D50 or D70 ?

[gobber man]

Time to upgrade from film Minolta SLR and Fuji (digital) point and shoot to a proper digital camera.
So should I go for a D50 - less spec but newer, or a D70 - older but more "pro" ?
It will just be used for general holiday pics and a bit a car stuff....nothing pro.

[robdickinson]

D70 looks like being replaced very shortly with a new D80, just a heads up, arguments for buying either.

D50 is in some ways better than the D70 (usability, features, noise), tho its only 6mp.

Any reason why your not considering canon too?

[UKBob]

Any bias towards Nikon?

You could try the Canon PowerShot S3 IS (within the price range). Or step up to the 20/30d. Buy a canon, and more people will respect/like you. Canon is the professional photographers first step towards winning friends and influencing people.

[robdickinson]

Alternativly just buy a prosume digicam, if your just after holiday snaps an SLR is going to be expensive and likely not give as good results.

If your not going to take it off Auto mode and.or buy some lenses forget it.

[UKBob]

robdickinson said:

Alternativly just buy a prosume digicam, if your just after holiday snaps an SLR is going to be expensive and likely not give as good results.

I was warned that my first SLR photos would be dire. And they were. My latest shots are also very dull, when pitted against those taken with a much cheaper prosumer camera.

A good point and shoot camera will produce FAR better results than a top of the line SLR... unless you have (time and) experience using SLR's and photoshop.

It really might be worth considering a good P&S prosumer digicam. I couldnt quite grasp/believe that a P&S would outperform an SLR, until I'd downloaded my first SLR shots. Ive been using an SLR for 2 months now, and am still amazed at how bland (all of!) my photos look, when they are downloaded from the camera, compared to my old canon P&S.

[cliff123]

robdickinson said:

D50 is in some ways better than the D70 (usability, features, noise), tho its only 6mp.

Er, how is the D50 in some ways better than the D70? Unless you simply want a physcially smaller camera.

[chris.mapey]

UKBob said:

Buy a canon, and more people will respect/like you. Canon is the professional photographers first step towards winning friends and influencing people.

No Sorry.



I can't believe that

Come on Bob, buy a Nikon, shoot RAW & be a man about it...



Sorry for the hijack!

I'd recommend a D70. Love mine had it over a year now, and now feel confident enough to offer some for sale! (www.apictureofsuffolk.com)

Persevere with whatever DSLR you get - you will need to do an element of processing after shooting (a sharpen at the minimum) - I use Paint Shop Pro 10 for that - far easier than Photoshop for a beginner, and 95% as powerful.

The reason for the comments about quality, are down to the DSLR not doing any image processing in camera, it leaves it to you to do afterwards.

A good trick for the D70 to work around this is to choose "Vivid" from the menu, then shoot in .jpeg format on Auto or A / S settings - the camera will then sharpen the images and the result will then be similar (I believe better) to those taken with a compact / prosumer camera.

I'm sure that the D50 offers a similar choice.

Go and try both in a shop and see which you prefer.

Hope that helps & feel free to PM for any advice.

Chris

Best of both world

[poah]

I would wait and see what this new nikon is all about. the D70s should have a price drop when its released if you are not wanting to buy the d200 or consider the 30D a real mans camera.

[Imperialism2024]

robdickinson said:

tho its only 6mp.

In reality, the resolution isn't going to matter all that much unless you want to do large posters on a regular basis, or need to do a lot of cropping. And even then, you won't be getting much of a benefit until you hit about 10 to 12 megapixels...

[gobber man]

UKBob said:

Any bias towards Nikon?

Buy a canon, and more people will respect/like you. ......(your) first step towards winning friends and influencing people.

Good/funny recommendation for Canon ( I like the idea of ads for Canon "give us your money for a good karma camera" err or something )

I have some very good Nikon binoculars, which are just perfect... so a nod towards Nikon.

But, I also have a Cannon printer/scanner thing that has never let me down..... mmm might have to look at Cannon.

I won't look at anything else but Cannon or Nikon as I have found in the past it is best to go for quality NOT masses of silly features.

BTW why has Cannon got such a different following than Nikon ?

[gobber man]

robdickinson said:

Alternativly just buy a prosume digicam, if your just after holiday snaps an SLR is going to be expensive and likely not give as good results.

If your not going to take it off Auto mode and.or buy some lenses forget it.

My P&S camera does produce some good pics, but is a bit slow of the mark and I miss having a proper viewfinder.

Oh and yes I would buy a few lenses (kind of misses the point otherwise)

[gobber man]

chris.mapey said:

Sorry for the hijack!

Please hijack away.

chris.mapey said:

A good trick ... choose "Vivid" from the menu, then shoot in .jpeg format on Auto or A / S settings - the camera will then sharpen the images and the result will then be similar (I believe better) to those taken with a compact / prosumer camera.

Ah ok, thanks for the tip, sure you have saved me months of buggering around.

[robdickinson]

D50 has less noise at higher ISO than the D70 (one area whwere its more modern design & lower mp chip helps).

If its performance your after then you can beat a current dSLR, instant switch in, very fast and accurate focusing, takes a picture when you press the shutter button, well worth it if you dont mind the down sides.

[Imperialism2024]

gobber man said:

UKBob said:

Any bias towards Nikon?

Buy a canon, and more people will respect/like you. ......(your) first step towards winning friends and influencing people.

Good/funny recommendation for Canon ( I like the idea of ads for Canon "give us your money for a good karma camera" err or something )

I have some very good Nikon binoculars, which are just perfect... so a nod towards Nikon.

But, I also have a Cannon printer/scanner thing that has never let me down..... mmm might have to look at Cannon.

I won't look at anything else but Cannon or Nikon as I have found in the past it is best to go for quality NOT masses of silly features.

BTW why has Cannon got such a different following than Nikon ?

Experiences with different types of products in no indication of performance of cameras, necessarily. Take Sony: mediocre cameras, amazing televisions, fair audio equipment.

Also, followers of Canon and Nikon don't really differ too much. Both produce amazing equipment, and there are few differences between similar equipment from each brand. Either one is great.

[Imperialism2024]

gobber man said:

Oh and yes I would buy a few lenses (kind of misses the point otherwise)

You're better off getting one or two very good lenses rather than a few POS ones.

And lens quality doesn't matter if you lack proper skill.

[robdickinson]

Canon and Nikon are very close in terms of product quality & price, canon have by far the larger market share so nikon are the underdog so to speak, but between them they make up by far the lions share of the market, and rightly so I think, the other companies missed the boat.


The choice between them for the average user comes down to usability, how holding one feels to you, how you like to operate a camera. Because in terms of image quality etc theres little difference between the d50, d70, 350d 20/30d. There is a few features difference, depends on if there worth it or not (350d has DOF preview the D50 doesnt, 30d has spot meetering etc).

Above that the pro market is another game, with canon taking the bulk of the sports market, nikon does ok elsewhere though. canon are the only company to offer full frame dSLR's too.

I went with canon for a few reasons. I liked the small size and light weight of the 350d, easy to carry round on 3 day hikes, I knew people with canon, I could borrow lenses. There was no technical reason why I chose canon over nikon.

[Irish]

robdickinson said:

D50 has less noise at higher ISO than the D70 (one area whwere its more modern design & lower mp chip helps).

If its performance your after then you can beat a current dSLR, instant switch in, very fast and accurate focusing, takes a picture when you press the shutter button, well worth it if you dont mind the down sides.

My new D50 arrived tonight.............YIPPEE