Nikon’s D50 - a pure and simple camera

A longterm, personal review

During Christmas/New Year, 2023, I went to Qatar to visit my in-laws. Never been to the Middle East before. And I had the usual anxieties about what camera to bring.

In the end, I took my D700 with a Nikon 28-105 zoom and a couple of primes. Most of my cameras are high mileage, so I threw my little six megapixel D50 into the bag as a spare body. Nikon lenses are pretty compatible with most Nikon cameras so most autofocus lenses that work on a D700 will work fully on a D50, although in cropped mode. A 50mm lens on my D50 will feel more like a 75mm.

In Qatar, you drink a lot of water. You carry it with you. I was carrying some of my wife's water supply as well; she drinks more water than I do. Water is heavy and I don't like being weighed down when mostly what I'm doing is moving from one air-conditioned shopping mall to another. Within three days, the D50 was promoted to main body with a 24mm (35mm focal length equivalent) stuck on front. Lighter. Much lighter. Better combination for water bottles, any shopping and photography. I settled on the 24mm f/2.8D for the sort of quick and casual photography I mostly do on holiday. Honestly, my photography is mostly holiday photography. But I bring too much gear. I could have left the 35mm and the 50mm at home. I don't think I used either of them. Looking back, if I'd brought the 35mm and an 18-55mm zoom, I'd have done just as well. For what I was doing, the D700 was overkill. Lesson for the future.

It was always a bright day in Qatar so I mostly left the ISO at 200, used the 24mm and click... click... click...

A compact DSLR

I know it’s a cliché but I rediscovered how nice using just a simple camera with a 35mm equivalent prime lens can be. Point, shoot and walk on for casual snapshots if that's all you want or compose slowly and carefully if you don’t. I can see why Fuji's X-series has been so popular. I’m inclined to leave the D50 on aperture priority if I’m thinking about composition or on program mode if I just want compact camera-style snapshots. Maybe it’s just me but I find it hard to just snap away with a D700. It feels like I should be working hard for every pic. But with the D50, it’s just a casual camera. I don't mind shooting a 6mp DSLR in Program or even Auto mode. One of my favourite film cameras in the early 2000s was Olympus's Mju-II, a film-era film compact camera with a great 35mm f/2.8 lens but very little in the way of controls.. Shooting the D50 with a 24mm in Program mode feels much like shooting with the Mju. Point and click. Think less; shoot more. Mostly I'm the opposite. Sometimes, it's the unthinking photo that really catches the eye later.

Image quality

Um... The D50 is an old six megapixel camera. Pixel-peepers won't be happy. I'm not too bothered about flawless image quality. I like the D50's output, even at ISO1600. My measure of a good photo is whether I captured a memory or something worth looking at. I won't die if there's a bit of grain or the white balance is a bit off. Make memories and have fun. It's worth noting that you have to get an image before you can discuss its quality.

Does the D50 help me do that? Yes, because I worry less about whether it's set up right. It has very few menu options. Point and click. And for quick and casual photography to work, I need good autofocus, which the D50 has. In good light, I'm rarely left standing while the autofocus hunts. It's not rocket fast. But it's almost always fast enough not to be frustrating and exposure can be spot on. I've a D700, a D80 and a D2X and the D50 doesn't need to feel embarrassed to sit among them. It has its place.

Weaknesses

Before you start thinking that the D50 will be the next hipster Fuji XT-whatever, be aware that the D50 has its weaknesses. And these are only the ones that I have noticed or which affect me.

The D50’s #1 weakness for me... the top plate screen doesn’t light up at night. So you either need to remember where the buttons are for things like ISO or else work through the menus. This affects me more than all the other issues below combined and was one reason that I got a D80 soon after buying the D50. The D80 also has a much bigger viewfinder and the top screen is backlit. To be honest, the D50 and the D80 are much the same size, so if I’m going out at night (which I rarely do), I’d just bring the D80. But of my four DSLRs (D700, D2X, D50, D80), the D80 tends to go out least. I'm surprisingly fond of the D50.

