Ask about the advantages and disadvantages of Nikon D50.

In appearance, the design of D50 is very similar to that of D70/D70s, and the overall appearance and some details are almost the same, but the volume is slightly smaller than that of D70, and the volume is (width x height x thickness):133x102x76mm (5.3x4.1x3.0 inches). In terms of material, D50 is mainly made of engineering plastics, but it is very professional with black body.

Compared with D70S/350D:

Careful observation shows that there are some changes between D50 and D70, and it is easier to see them together. First of all, the volume of D50 is thinner and more compact than that of D70. Compared with D70, the handle position is smoother, but the front thumbwheel on it is cancelled. Seen from the back, there are two obvious changes. First of all, the original LCD case of D70 is gone, but the area of LCD is increased to 2.0 inches, which improves the vision. Secondly, the design change next to LCD is obvious. Because D50 uses SD card as storage medium, it can reduce the size of the card slot, so the designer moved the card slot from the original back position to the right side of the fuselage. The left side of the fuselage is still a collection of outlets, but the position of the surface and the protective glue have changed slightly.

Control feel:

As can be seen from the above analysis, D50 has little change compared with D70. Although it is a simplified version, there is no obvious cut corners in appearance or function, but some improvements have been made in some changes. The feel of D50 is worth mentioning. Although the fuselage has shrunk, the handle has not been affected by the improved design. Personally, the sleek design of the D50 handle is more comfortable to hold than the D70, and it has an overwhelming advantage in appearance compared with the Canon 350D.

(Handheld renderings)

Local design:

The overall layout and design of the machine can be clearly understood through the following logo diagram. Friends who are familiar with Nikon machines should be very easy to use. Nikon's low-end products have been using this design since AF series film cameras.

Front layout of fuselage

Layout of the back of the fuselage

* Summary: Compared with D70, the appearance of D50 has not changed much, mainly due to its smaller size, convenient carrying and improved hand feel, which is more suitable for low-end consumers.

CCD, bayonet and shutter;

D50 CCD adopts a newly designed DX image sensor with 665438+ million effective pixels. The improvement of CCD is mainly to add an antireflection film on the low-pass filter on the surface, which effectively reduces the stray light caused by the reflection between the lens and the CCD surface. The support for lens and bayonet is the same as that of D70, which supports all the lenses of Nikel DX and D/G series. Besides the function of 3D color matrix photometry II, other Nikel AF lenses can be used. The shutter speed range of D50 is the slowest 30 seconds and the fastest 1/4000 seconds. Compared with D70, the high-speed shutter is weakened, but the flash synchronization speed is also amazing 1/500 seconds.

Both the manual focus switch and the lens removal switch are on the left side of the lens, which is very convenient to replace.

The D50 power switch and shutter button are set together, so that when you hold the camera, your fingers can turn on the power very conveniently. What is worth mentioning is the starting speed of D50. After the machine is turned on, it can immediately enter the shooting state without hesitation, which is very conducive to snapshot.

Because the front thumbwheel is cancelled, the function keys of D50 have also changed. The original exposure compensation key above the shutter also integrates the function of aperture adjustment. When using M gear, you need to press this key and then rotate the rear thumbwheel to adjust. This design is similar to Canon EOS350D, but it is slightly inconvenient compared with the original two-wheel control of D70. The key next to it has also changed from the original metering mode shortcut key to the self-timer delay key, which shows that the positioning of D50 is very clear and provides more convenience for home users. However, compared with photographers, to adjust the metering mode, you need to enter the menu to adjust.

Hot boots and information screen on the top of the fuselage;

The LCD screen at the top of the set-top box has the same size and display mode as the D70, but the background light of the screen is cancelled, which will bring some inconvenience in dark environment, such as taking pictures of night scenes and stage.

The top of D50 is equipped with a pop-up built-in flash and hot shoes supporting i-TTL flash system. The built-in flash is higher when it pops up, so you don't have to worry about the shadow caused by the lens.

Judging from the function dial on the top left, the function settings on the dial are not small, and the "children" shooting mode has been added. According to official information, it can adjust the most suitable color and contrast for users, and it can be more handy when shooting children's innocent and memorable shots, which is another improvement of D50 to considerate family users.

Behind the function dial is the adjustment button of continuous shooting mode. Compared with D70, the original white balance surround button is cancelled, and the function of white balance surround cannot be found in the menu. However, the continuous shooting function of D50 is still excellent. The maximum continuous shooting speed is 2.5 frames per second, and the maximum number of continuous shots can reach more than 130, which is amazing and suitable for tracking moving objects.

