First of all, I must admit that this is only my third digital camera, and first digital SLR. But it isn't my first SLR ... I have used a Canon Elan IIE for a number of years, and trust me, that camera is no slouch.

But enough about me ... the D50 is the real star of the show! I have had the camera (along with the standard lens included with the kit) and so far I am extremely happy. I purchased it just in time to capture some photos of my new neice, and my family swears that the pictures that I was just casually snapping at the hospital look like they are professional portaits. Granted, some of my family members ... well, their necks are pretty tan, if you know what I mean, but you get the point. The camera has a slew of modes that are ideally suited to your subject (portraits, action, etc etc), and they do a great job of making all of the fine adjustments that improve the overall quality of the photo for the non-experts. But this camera has varying levels of automation to where you would practically require a photography degree to get your picture. My skills are somewhere in between, but trust me, if you are an absolutely beginner, in 5 minutes you can be taking photos that are 99% of the quality that a pro with a $5000 setup would take. Now you might need to snap a few dozen shots to get just one that is amazing, but that is what is just wonderful about digital cameras. And with a huge, super sharp LCD preview window, you can see in an instant if you have a decent shot, and if not, delete it and try again!

The camera takes the small "big-toenail" SD memory cards, which is a departure from what you will typically see in a digital SLR. I personally like the smaller size; otherwise, I don't believe there is a significant difference. If you pick up one major point from this review ... READ THIS !!!! I initially tried shooting with some SD memory that I had been using in my MP3 player. It worked fine, but if shooting a series of rapid shots, it would take the camera what seemed like a couple of seconds to write to the memory. That is typical with all of the digital SLRs that I have read about ... you get maybe a dozen high-speed shots, and then the camera sort of "bogs down". And most of the time that is fine. But this camera takes advantage of the slightly more expensive "pro" SD memory, which can be written to at extremely high speeds. Because of this, the camera can take an unprecendented number of shots (I believe 137 according to Nikon)!!! Folks, that is amazing, let me tell you. You can just hold the button down and fire away, and capture all of the high-speed action that you can imagine. No more excuses for missing that perfect action shot. Sure, you aren't going to require this feature very often, but it is nice to have, just in case. And even with normal shots, the high-speed memory seems to work much quicker than normal memory.

The camera can save files in three different size (resolution) levels, three different JPEG quality levels, and the complete uncompressed RAW format. I've been shooting using the medium resolution and medium JPEG quality, and the photos look sharper than my old Canon 35mm SLR. You could easily print out 8 x 10 photos and they would look perfect even at the medium quality setting; poster size would look fine at the high quality setting.

The rechargeable battery that is included is simply amazing - I believe they rate it for 2000 shots, and I believe it. It would be VERY diffult to drain this battery in a single day, even with numerous flashes and auto-focusing shots.

The fast auto-focus, very user-friendly menus, flexibility with all Nikon lenses, and near-pro quality at a price that the weekend-photo-warrior consumer can afford, I don't see how you can go wrong with this camera.

Happy photographing!

I also have a Nikon D-100 digital camera and the D50 is about equal in quality to the more expensive camera. I've also used a D-70 and the D-50 is equal to this one also. The more expensive cameras have a few bells and whistles that a professional or serious photographer would fine useful, but I've used these features rarely. The D-50 is more compact and slightly lighter in weight than the D-100 or D-70.One consideration is to get the D-50 body and buy a seperate lens of your choosing for the D-50. The lens that comes with the D-50 kit only goes to 55mm; a broader range might be a better choice.Besides Nikon, Sigma and Tamron make excellent lenses for Nikons at a reasonable price. For most of us this camera will do fine and is a joy to use.

I have owned two Nikon cameras, the Coolpix 3100 and 3200. They were both just good enough for taking a few pictures. I wanted to upgrade to something with more zoom and more pixels. I started to look at 8 megapixel cameras with 6 - 8x optical zooms.

Then I went to Panama to attend the 4th Summit of Heads of State and/or Government of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) and the official ACS photographer had the Coolpix 5700. I used it and looked at the pictures it produced. They mostly seemed to be dark and you had to wait too long before you could take another picture. I did not have an opportunity to read the manual and play with the camera. It did not feel right.

I bought the d50. I have used it for 2 days. I would recommend this camera to anyone who had a simple point and shoot camera who wants to move up. I have not had the chance to read the manual past the 24th page. I have not read about going to manual features and tweaking settings. I will...one day. In auto mode, the camera is just great. I am sure that the more advanced users will get more out of the camera. I have already gotten exactly what I needed to start with and I have a lot of room to grow.

