Tips and tricks for Nikon D50.

Hey everyone. I own a D50 and would like to dedicate this post strictly for tips and tricks for taking photos with this camera. Everyone is

welcomed to give their say. Thank you everyone and hopefully this post will help alot o people. Lets start with my questions for instance. I

have a basic AF-S Nikkor 18-70mm 1:3.5-4-5G and i am starting to collect for another lens and what that lens should be? Just for

background, i am a student at college and aiming to g to SVA in the spring '09. Working on my portfolio right now. so there it is please

post ur "tips and tricks".

- Max<div></div>

Tip. I find that most of my best exposures are gotten at an exposure compensation of -0.3 or -0.7. In other words, the

camera slightly over-exposes most of my images.<div></div>

The best thing you can do to for yourself is forget about any of the auto exposure modes and use manual exposure exclusively. Your life will get a

lot simpler when you can quit trying to figure out how to "outsmart" the auto exposure system with plus or minus compensation. I like the 12-24 mm

Tokina zoom for second lens.

Tips and Tricks? Read everything you can on lighting and composition. Then practice and experiment.

 

As far as a new lens... if you find your current lens is not wide enough, consider an ultra wide. If you find your current lens does not zoom in enough, look at a 55-200mm or 70-300mm.

Have fun with your D50!

 

Tip #1: Probably already well-documented, but it's worth mentioning that the D50, like the D70/70s, has a crazy high sync speed with non-dedicated flashes (not mentioned in the manual, of course, but it works---try it).

 

Tip #2: Don't shy away from ISO 1600. The in-camera noise reduction gives the high iso stuff a bit of a mottled (sp?) look, but paired with a faster prime like the 50/1.4, it makes a lot of shots possible that would have previously looked like poo with some of the pre-D3/D300 bodies.

 

Tip #3: Take it with you everywhere! It's so small and easy to throw over your shoulder. You'll be more likely to get cool shots simply because you have it handy. Somewhat off topic, but when I was shooting with a D50, I would throw a different prime lens on it each time I went out for leisure shooting. By knowing each lens' perspective better, you'll be more apt to reach for the appropriate lens when composing a scene. A couple lenses that come to mind are the Sigma 20/1.8 and the Nikon 50/1.8. On a DX body, that 30mm and 75mm equivalent is really versatile. Those lenses are super-cheap, and will afford you the ability to do plenty of low-light stuff.

 

Good luck! -SR

Shaun, looking at you web site under "seniors" I was expecting to see a bunch of old geezers. I was wrong - oh, THOSE seniors.

Hilarious, Gerald. :) Thanks for checking out my work. Nice work in your portfolio, too, by the way. Great color and pleasing compositions. Take care! -SR

Ditto on the 50 1.8 great little lens and can take some nice macro shots..its about $110..a steal!

thanks alot guys those tips are very helpful and i will take them into consideration.

Cheers, Max

<p>Thanks for the tips. I would also like to say that I purchased a remote shutter device. To make it work I needed to push down on the timer button while advancing the wheel until an icon of the remote device appeared in the screen. Then I was able to activate the shutter from anywhere in front of the camera (had to be line of sight from the sensor on the front of the camera) </p>