The viewfinder and LCD on the back of the fuselage:

For the viewfinder, the D50 eye mask is replaced by a wider DK-20 eye mask, which can provide a more comfortable viewfinder with refractive adjustment on the right side of the viewfinder. D50' s focusing system also adopts 5-zone autofocus, which can accurately lock the focus in a short time and widely cover the picture. With the help of focusing auxiliary lights, it can focus quickly even in dim environment.

The following dial, aperture, shutter, exposure compensation, flash mode, magnification and playback all need to be controlled through it. Fortunately, the workmanship of this dial wheel makes people feel very solid, even if it is operated frequently, there is no need to worry about being overwhelmed.

As for LCD, D50 adopts the same 2.0-inch LCD screen as D70S, and the effective pixel is 654.38+0.3 million. In actual use, I feel that the screen display effect is good, the brightness and clarity are good, and the color saturation is also excellent. On the back of the fuselage, except for the memory card slot, the protective lock of the cross key was also cancelled.

The function keys of D50 are arranged vertically on the left side of the LCD, and the functions and operations of the keys are basically the same as those of D70, but the difference is that a menu wizard is added, and you can get corresponding instructions by pressing this key in any menu, which is very useful for novices.

* Summary: The positioning of D50 is very clear. Out of consideration for novices, several changes have been made to make the function closer to consumer DC. Moreover, in order to widen the level with D70S, D50 purposely cancels the LCD protective cover, information screen backlight, cross key protection lock, white balance enclosure and other devices or functions.

Side ports, card slots and batteries

A great change of D50 is that SD is used as the storage medium, which effectively reduces the size of D50. At present, SD card is very cheap and faster than ordinary CF card.

On the left side of the camera is the interface of USB, video and power supply.

The D50 battery still uses the EN-EL3 of D70. In actual use, the powerful power of 1400 mA can take more than 800 photos, which is very good.

Packaging and accessories:

At present, there are two sales sets of D50, one is a single lens set containing 18-55 mm lens, and the other is a double lens set containing 18-55mm lens and 55-200 mm lens. These two lenses are specially designed for D50, which are cheap, easy to carry and suitable for ordinary consumers.

Accessories included: instruction manual, warranty card, shoulder strap, battery, charger, USB cable, video cable, etc.

* Conclusion: Switching to SD card for inquiry storage can effectively reduce the size of D50. This is another digital SLR using SD card after Pentax *ISTD. Low-end digital SLR is developing to miniaturization, and it is believed that using SD card as storage medium is also a trend. On the battery side, D50 maintained the strong endurance advantage of D70 in the past.

Functions and menus:

In terms of menu, D50 basically follows the way of D70S, with clear and friendly interface and convenient adjustment. The function of D50 is basically the same as that of D70S, but it is simplified in some aspects, mainly including: fine adjustment of white balance and sensitivity. In terms of white balance, D50 has eight types, such as automatic, incandescent lamp, fluorescent lamp, direct sunlight, flash lamp, cloudy day, shadow and user-defined, but the original fine adjustment of plus or minus three levels of each white balance is cancelled.

In terms of sensitivity, the simplification of D50 is relatively large. Although the sensitivity range is still ISO200-ISO 1600, only 1EV can be adjusted. ф
O200, ISO400, ISO800, ISO16000, D700 is widely praised for its micro-adjustment function of13ev.

Main interface of menus at all levels

The setting menu of D50 provides up to 20 adjustment options, including metering mode, focusing mode, flash output index, autofocus area and other important shooting parameter settings. The metering modes of D50 include matrix metering, center offset metering and spot metering, among which the newly developed 3D color matrix metering II system is adopted for matrix metering, and the accuracy is further improved.

As we mentioned earlier, D50 increases the humanized function of the user guide, which can be reflected in the menu. Just press "?" Next to LCD in any menu. Key, the LCD will pop up the corresponding explanation, providing the fastest and most timely help for novices.

The following is the play menu of D50. The playback display modes of D50 include: parameter display, histogram display, pure screen display, detailed parameter display, 4-screen and 9-screen display. In terms of photo playback, D50 has slightly changed compared with D70. In the past, the photos of D70 were all scrolled up and down, which was not suitable for most people's habits. Usually pressing the wrong left and right keys will bring up parameters and histograms, which will affect browsing, while D50 does.

* Summary: The menu interface of D50 follows the style of D70S, which is much better than D70. In terms of function, D50 cancels the fine adjustment of white balance and sensitivity, and the professionalism is slightly reduced. A user guide tailored for novices has been added, which once again reveals a clear market positioning.

Performance test:

After knowing the design and function of D50, let's test it again and see its actual performance. The D50 test includes: speed test, noise test, color and white balance test, preset image test, resolution test, out-of-focus test, highlight overflow test and so on. Among them, highlight overflow is a disadvantage of D70 and D70S. Has this phenomenon been solved in D50? Let's discuss it together!