No explanation for not showing the price is consistent with fair dealing or honest intentions. Every camera listed on Amazon's website is available at similar or better prices from B&H Photovideo , Adorama and a dozen other reputable vendors. Do not patronize Amazon or any other vendors who cannot bring themselves to be open or mature enough to simply declare their prices.

This camera feels so much like my old Nikon film camera, it was love from the first moment I held it in my hand. Using a 1 Gig memory card I can now shoot 350+ "fine" quality photos without having to change out ten rolls of film...or pay the processing! And a handy battery recharger quickly restores battery capacity when needed. Even with lots of flash pictures its charge remained strong for very long periods of time. A handy icon appears in the info screen area to let you see at a glance who much power remains.

I bought the D50 for a vacation to the photogenic Southwest, and this camera was more than up to the task. The fast auto-focus, the simplfied auto controls that give quick choices for portrait, landscape and full sun, cloudy, night etc. let me shoot like a pro while it was the Nikon that converted my impulses into reality. Neat.

With the ability to interchange lenses, and a great Nikon Zoom lens to start, I believe this camera proves that it is the optics which are every bit as important as the pixels. My earlier digital camera has suffered sudden retirement.

I have a wide carriage Epson printer and have been printing out some of the images as 12x18 prints. Even with cropping, the images look like they were taken with a medium format camera. Progress!

If you like crisp and detailed images with no hint of digital-itis, this camera is a great choice. I love precisely composing pictures through the lens rather than approximating the cropping with the display screen; but I also benefit from the ability to quickly check that screen to see the results at once. Never could do that with my old SLR without a Polaroid back!

Overall, this camera and lens is a real find and I do not think you can go wrong with it. Its only drawback is a short learning curve to become familiar with the many features and options it includes, and that is not really a complaint. This camera has more tricks than I will ever use!

Bought this camera for my wife a few weeks back just before a two week trip to Africa. She had used an analog SLR before and had a point and shoot digital, but hated the shutter lag and lack of TTL (through the lens) viewing. We own a Nikon D-100 and lots of lenses, but she found the D-100 too complicated. Within a few minutes of using the D-50, she loved it and was taking great pictures. The automatic setting works well for most general shots, but the preset modes are lifesafers for dificult situations where the average photographer doesn't know about F-stops, shutter speeds or special flash settings. The portrait mode did great portraits with nice sharp subjects and a soft blur to the background (we used a 28-300mm Tamron zoom for this trip). Probably the best preset was the night portrait mode which gave us fill flash for well lit subjects and a slow flash setting to still capture the African sunset in the background. I still like my (now very old and expensive seeming) D-100 and think that a more serious photographer buying today might want to consider the D-70S instead of the D-50 because the D-70 exposes more control settings, but let me say that there is nothing amateur about the shots that you can get with the D-50. It is one nice camera for under $900 with the kit lens (and I am sure it will get cheaper with time).

Had the D50 for a month.

The Good:
- Has the same features to the more expensive D70s
- More compact than the D70s
- Excellent pics.
- Fast USB 2.0 connection.
- 18-55mm Kit lens is pretty good.
- Nice 2 inch LCD.
- Instant power up.
- Excellent battery life.

The Bad:
- Menu navigation not well defined.

The Ugly:
- No night illumination for the data LCD panel!!!
- Nikon Capture software is not free.

Overall:
An excellent entry level prosumer DSRL

I had been looking into buying a DSLR for a few months and spent much of my time pondering,the Nikon D70 and the Pentax *ist ds, for some reason I just sort of thought of the Nikon D50 as the D70's cheap little brother, BOY WAS I WRONG. I was just playing around with the D50 at circuit city and I instantly fell in love with it. Its just about the perfect size, its comfortable for big male hands and feels solid while at the same time is very light. The exsposures are spot on,the AF is fast and resposive and the LCD screen is simply beautiful. What can I say, I love this camera, considering its entry level price, this camera is a steal, increadible bang for the buck!

As a Coolpix user for many years, I finally upgraded to an SLR. The camera is easy to use and has many controls/features similiar to the Coolpix line. As you would expect, there is no lag time with the D50 compared to the Coolpix. Also, the D50 battery lasts forever.

I always had to fix up my Coolpix photos with Photoshop Elements. With the D50, over 90% of the photos don't need any help from Elements.