Other D50 weaknesses, annoyances, quirks…

It’s a six megapixel camera so there’s not a lot of scope for cropping. You have to get the shot right in camera. That often means that a zoom works better than a prime. Nikon's slow 18-55m kit lenses are sharp enough at f/8-f/11, especially the ones with vibration reduction. And there are faster 18-55 (and similar) f/2.8 options from Nikon, Sigma, Tamron, etc.
The rear screen is small. Back in 2005, they were all small.
Like some other cameras of its era, the D50 only supports SD cards up to 2GB - not much of an issue when even raw files on the D50 are quite small. But small cards can be hard to find.
There’s no in-camera stabilisation but most Nikon stabilised lenses will work on the D50 - eg, newer AF-S 18-55 lenses or the very handy 18-140mm.
The D50 doesn’t do video but then no DSLRs of its era did video until the D90, so no worries. I have an iPhone if I want video.
Of all of those above, the lack of an illuminated top screen for use at night is for me the biggest issue. Everything else is minor or irrelevant.

Strengths!

For me, the D50’s strengths far outweigh its weaknesses.

Its first superpower of two, as I see it, is that it can do almost nothing beyond the basics. You can adjust the shutter speed, the aperture and the ISO. You can also adjust exposure compensation and white balance. Image quality can be set to standard, vivid, soft, mono. There are other things, but I rarely touch them. The menus are so short you can memorise them. You don’t waste time wondering if your settings are correct. Don’t forget, though, that you can hack the limited controls to some extent. You could set image optimisation to Vivid and white balance to Cloudy if it’s a dull day rather than leaving them on Normal and Auto. With the D50’s constraints, I’m just pleased if I get good results. I don’t try as hard and I don’t fuss so much. I’ll grab the D50, one lens and go with the flow. So that's the first superpower. The second superpower is discussed further below.

Other strengths - it’s light (620g), discreet, compact and small - though maybe not as small as a D40, D3100 or similar. Battery life is excellent (perhaps because the rear screen is small, so you don't spend too much time admiring your work on it) and it uses easily available batteries that were used in many Nikon cameras. In black, it looks as good as any other Nikon DSLR; there's a silver version that doesn't look as good. It fits nicely in the hand and buttons are mostly where you expect them if you’re used to other consumer level Nikons.

I don’t take the D50 too seriously. Its menu system is very simple. I’m not fussing over settings like I do with other cameras. That gets me to taking the photo faster. Switch on, point, click.

And "flow" is part of your art. If you enjoy using one camera over another, you will probably get better photos with it than you would with a camera you don't enjoy using quite so much. My D700 is a lovely camera and is a better camera in most ways than my D2X, but I prefer using the D2X. And I couldn't tell you why. I just do. And I'm not saying the D2X is a better camera either. But I sometimes feel "more creative" when I'm using it.

Superpower #2: the range of lenses

Here's the D50's second superpower: the Nikon F-mount. Unlike Nikon’s D40, D60, D3000 and D5000 consumer ranges, the D50 has a lens motor screw, so it can focus Nikon’s older, cheaper, autofocus lenses, like my 24mm f/2.8 and the ubiquitous 50 f/1.8. There are good options in the AF and AF-D lens ranges, including various zooms such as the famous 80-200mm f/2.8 as well as primes like the 20mm and 24mm f/2.8, the 35mm f/2, 50mm f/1.8 and f/1.4, etc. It can also handle G lenses, but not the AF-P ones. Because it’s a light camera, I wouldn’t hang anything heavier than 250g on the front of the D50 without expecting it to feel a bit front-heavy. But you can if you like.

The quality of the standard 18-55mm kit-type lenses is okay if you keep the aperture in or close to the f/8-11 range. Nikon’s later 18-55mm zooms have image stabilisation (alias "VR"). They’re fine on the D50. Sigma, Tamron, Tokina, Zeiss, Voigtlander and other, now-forgotten, manufacturers all made manual and/or autofocus lenses in Nikon’s F mount which has been around for decades, well back into the film camera era. The range of lenses is endless, especially if you're willing to try focussing and metering old manual focus AI and AIS lenses. Don't buy any Nikon lens described as Pre-AI, though. They won't work and can damage your camera.

Despite saying so much about lightweight zoom and prime lenses, one other lens that I'd suggest strongly for the D50, based on personal experience, would be the 18-140mm. Using the 18-140 with the D50 is a very recent discovery for me. I’d always thought it would be too front heavy and so I use it on my D2X instead, which is so heavy that almost any lens will not unbalance it. But I really like it with the D50, even though with the 18-140mm fitted, the D50 looks more like a bridge camera than a DSLR. Although a little heavy on the D50, it feels very well-balanced. And because it’s a VR lens, it lets D50 users shoot at slow shutter speeds at low ISO settings (to get the best picture quality) or at faster shutter speeds at higher ISO settings to reduce movement in the photo. Its 18-140 range (28-210mm full frame equivalent) means that you can often shoot at a focal length that lets you get the photo right in camera and not need to crop it later on. Which is good when you only have six megapixels. Getting photos right in camera is the best way to get a good D50 photo. Avoid having to crop wherever possible.