Speed test:

First of all, let's look at the speed performance of D50 in all aspects. For comparison, we also used some data from the early assessment of D70S. In terms of focusing speed, the performance of D50 seems to be good, and it only takes about 0.52 seconds to complete focusing under strong light. Considering the lens factor, it is estimated that the focusing speed of D50 is similar to that of D70S. In terms of continuous shooting speed, although D50 can only provide 2.5 frames per second, which is slightly slower than D70/D70S, its continuous shooting number can be as high as 130, which shows that Nikon's processor is excellent. In terms of storage speed, we choose SANDISK ordinary 256 SD card to test, and the reading and writing speed is very good when the noise reduction function is turned off, which is not inferior to that of D70/D70S using high-speed CF card.

Nikon D50 Nikon D70S Nikon D70 Canon 350D

The focusing speed is 0.52 seconds 0.45 seconds 0.64 seconds 0.25 seconds.

Continuous shooting speeds are 2.5, 3 and 3 frames per second.

Storage and writing speed:

Sandisk ordinary 256SD card Sandisk ordinary 128 CF card.

NEF) 2.5 sec 5.2 sec 5. 1 sec 5.4 sec

JPG (fine) 1.5 seconds 3.5 seconds 3.2 seconds 2.4 seconds

JPG (normal) 1.4 seconds 2.6 seconds 2.4 seconds 1.6 seconds

Kingston express card 1GB

NEF)-2.5 seconds 2.3 seconds 2.3 seconds

JPG (fine)-1.8+0.8 seconds 1.7 seconds 1.5 seconds.

JPG (normal)-1.5+0.5s1.5s1.0s

* Note:

D50 belt 18-55 sleeve; D70/D70S with 18-70 sleeve; 350 with 24-85USM head

The focus speed test is to adjust the lens to the maximum out-of-focus state before the test under strong light.

Noise test:

Noise test We use color cards with excessive light and dark gradient to test. We can clearly understand the noise control ability of D50 from the light-dark transition of the color card, and we also provide the shooting data of D70 and Canon 300D for horizontal comparison.

1. When the noise reduction function is turned off:

The minimum ISO values of Nikon D50 and D70 are based on ISO200. Compared with Canon EOS300D under ISO 100, the noise control of 300D is better. Compared with D70, D50 is improved, and noise control is slightly better than D70. Compared with Canon 300D under ISO200, D50 is better. From the effect of ISO400, the difference between D50 and 300D is subtle, and the noise of D70 is slightly obvious. Under ISO800, the noise of D50 is well controlled, slightly better than that of D70 and Canon 300D, and there are relatively few spots. Under ISO 1600, the performance is mainly D50, and the stain is more obvious 300D days after ISO800.

ISO 100

D50 -

D70 -

300D

ISO 200

D50

D70

300D

ISO400

D50

D70

300D

ISO800

D50

D70

300D

ISO 1600

D50

D70

300D

2. When the noise reduction function is turned on:

D50 and D70 also have noise reduction function. Let's compare the situation after they turn on the noise reduction function. The noise reduction effect is not obvious after the sensory noise reduction function is turned on. It seems that Jamlom just adjusted the sharpness of the image to reduce the details of the photo. However, compared with D70, the noise control of D50 is still slightly better.

ISO 200

D50

D70

ISO400

D50

D70

ISO800

D50

D70

ISO 1600

D50

D70

Color white balance and exposure accuracy test;

In the past, the color and exposure accuracy of D70 have been controversial. Its automatic white balance is not accurate enough, it is prone to color cast and its color performance is weak. Moreover, its 3D color matrix photometry system often exposes underexposed photos, so the photos taken by D70 often give people a gloomy feeling. As a simplified version of D50, how does it perform on these issues? Let's compare D70 and Canon 300D, and get an objective evaluation.

In the test, we shoot standard color cards in sunlight environment, tungsten filament lighting environment and fluorescent lamp environment, in which D50 and D70 have the same settings, and all of them use multiple photometry and the same lens for the test.

In the sunshine environment

D50 D70 300D

Automatic white balance

White balance mode of fluorescent lamp

Manual white balance

Compared with D70 in sunlight, we can see that D50 is superior to D70 in color reproduction and exposure accuracy. The new 3D color matrix photometry II brings more accurate photometry to D50, and the exposure accuracy is close to 300D d.. In terms of automatic white balance, it performs well in the sun, without obvious color cast, and the restoration of various colors is also more realistic.

In the environment of tungsten lamp

D50 D70 300D

Automatic white balance

Tungsten lamp white balance mode

Manual white balance

Under the light of tungsten filament, the automatic white balance of D50 seems to be better than that of Canon's 300D. Under the warm color of tungsten lamp, D50 can still clearly distinguish red, orange, pink and other colors, while D70 and 300D are difficult to distinguish because of the yellowish color. However, the performance of 300D in manual white balance is better than D50.