The final verdict was comparing prints from the Kodak Print Service. I never noticed until I got the D50, but the Coolpix 5700 photos seem almost blurry in comparison to the D50 photos. The D50 photos seem somehow much clearer. It's had to describe, but there is a significant difference between them. In addition, the D50 colors are much more vibrant than the Coolpix 5700.

I'm glad I upgraded. I should have done this sooner.

When going for the NIKON D50 I had the following things in mind:
I wanted a good DSLR camera, magnesium alloy body (no plastic like the Rebel), wide choice of lenses and, of course, good picture quality.
The NIKON D50 gives you all this plus a lot more: It starts up in no time, it is silent, battery autonomy is ok, it is speedy and takes at least 2.5 fps in full res. and it feels very comfortable to use. The internal software (firmware) is excellent.
I had a hard time figuring out the key differences between the Nikon D70 and D50. The way I see it, the extra (aperture) wheel for the right index finger and the DOF preview button on the D70 aren't worth the price difference. One should definitely spend the extra bucks on LENSES!!! The kit lens is good enough for family and vacation snapshots but for the studio or serious photography you shoud consider getting a 30mm f=1.4, a good wide angle (zoom?) lens and some f=2.8 tele.

Always remember those things that yield a good picture:
1. eye of the photographer
2. light, light, light !
3. good photometer (to measure and evaluate light, light, light...)
4. good quality lenses
5. gorgeous nude model

Don't forget to buy the speediest and largest-capacity SD card available.

I read a lot of great reviews about this camera, and I bought it and tried it out before returning it last week. It responds very fast, the focusing and quality of the pictures were brilliant, however I was disappointed in the software package it came with among other things.

Pros: Fast, cheap, feels great in hand, great picture quality. Easy picture modes for the amateur / starter photographer (my mom).

Cons: No depth-of-field preview, no custom white balance, menu options generally limited, encrypted RAW white balance means only Nikon Capture can read as-shot white balance info (meaning if you use Adobe Camera RAW, all your shots turn out bluish).

I didn't think it would be an issue, but I shoot mostly in RAW, and converting batches of files using Nikon Capture (which is 99$ extra by the way) is slow and disrupted my Adobe workflow. The lack of custom white balance meant having to use their presets for difficult indoor lighting (like tungesten) which didn't always give me good results, hence RAW conversion it is. For not much more you can get an excellent Konica-Minolta 5D/7D with image stabilization (Nikon & Canon lenses with it cost $400+), or the excellent Canon Rebel XT if you don't mind the smaller grip and menu-based controls. If you are more serious about photography and full control, I suggest those or the D70 instead.

The D50 is the newest rung in Nikon's ladder of digital DLR cameras. Compared to the competition (which you can read about all you want on the wider web), it offers an excellent feature set at an excellent price point. If low cost was your only concern, you can't really go wrong with the D50. It is an excellent camera, but make no mistake, it is not as capable as Nikon's other offerings. It is also worth remembering that no camera will take pictures for you; you can take astounding pictures with any camera, either astoundingly good, or astoundingly bad. The important feature of any camera is that your camera does not get in the way of your photography, but again, it is your photography, not the camera, that takes good pictures.

If you are shopping for a D50, I strongly encourage you to consider the D70: it has more features and the same basic usability as the D50, and the cost is pretty much the same. The D70s is more expensive, but has a couple of newer features than the D70; as far as taking pictures goes, the D70 and D70s are pretty much the same camera.

Why the D70? Two main reasons. One is the kit lens (18-70mm) that comes with the D70 kit package. The 18-55mm lens that ships with the D50 kit is a lower-end lens (note that I'm not calling it a bad lens), but the 18-70 lens that comes in the D70 kit is an excellent lens. You may quickly feel limited by the D50 kit lens, but the D70 kit lens is good enough that you would not feel ashamed if you were using it on Nikon's flagship camera, the D2x.

The second reason to go with the D70 is that it leaves more doors open if you want to upgrade later on. It supports more of the high-end functions of the more expensive Nikon digital SLRs (such as the wireless flash capabilities of Nikon's iTTL system), and it uses CompactFlash memory cards-- if you do decide to upgrade, you won't have to buy a whole new set of memory cards. The memory card business is a minor consideration, but if you're a starving artist trying to scrimp together the money to upgrade, a couple hundred bucks can make a difference. After all, that's part of why you're looking at the D50, right?

