes, preset white balance, white balance bracketing possible
Flash GN (m at ISO 200): 11
Sequence shooting: approx. 2.5fps
Storage Media: SD Memory Card (no card supplied)
Viewfinder: Fixed eye-level penta-Dach-mirror type; built-in diopter adjustment (-1.6 to +0.5m -1); approx. 95% coverage
LCD monitor: 2.0-inch, 130,000-dot, low-temperature polysilicon TFT LCD with brightness adjustment
PC interface: USB 2.0 (Hi-Speed)
Power supply: EN-EL3 rechargeable lithium-ion battery