Newbie needs help! Upgrading D50 to D80??

[margaret_ball]

Hi all,

 

I am very new to photography, as just a part-time hobby, and need some help. I

currently have a D50 with 18-55, 60, and 70-300 VR lenses. I do mainly family,

vacation and nature shots. I am thinking of upgrading to the D80- is it worth

the switch for someone like me? Is the biggest difference the megapixels? And

will my old lenses work on the D80 body?

 

Thanks; I know my questions are basic! :)

 

Margaret

[richsimmons]

Here's a side by side you can look at. I would use the review links located under each camera for details.

 

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_post.asp?method=sidebyside&cameras=nikon_d50%2Cnikon_d80&show=all

[hans_janssen]

When you considder yourself still as a newbie and when you didn't find the limitations of the D50, it is useless to buy a D80(the only advantage you have are the extra 4MP's. You don't need 10MPs when you don't print posters.

 

When you want to get rid of your money, buy a new lens, maybe something like a Sigma 10-20 mm. This is my favourite lens for holidays, special in cities, but also for landscapes. When yopu have a lot of money to spend take a look for a 17-55 2.8 and then you are upgrading the quality of your pictures.

[elliot1]

The only reason to really upgrade is if you want a better viewfinder and larger monitor. To me, it is worth it, especially if you take a lot of pictures..

 

There is virtually no difference from 6mp to 10mp unless you make very large prints. You will not see any difference at all in prints up to 11 x 14.

 

Yes, your old lenses will work perfectly. If you don't have a flash, that might be your best choice in gear.

 

If you do decide to get the d80, you will love it.

[margaret_ball]

Thanks everyone! Also, I just purchased the 60mm and can still return it. I don't see much mention of it anywhere, are there better choices? Would the 17-55 2.8 do almost the same thing and give me more versatility?

[nickwhite]

Hi, I am a (happy) D80 user but have no direct experience of the D50.

All your lenses would be fine on the D80.

Looking at the link Rich supplied I really can't see much advantage in 'upgrading' unless

a)you really need the extra file size ie you regularly crop to only part of the image or print at A3 size or greater.

b)You wan't to keep two bodies (trade in probably would not be very good).

or c) You want to make use of the excellent 'commander mode' to use a SB600 or SB800 flash off camera (I dont think the D50 allows this - but I may be wrong there)

Personally I would spend any available cash on a SB600 flashgun with a Sto-fen diffuser to add a bit of versatility to your current kit.

[nickwhite]

Regarding your 60mm lens - I presume this is the 60mm 'micro'?

This is a highly regarded lens and is great for portraits as well as the close-up/macro it is designed for. Only you can decide if you wan't to keep it though.

[lester_hawksby1]

Hi Margaret,

 

I second everyone else's suggestion that you not upgrade unless you are really feeling that your existing gear is limiting you.

 

As for your other question, the 60mm 2.8 is a macro lens, and a very good one. It will focus a lot closer than any zoom and is very high quality. The 17-55 2.8 is an excellent (and expensive!) lens but it is for a completely different purpose - it would replace and outclass your 18-55/3.5-5.6, but it would never focus as close as the 60mm can.

 

Keep the 60 if you want to experiment with macro (very close up) work, or if you will sometimes want a really very sharp lens (correctly used, it should be much sharper than your other lenses).

[ShunCheung]

That generic comparison from DPReview is not quite complete. The D80 has a number of advantages such as a better viewfinder, 11 AF points, two command dials, on-demand grid lines, wireless flash control ....

 

Whether those advantages are important or not highly depends on your individual needs; e.g. do you need wireless flash? For a beginner, most likely, none of them is a decisive advantage. Putting them together, the differences are not small.

 

The D50 was introduced 2 years ago. Its technology is a little old but still fine. Unless you find the D50 limiting your photography, I would suggest waiting till 2008 to upgrade. The D80 was introduced in August, 2006. If we assume an 18-month product cycle, it should be replaced around the PMA (February/March) in 2008. By then, you'll likely find more dramatic improvements from your D50.

 

In the mean time, I would suggest investing more on lenses and accessories such as a tripod, flash .... In particular, if you shoot macro, those two items can be important.

[dan park]

I think investing in quality lenses is a better choice. Glass first body second. The D50 has excellent image quality and unless you print big or need to crop stick with the D50.

 

Now if you can't live without a bigger viewfinder or the ability to check depth of field or you just have a lot of money burning a whole in your pockets then grab a D80.

[mawz]

The D80 is a definite upgrade over the D50, and all of your lenses wil work on it.

 

But I can't help but think that replacing your 18-55 with an 18-70 or Tamron 17-50 f2.8(or the Nikkor 17-55) would be a much better way of spending that money. The D50 produces superb output (It's #3 on the all-time 6MP Image Quality list, after the D40 and Pentax K100D and in front of several semi-pro bodies). And Glass is always a better way to spend money.

[graham_marsden]

Hi Margaret. Lots of sound advice in the letters above. If you really are as you say 'very new to photography' I should wait a while before upgrading. There is always such a lot to learn and when you actually NEED to upgrade you won't need to ask the question. regards G

[douglas_green1]

Actually, the Megapixels is the SMALLEST difference. As others have said, unless you make huge blow-ups of your pictures, you'll never notice a difference between a good 6 MP camera and a good 10 MP camera.

 

To me, the only really big advantage of the D80 would be it's better viewfinder. If you don't find the viewfinder to be a limitation, I would doubt that you would get any benefit at all from this upgrade. And you've certainly already got a good selection of lenses, that will cover nearly any type of photo you want to take, and which will work exactly the same on both a D80 and your existing D50.

 

But I would reinforce Graham's point just above - as you are very new and inexperienced in photography, it sounds as though you are unhappy with your photos and hoping that a camera upgrade will solve your problem. It won't, and in fact, the D50 is already a MUCH more capable camera than you are probably getting out of it. I think that the best answer for you is to just practice with the D50 and your lenses, and experiment with different camera settings and subject matter (after all, digital photos are free to shoot, and you can just delete the bad ones). There's no shame whatsoever in taking a bunch of lousy shots on the way to some really great ones - every photographer here has done it (and often, we were throwing out expensive film shots in the process). You might even want to look into taking a basic photography class to help you out in understanding things like composition and what the different settings on your camera do to affect the characteristics of the final image. Because, in all honesty, the Nikon D50 is more than plenty of camera for you at this point, and the D80 will just be a more expensive version of more than plenty of camera for you right now.

[kelton]

If it's more megapixels you need, why not the D40x ($240 cheaper on B&H website)?

[sam_thompson2]

D80 lacks couple of things that the D50 has. Some prefer the metering in the D50 more. The D50 has a faster flash sync speed and a smaller build and reportedly better high iso.

 

The D80 in features wise is more improved than the D50 in almost all other cases.

[margaret_ball]

Thank you all so much for your thoughtful responses. I appreciate you sharing your experience and wisdom. You have given me much to think about!