Think of the extra $50-100 you spend on a D70 as an investment in your new hobby. It's not as important if you plan on buying a new camera body every year, but for those of us that plan on using the camera for several years, the versatility is more than worth the price.

This is my first digital SLR camera. The quality is stunning. It is worth the price. I strongly recommend this camera.

This is a fantastic camera and I'm having a load of fun shooting with it. If you want a real short review...solid body, amazing low light performance, get the 18-70 mm lens, shoot away and have fun!

Here is the long version:
A little photographic background about myself first. I'm what you'd call an amatuar enthusiast. My dad gave me Canon A-1 (35 mm SLR from the early 80's) to play with when I was in middle school. I still have and it still works great. I use it occasionally now when I need the telephoto lens it has. My first digital camera was an Apple Quicktake 100, a pioneering product, but not much real use. I bought a Canon S30 in 2002, wonderful little camera took great pictures and can take a lot of abuse, when I moved to a Canon A95 last year, the S30 was passed to my mom. In general, I can't say any bad things about all the Canon's I have owned, except the A95 costed me a bit in batteries. The S30 and the A95 took great photos and are tough cameras.

Anyway, back to the D50. It's my first Nikon, actually it's my family's first Nikon. It's also the most anyone has ever spent on a camera in my family (although what my dad spent on the A1 in 1982 dollars probably came close to this). I got it primarily because I wanted to shoot in darker settings and need longer zoom than my A95 can provide. I was seriously considering the Canon 350D. I knew it would be a good camera because of my past experience with Canon. But but in the end I decided to get the D50 instead on the grounds that the Nikon D50 body is better built and more pleasant to shoot with and has better noise performance at high ISO. I also had a slight 'grass is greener on the other side of the fence' itch...in any case, after two weeks, I'm not disappointed with the D50. Actually I'm pretty thrilled!

Here is my experience with the camera. First of all, the camera feels great in my hand. I feel like 'photographer' when I'm shooting with it. The balance with the 18-70 mm nikkor f3.5-4.5 lens is good. The camera doesn't feel tender or too plasticky. It begs to be held.

Secondly, the low light performance of the camera is absolutely amazing. The camera has very low noise at ISO 800 and I use that setting on a regular basis. At ISO 1600, the noise does increase a bit but the photos are still usable. There is a work around where you can get the ISO 1600+ performance but the ISO 800 noise level. Simply use +5 exposure compensation with ISO 800 in shutter priority mode. Compare to a campact digicam, the difference in quality is night and day. I very rarely use flash now. That said, the built-in flash is not bad! Pretty uniform illumination with good range.

Thirdly, the auto focusing does a very good job and pretty fast. I rarely use the AF assistance lamp. I turn it off unless I'm in an unlit room. The AF will have problems focusing on uniform background but that's understandable.

The last thing I want to mention is that the battery life is excellent. I have yet to drain the battery in one day yet. Turning off the AF assist lamp, use less flash and turn off the sound all helps with battery life. There are many other features of the camera that I haven't really played much yet...WB, sharping, saturation and etc., the auto mode on those parameters seem to do a fine job.

Here are my recommendations if you want to get this camera. First, I'd forgo the 18-55 mm kit lens, get the body only and the 18-70 mm lens (normally part of the D70/D70s kit). You'll appreciate that extra 15 mm often. Second, get a fast 1 GB or more SD card. A 1 GB card gives me about 270-300 photos at best JPG setting. Third, get a nice camera bag like something by Lowepro. It'll protect your camera and allow you to take it to many places that you won't take the camera to had you not had the camera bag. Fourth, get a UV filter with the lens from the get go. They say B+W is good, I got their MRC filter and now I'm worry free. Lastly, send in your lens warranty card right after you get your lens! If you don't you are giving away a 5 year warranty and it becomes a 1 year warranty. My next purchase would be a nikkor 80-200 mm F2.8 zoom lens but that'll have to wait till I replenish my bank account somewhat.

In summary, this is a great camera for serious amatuars upgrading to their first dSLR. Highly recommended.

You can check out my photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/coolskipper/
It has photos taken with all of my cameras (Canon A-1, S30, A95 and the Nikon D50).

Like most of the D50 potential buyers, I've been comparing it with the Rebel XT. From reviews to pro photographers: both cameras are great and you can't go wrong with neither of them. Recommendations were mostly: play with both and see which one feels better in your hand.
And so I did and purchased both at Costco (great return policy). At the end I kep the D50.

