D50 MINIMUM ISO

I was expecting a leap in quality going from a $150 compact to a D50 but find

its more of a small step. Is the minimum iso setting a contributing factor my

little compact goes to iso80 and with film I normally use iso50. I am sure its

not as simple as that but wondered if a upgrade to a D80 would be another

small step or more of a leap up the ladder. I must say on the plus side the

D50 is the most wonderful camera to use/handle.

I wouldn't worry too much on this point. ISO 400 on a DSLR often gives superior results than ISO 80 on a compact.

 

But let's see this from a different angle: from my own personal experience, an ISO setting of 800 is very good on the D50. See the thread below for a brief discussion of the D50 at 1600.

 

You're right about one thing: the D50 is a lovely camera.

When you attach one of the faster (f/1.4, f/2) primes on your D50 you will be recoding beautiful pictures while your friends point and shoot camera records either pure black or severely underexposed useless images, or horribly pale flash photos with underexposed background and zero atmosphere.

I have read somewhere on these forums, that in good light the image quality difference is smaller. I cannot tell how much, as I haven't done any extensive comparisons, but many P/S cameras give very nice images in daylight.

 

dSLRs, however, give you the benefit of beeing able to buy good glass for your particular task and they let you focus easily manually in difficult situations and they have more often raw support (that is required by some rally good image correction applications).

 

The dSLR sensor is bigger and has less noise (and probably more dynamic range ie not so many burnt highlights) than P/S at each ISO level...

Ian,

 

If you start investing in really good glass, you may see a bigger difference.

 

But, in many ways... The camera has WAY LESS to do with your image quality than you do...

your eye, your steady hand, your imagination... A great photographer can get WAY better

images from a Point and Shoot than an awful photographer can with a top-of-the-line

dSLR. The dSLR might give better reslousion, color, less noise... but if the picture is

awful... who cares.

 

So... you have a great camera. Learn to use the lens that came with it. (I'm guessing an

18-55 or maybe a 28-80) Then... read a lot, and figure out what lens might give you

better results for the kind of photography you do... THEN... have a ball...

I've used the D50 with good glass with great results. The sensor captures whatever image is projected on it. If it's projected through less than optimal glass then the image will be less than optimal(assuming proper exposure and sufficient shutter speed). I'd suggest buying the 50mm f1/8 nikon lens (about 100 bucks new) and shooting with that at varying apatures for a while. If you don't see spectacular results then I don't think moving to a D80 will help all that much. In fact I wouldn't move to a D80 until you started being happy with the images from your D50. It took me a year to get comfortable with mine then I handed it to my wife and got a D200.

 

From my experience the trick with getting good results from the D50 (especially skin tones) is first getting the camera out of AdobeRGB III and back down to II or I. Set the white balance with a grey card and go. The camera will happily capture great images throughout the ISO range from 200 to 1600.

 

Hope this helps

Dan

Thanks for your respose on this. I use a 28-105 mainly because of its all round ability and close focus. I'm getting color fringing on things like backlit trees (twigs in the canopy) and round the edges of bright colored petals. Surely this is the camera not the lens.

I always use a tripod and shoot at f8 - f22.

Hi there, past f8 (it worsen as you close the aperture) any lens show signs of refraction, meaning it is better to shoot wider openings than say f11. So it is a lens problem not the camera. Make some tests using all the f-stops on your lens and then compare a 100% on your screen, you will definitively see what I mean.