In the fluorescent light environment

D50 D70 300D

Automatic white balance

White balance mode of fluorescent lamp

Manual white balance

Let's take a look at the performance under the fluorescent lamp. The performance of D50 under fluorescent lamp is relatively inferior, and the accuracy of photometry and color reproduction is less than 300D d..

As far as color and photometry are concerned, the appraisers are satisfied with the performance of D50. Although it is not as good as fluorescent lamp, it performs well in sunlight and tungsten filament environment, even worse than Canon machine, which is famous for its white balance ability.

* Summary: From the above tests, it can be seen that D50 is superior to D70 in noise control and white balance accuracy, but the lowest sensitivity of D50 is still ISO200, which is slightly inferior to Canon DSLR. The newly improved 3D color matrix photometry II has a satisfactory improvement effect. Although many people agree that the underexposure design of D70 is to preserve more photo details, it is actually a hot topic among netizens, and opinions vary. I won't discuss it here, but I have a single opinion.

Resolution test:

In the resolution test, we used Olympus HYRes test software and ISO 12233 standard resolution card to test. D50 and D70 used 18-55 lens and Sigma 70-200 F2.8 lens respectively, while 300D only used Sigma 24-70 F2.8 lens for shooting, because we didn't have its sleeve at hand during the evaluation.

Horizontal resolution and vertical resolution

D50+ casing

D70+ sleeve

Sima 70-200 points

D70+ Sigma 70-200

300D+ Sigma 24-70

According to the test results, the horizontal resolution and vertical resolution of D50 are slightly higher than that of D70, whether it is matched with the ferrule or the Sigma 70-200 F2.8 lens. Comparing the data of the card holder and Sigma 70-200 F2.8, Nikon's card holder performance is slightly higher than Sigma 70-200F2.8. It seems that this so-called "dog head" lens is not bad. In addition, from the comparison of D50 and 300D, we think that the resolution of D50 and 300D is similar, and both of them are satisfactory, because the matched lens quality is not far apart.

Focus offset test:

Focus shift is what we often call out of focus. Previously, users of Canon 300D reported that 300D had such problems. After the widespread spread of the Internet, it became one of the worries about the cheap digital SLR, and this problem also appeared in the subsequent 300D 350D test, but this phenomenon was rarely heard about Nikon products. In the past D70 and D70S, we feel that its emphasis is also very real, but let's take a look at D50 as their follow-up performance. We tested it with range hood and Sigma 70-200F2.8 respectively.

18-55 sleeve:

The D50 also uses a 5-point autofocus system. As shown in the test chart, we focus on the "128M" of the CF card, using five different focuses for testing. The result is satisfactory. The focus of D50 is fast and solid, and there is no loss of focus at five o'clock.

Sigma 70-200 F2.8:

Under the test using Sigma 70-200 F2.8 lens, because the lens can effectively obtain the effect of shallow depth of field, the degree of focus is more clear and visible, and the performance is satisfactory.

Dark angle test of casing;

The problem of dark angle is a common problem of cheap wide-angle lenses, especially at the maximum aperture. Let's test it by taking real photos. The following three pictures were taken at the widest angle end of the lens with the maximum aperture F3.5, F8.0 and F 16 respectively. From the picture, there is a certain dark angle on both sides of the highlight, but it is not obvious. By narrowing the aperture, the problem has been solved well.

F3.5

F8.0

F 16

* Summary: The above three tests are all related to the lens. The results show that 18-55 lens is cheap, but the imaging quality is still guaranteed. There is a certain dark angle, but it is not obvious, and the focusing speed is fast, the focusing is solid, and the clarity and resolution are good.

Image optimization test:

standard mode

Bright mode

Sharp mode

soft mode

Like D70, the shooting mode of D50 also provides four preset image effects: normal mode, bright mode, sharp mode and soft mode. From the actual pictures taken, we can see that the effect of the pictures does change in each mode, but it is estimated that these modes are realized by changing the camera's contrast, saturation and other parameters, such as sharpness mode and brightness mode, which will make the photos sacrifice some details, but these modes can undoubtedly reduce the trouble of post-processing and benefit the photos.

Highlight overflow test

It was not until the introduction of Nikon D70 that the highlight overflow was widely recognized. Its phenomenon is that there will be overflow points in the highlight when shooting the highlight picture. This problem, like Canon's defocus, has become a heart disease for Nikon fans. How does D50 control this phenomenon?

After testing, it is found that the problem of D50 also exists, but compared with D70, the overflow phenomenon is not as serious as D70.

D50 D70

* Summary: In addition to the rich scene modes, D50 also provides four different image optimization modes, so that novices can easily take better quality photos, and the most regrettable thing in the whole test is that the highlight overflow problem of D50 still exists.