The D50 provides a better feel and professional handling than the Rebel XT, for my taste of course.
A deal-breaker was the lack of out-of-box RAW support, thus the comments from another reviewer, "L. Tao "techfreak" (thanks BTW, very useful info). But now, that Adobe RAW 3.2 is out, I'm happy to report that the white balance is proplery 'decoded' and appears as captured by the CCD.

So far, I'm so happy with the D50 and don't regret not going for the rebel XT. From the focus system (with the default kit lens), to the color reproduction, to exceptional low-light shooting, and continous shooting, the D50 is very very impressive.
Sure the Rebel XT packs more pixels and it is a terrific D-SLR; but its feel and build quality left something to be desired, not to mention that the flash must be used for AF illuminator and that some settings are simply shortcut to the menus. The D50 just has an excepional handling, great build quality, and adjustments don't require to navigate thru menus.

I had the chance to test the Canon XT and Nikon D50 at the same time during a whole day.....and I leant towards the D50...why??? because I noticed eight differences:

1. D50 is less noisier than XT from Iso 200 to 800 and also crispier.

2. DR is better on the D50, ...

3. D50 grip is excellent (to me)

4. The start-up is also a bit faster on the D50...the XT under low light conditions take more than a second to focus properly and raise the flash.

5. Nikon colors are awesome.

6. Battery life is endless.....much much better than XT battery....no doubt on it.

7. 18-55Dx is sharper than 18-55 EFs, in fact, the Canon kit lens is unusable.

8. NEF is less noisy than Canon RAW.

Being a long time Nikon user, it seemed only natural to "stay in the family so to speak" when purchasing a DSLR. I decided to look into Canons after hearing so many rave reviews, and to make sure I was getting the best camera for my money. The Canon Digital Rebel Series of cameras felt small and toy like in my hands. The Nikon D50 felt well, like a Nikon. Larger, heavier, more durable and like an old friend. I found the controls and program modes extremely user friendly. This is coming from someone who has used Nikon FM and FM2 35mm cameras ( these cameras are fully manual and can even work without batteries) for over two decades. The D50 metering system is simply superb in all modes. I was a bit disappointed that there is not a depth of field preview button on the camera. This concern was quickly dispelled by the very bright screen on the back of the camera. Another plus, especially for old Nikon users like my self, is that most all Nikon lenses from the past can be used on this camera. My first photos shot using the D50 were so sharp, they looked like prints made from Kodachrome in my old cameras. From beginner to seasoned photographers, the Nikon D50 is a superb choice.

I extensively researched many entry level DSLRs. I was focusing on the Nikons, Canons and Olympus models (the new Olympus ones - E300 and 500). Olympus has a pretty strong story now. Both the 300 and 500 have great features and are fairly inexpensive. However, the somewhat limited lens selection (not only an issue for buying, but also for selling if you ever want to get rid of a lens) and lack of history in this arena led me to look at other manufacturers. For Canon, the E series cameras are great, but expensive. The Rebel series felt a bit "cheap" and low end to me. That led me to Nikon. The D50 is priced very well and offers many great features. The only feature I may miss over the D70/70s is a depth of field preview, but this is less important with digital since you can play around with many different focus points and aperture settings. The D50 also lets you zoom in pretty close with the LCD screen so you can see what you shot. I was thinking about getting only the 18-55 lens, but seeing as the price difference wasn't huge for the extra lens, I went for it. I have the camera for about a week now and love it!

I don't love the software that came with the camera, but that's just my opinioin. In searching for options on how to deal with Nikon's NEF RAW files, I discovered the open source imaging program called GIMP. So far, this is as close to a free Adobe Photoshop I could find, and deals with the Nikon proprietary NEF file format, so I am very happy.

I put a sample pic on this website that I shot in NEF and used GIMP to convert to .jpg. It is a somewhat gloomy shot, but it is just about winter here in New England so there's a lot of that around now! It is entitled Tobacco Farm in the Winter.

To summarize, I love the camera and think it is the best choice for a DSLR in the $1000 range. I bought mine in Manhattan at B&H (they even have free parking if you spend over $100!). If you don't live near New York, they also have a great online store.

I have used Canon and Nikon film cameras for more than 20 years (love my N55 and still use an AE1-P) and own other Canon and Nikon digitals but this was my first D-SLR. I scoured magazine and online reviews and the choice came down to the Canon EOS Rebel XT and the Nikon D70.

