D50-D70.....what is the difference?

[Irish]

OK pleb question time,

can someone explain the difference between the D70 and D50 (bar £200 quid). Are the lenses inter-changeable?

[simpo two]

Ta-da!

www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_post.asp?method=sidebyside&cameras=nikon_d50%2Cnikon_d70&show=all

And yes, the lens mount is identical.

There are other more subtle differences between the two but you'll need to read the individual reviews to find them.

>> Edited by simpo two on Monday 17th October 18:39

[Irish]

so not that much really........in fact a bargain at £473 from Amazon with lense included.

thanks simpo.

>> Edited by Irish on Monday 17th October 18:53

[rustybin]

I came to the same conclusion as you Irish. I worked on the basis that I would rather chuck the £200 difference at lenses than the body. Back in days of yore I would have said that a good photo was 90% lens and 10% camera. Nowadays as the camera effectively comes with the film and half the processing lab built in that has probably changed to 60% lens 40% camera but the principle still applies. I don't have much experience of DSLR's but find my D50 can do pretty much everything I want. Also getting hold of a D70 was a swine at the time and I am extremely impatient.

[zhastaph]

We've been having the same discussion at work, D50 vs D70 vs that other make

He's actually gone for the D70s. The factor that really swang it was the fact that the D50 uses SD Card, a decision I'm sure Nikon took to ensure that people bought the D70 over it - as other than that the differences are minor.

I'm not sure you can get SD Cards bigger than 1GB, full res JPGs weigh in at about 2mb so you can get lots on a card, but I've recently discovered RAWs with zero intention of going back, these weigh in at about 5mb and can seriously yumm a card.

SD Cards are not as quick either which will make a difference if you're planning on streaming continuous shots to the camera as once the cache is full you're then dependant on the write speed of the media.

So for sure the D70 is never £200 better than the D50, but some people would find the media a REAL issue.

[simpo two]

As a D70 owner I was trying to find where the D50 fell short - and couldn't really! As the dpreview site says, Nikon didn't castrate the cheaper brother like Canon did with the 20D vs 300D.

The D50 seems like superb value; I just wish Nikon would get a move on with plugging the yawning gap between the £650 D70/s and the £2,300 D2x.