If you like the idea of using a D50 for a vintage DSLR CCD sensor vibe, I'd suggest starting with a kit lens: a 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 model, preferably with VR or the 18-70mm if you see a good deal on one or the 18-140mm which will cost more. I'd strongly suggest combining one of these zooms with a 50mm f/1.8 or f/1.8D lens (good for portraits) or the 35mm f/1.8 DX (good for most things). Alternatively, try the D50 with a Sigma or Tamron 18-55mm f/2.8, which will probably cost the same, used, as the 18-55 kit lens and a 35mm or 50mm combination. But the D50 should work with most Nikon lenses made after 1980. Try whatever you have or can get your hands on.

A hot tip: for landscapes, you can buy small, cheap, table-top tripods that will take the weight of a D50 and a lightweight lens. Shooting landscapes at f/11 will mean a low shutter speed. Using a tripod solves most low light problems, assuming you have somewhere to put the tripod and that your subject doesn’t move too much. Put the tripod on a wall or whatever and shoot that way, if you need to use slow shutter speeds and low iso.

"Any buying advice?" D50s are so cheap that you can’t go far wrong. Get a sense of the usual price for a nice one by looking at Ebay and big secondhand dealers in your country and then haggle if necessary. Try to get one with intact rubbers on the sides and eye piece covers. These are all hard to find now. If you can get one with a lens, that will probably be cheaper than buying a camera and a lens separately. If it looks too expensive, walk away. MPB often do guarantees; so do others.

I love my D50. It's a very simple camera with no showstoppers. It helps me to sometimes take a photo that I really like and feel responsible for. I have other cameras, but the D50 gets used regularly. Usually, I put a 24mm or 35mm lens on it and that's all I bring.

Examples

Be aware that I have a Mac and I use the free macOS Photos app. Every photo below was probably tweaked a bit in Photos, but not much. I've tried to show results from a variety of lenses.

Above: Nikon D50, Nikkor 45mm f/2.8 P, 1/4000 at f/2.8, ISO200 (Crop). The 45mm f/2.8P is a slim little pancake lens. I had one when they were cheap. They're collector's items now.

Above: Nikon D50, AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED, 1/125, f/6.3 at 55mm, ISO 200. Folkestone, England. (Crop)

Above: Nikon D50, Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC HSM, 1/100, f/9 at ISO200. Honfleur, France.

Above, Nikon D50, AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D, 1/80, f/4 at ISO400.

Above: Nikon D50, Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC HSM, 1/45, f/5.6 at ISO1600. "The Meeting Place", St Pancras Station, London.

Above: Nikon D50, Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC HSM, 1/45, f/5.6 at ISO1600. I think this was at Galeries Royales Saint Hubert, Brussels, Belgium.

Note that this photo and the previous one were taken at ISO1600. There's grain visible on a big screen but I don't think it detracts from either photo. And the settings were the same, oddly.

Above, Nikon D50, AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED at 24mm (guessing - EXIF unclear), 1/10, f/6.7, ISO 800. "Paul", Canary Wharf, London. Note that this was taken handheld at 1/10th second and that the 18-55mm lens I used then wasn't stabilised. You can get away with things like that at 6mp.

Above, Nikon D50, AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED at 40mm. 1/20th, f/5, ISO800. Place de Mexico, Paris. It's about 30 minutes walk from there to the Eiffel Tower.

D50 again...

All the photos above were shot with my first D50 and various lenses. I sold that kit around 2012 to buy some Panasonic micro four thirds gear. Ten years later and I have gone back to Nikon DSLRs, but still with a D50 among others. This time, I'm using Nikon's 35mm f/1.8 DX, the 18-55mm VR and 1-2 others. All the photos below were taken with my second D50 and whatever lens was on it.

Also, all the photos below are a little brighter on the Mac than they are in the browser. The older ones above look the same in the browser as they do on the Mac. No idea why. Newer jpeg processing on a more recent Mac or Photos? Anybody?