They are very similar. The EOS is 8.0 MP vs. the D70's 6.1 MP but for the type of photography I will be doing (max 11x14 prints) that is not a problem. The D70 has quite a few more control features. That and the price difference tipped me towards the Nikon.

Once I made up my mind to buy a Nikon, I compared the D70 to the D50. They are quite similar and in some ways the D50 is superior to the more expensive D70. Besides a more rugged body, the D70 has a few nice features the D50 lacks: a lighted control panel, a front sub-control thumbwheel, depth of field preview, and you can fine-tune white balance. But the D50 has some features over the D70, notable a larger LCD monitor, higher capacity battery, and USB 2.0 high speed support. Every magazine I read raved about the D50 and none of the features it lacked made me willing to pay more for the D70. I purchased the D50 with the Nikkor AF-S DX 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G Zoom Lens.

After using it for several weeks all I can say is, wow! It is easy to use but I can fiddle with nearly all settings when I want to get creative. Using a digital with almost no shutter lag has spoiled me. I've taken many great shots with a Canon PowerShot 1S IS but it's my backup now. In the D50 I have finally found an affordable digital camera that is as fun to use as my film cameras.

Pros will probably prefer higher-end Nikons but if you like using film SLRs and would like to get into a D-SLR for less than the price of a decent used car, I highly recommend the D50.

This is one of the better digital cameras on the market today. The digital camera is a small and easy product to use. The buttons are conveniently located in easy to access places. It has great optical zoom and I love the quality. The biggest downfall is the PRICE, it really hurts you wallet. But i got mine for free. Just copy and paste the following link into your address bar: digitalcameras.freepay.com/?r=26142594 and check it out. Have fun and get things free!

From a long time Nikon user: glad to see that Nikon released a heavy body camera again. Yep, it's heavy but in my case it's a good thing as it reduces camera shake and balances nicely in hands with a heavy zoom lens. I'm a freelance photographer.
Annoyances:
1. Out of the box problem: dangerous battery recall - visit nikon.ca for details - set me back almost 3 weeks as I waited for the battery replacement. On the good side, I received a higher capacity battery in exchange.
2. Very annoying issue - Shooting in full auto mode produces slightly softfocus images. User can use a programmed auto mode where certain settings can be changed (sharpness, hue, saturation, etc) however, in that mode flash has to be manually opened to fire.
3. Using self-timer or a remote does not allow for continuous shooting. This is particularly dissapointing during the holiday season. You know what it's like when you pose everyone for that family photo, set the camera on the tripod, and everyone freezes unnaturally - the camera fires and everyone relaxes and that's when you want the continuous shooting mode, to capture that moment of relaxation on everyone's face. Not possible! Continuous shooting only available when physically depressing the power button - using a remote is just a split second too slow.
4. Af assist illuminator positioned too close to lens - larger zoom lenses cover the illuminator and camera can't focus in low light situations.
5. Three step photo playback zooming: must press two buttons to zoom in on a photo taken + dial. Needless complication.
6. No bluetooth capabilities.

Good points: Solid body, easy to operate, excellent battery life, uses the very popular and easy to find SD cards (get the fastest card you can afford), card capacity better than stated.

Please do not try to save money by buying non slr digital cameras. I had multiple of them before and little did I get frustrated when I realised that I would have saved money on camera, but my photo printing costs and my time are more precious than the camera itself. So I finally bought this camera and the pictures are a dream. I am sure you get the same quality even with other good SLR digital cameras.

I would highly recommend it to any one who can spend 600 dollars. It is a BMW of cameras. The only draw back is that the manual is not very intuitive to read and also when you play back the pictures on the TV, they see to flicker a lot.

Works great like the other reviews mention. Battery life is exceptional. The only thing I am adjusting to is the requirement to use the view finder to take pictures - I previously had a Sony and had grown accustomed to taking pictures by viewing the subject in the LCD display.

In general, I am very happy and love the fact it takes standard SD memory cards.

I bought a D70 about a year ago and was delighted with it from day one. At christmas I bought my son who is an aspiring photographer a D50 with the 18-55 kit lens.
I cannot tell any difference in the image quality between these two cameras. The D50 is simpler but that is not a bad thing. I find the single command dial to be a nice feature. When you take the camera from A to S mode the function of the dial changes with you making for a very efficient system.
If you don't do a lot of wirelss flash or feel the need to fiddle with the white balance then there is effectively no difference between the D70 and D50 bodies.
When you take a few minutes to look over the specs of the D50 you will find a very powerful picture taking tool.
This camera may be simplified to bring down the cost of manufacture but it certianly has not been "dumbed down" to meet a price point.
I recommend you ignore all the picture modes and concentrate on mastering P A S & M settings. Also exploring the slow sync setting to make flash pictures look more natural will pay off in much nicer photos.
Great camera and quite a bargain too.

I'm not the most mechanical member of my family, so I rely on others often to assist with the technical aspects of complex cameras and computers before making purchasing choices and afterwards for assistance in learning the ropes. I came to the table after enjoying my old Cannon 35mm camera for years, buying one of the first slow but expensive digital cameras which took a disc, and then buying a cheap digital camera which immediately broke. As a result of these digital dilemmas, I decided to rely on the experts. After much research and comparison, my adult stepson purchased a Nikon D70 and, delighted with this camera, even so, he advised me to purchase the D50. I am very pleased with this purchase. He agreed that I simply did not need the additional features (and expense) of the D70. And he was correct. This camera takes great pictures almost out of the box. With a few lessons, by reading the instructions, buying an inexpensive, easy to understand manual, and spending a little time with my stepson, I'm taking the best pictures ever, and really enjoying the ease and seamlessness of the camera's features. I'm a Mac user and the photos easily adapt to iphoto. I'm hooked. I've got lenses, a camera bag and other add on items. So, finally, it is here: a great camera at a reasonable price that is easy enough to master without too many bells and whistles. This camera is usable and not so complex that it just stays in the bag collecting dust. And the photos are professional in quality.

I have this camera for 2 weeks. It is my 3d digital camera (the second was Olympus C-4040 Zoom, which is a great camera too). This is my first digital SLR, and it is a pleasure to take pictures with. The quality of the pictures is superb. I also tried to take photos of the sportsmen jumping from an Olympic trampoline in Lake Placid, NY, and I was amazed with the results. While the jumper flies in front of me (I was positioned to the side from the point of actual jump), the distance is constantly changing, and I can not keep him exactly in the center all the time, because the whole event is too fast. Nevertheless, most of the shots are amazingly in focus, so auto focus works magic. The manual is reasonably clear, it was more or less easy to understand what they mean. The enclosed 256 Meg memory card holds about 130-150 pictures in medium resolution (JPEG files are around 1.5M), but when I switched resolution to high, the number of pictures shrank to 20-something, so I bought SD card of a 2 Gigabyte capacity on Amazon (attention: the camera takes SD-type cards, I first bought CompactFlash card, which of course, did not fit). The big memory card comes very handy even with medium resolution shots, if you start taking pictures in "automatic" mode, shooting 2.5 pictures per second in short bursts - the 250 M card does not last too long. The battery life is incredible. So far I charged the battery once, went on vacation, shoot almost every day in daylight and in night conditions (with a flash), at room temperature and in cold (it was around 22 F) and downloaded pictures to lap-top, and a couple of times forgot to switch it off, and battery indicator still says it is full. The camera comes with software on CD, but I did not get to it yet. So far I just connect the camera to the lap top with Windows XP, and it recognizes it as an additional hard drive, and I just drag the JPEG files from there. The camera feels very nice in hand (I have it with 18-55 mm zoom auto focus lens) and actually is much lighter that I would have expected by looking at it. In addition several people around said "this is a nice camera" and I could not agree more. The only thing I found silly, is that while the camera knows that some shots are taken in "vertical position" (e.g. `portrait', rather than `landscape'), they do appear in a right orientation while viewed in the camera, but not in the computer, I still need to use software (such as PhotoShop) to turn them 90 deg, but this is a small matter.

I'd been drooling over the D70 for the last couple of years, but the $1000 price tag was still a bit high for me. When the D50 came out, accompanied with fantastic reviews in the digital photo magazines, I finally took the plunge.

This is a GREAT camera. Really versatile, and terrific image quality.

6 megapixels is, as I understand it, the digital equivalent of a 35mm film resolution. Be sure, though, to keep the ISO setting as low as possible. Just as shooting 800ASA film will introduce more grain to your film shots, even shooting 400ISO will introduce much unwanted video noise to your digital shots.

Battery life is amazing. I recently had a 14 hour shoot, in which I shot over 1500 frames. I planned ahead and bought a spare battery -- only, I never needed it! I've used the camera often since the beginning of the year -- the battery charge indicator has remained on 'full' since my last charge, around Christmas.

The most important issue with any camera, though, is image quality. This baby exceeds all expectations. As a point-and-shoot (full auto mode), it's phenominal. Start messing with the myriad of available settings, and you can do anything with it.

In full auto mode, I recommend killing the flash in all but the most necessary situations (nighttime parties, for example -- you've got no other choice).

All in all, this is a brilliant, wonderful, exceptional camera.

One final note -- piece of advice I heard often as I was doing my research:

If you already have a film-based SLR camera, be sure to check out the digital SLRs made by your film camera's manufacturer. If you have Nikon already, the D50 is great and you can probably use most if not all of your existing lenses on this body. If you have Canon film cameras, the digital rebels will be able to use those lenses and they also create great shots.

I've long been a Nikon fan and am even able to use the manual-everything lens from my 30 year-old EM with the D50. It's great!

I bought the D50 kit with the 14-55 mm lens. At the same time I bought the 70-300mm Nikkor lens designed for the D70. It takes almost any Nikon(Nikkor) autofocus lens, all of the Nikon knock-off lenses like Sigma, all of their speedlights etc.

This camera takes unbelivable pictures. With the 70-300mm lens I took pictures from fair territory in the upper deck of Yankee Stadium at a night game. I have shots where you can see the ball (clearly) coming off the bat. Unbeleivable - I had to be 450 feet away at night. This was using auto exposure and autofocus.

It is great for action shots. I have used it for portraits, cross country meets, and snapshots on a cruise. All come out great.

I have just boght the Nikkor 28-200mm zoom so I don't have to change lenses at track meets.

My recomendation would be to get the body only and the Nikkor 28-200 mm lens. It is expensive at $369, but is probably the only lens you will ever need even for sporting events.

I recently went out to Vegas for a convention, and I ended up forgetting my camara. i had been looking at getting a new anyway so here was my justification. i bought this exact set up, with the 28-80 lense and D50 body. I love it.

Get a good carry case for it so you can just throw it around your shoulder and the size doesn't matter. I first thought I would dread lugging it around and was surprised that it didn't bother me at all.

The picture quality is great. I was shooting in RAW and was getting around 140 pictures on my 1 gig card. You can shoot in the 6.1 mp jpeg if you want and get around 400 pictures, but you also lose a bit of quality on your pictures. I also have Aperture on my Powerbook and love that I can adjust the RAW format without losing any quality.

I was vacillating between the Canon Rebel XT and the Nikon D50 for my first Digital SLR. The Rebel has more megipixels than the D50 but I like the larger and solid feel that the Nikon has. I was also wanting a package that provided a kit lens that had acceptable quality but kept the total purchase price down. I could not get the Rebel XT with a lens for under $750.00 but I was able to buy the Nikon D50 with a Nikkor Auto Focus 28-80mm Zoom lens all for under $600.00. The kit lens that came with the Nikon provides average quality while the lens that comes with the Rebel XT is below average.

I was able to view samples from both cameras on the digital photography web site called dpreview

I liked the color saturation and balance of the Nikon D50 over the samples from the Rebel XT and that played a big part in my decision. I know the Rebel has features that the Nikon D50 does not have but the D50 meets my needs. The known compromises that the D50 has is a non-backlit settings/status display on the top of the camera and no depth-of-field preview.

The Nikon D50 works well with my Mac OS X and iPhoto with out having to use a card reader. I am able to plug the camera into my USB port and import with iPhoto or use Photoshop CS's File Browser to preview the images on the virtual disk that my Nikon D50 creates on my system's desktop finder.

Spectaculer camera! I recently upgraded from a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20 to the Nikon D50, and it was definitely worth the investment. Picture quality is simple wonderful. I chose the D50 over a KonicaMinolta and Canon models in large part because of the very low noise the camera produces even at high ISOs. Noise at high ISOs was a major issue with the Lumix I had previously. I also chose this over the Canon Digital Rebel XT because the Rebel is actually too small. The buttons get crammed and are easly pressed by mistake, and with a good lens (the kit lens for the Rebel isn't too spectacular) the balance of the camera is way off. Neither of these is an issue with the D50. The D50 is very quick to focus in automatic mode, controls are easy to use, shot to shot time is wonderful. Battery life, which often seems to be an issue with digital cameras, is not with the D50. My father has a Canon Digital Rebel, and claims that this camera (the D50) is nicer, and the built in flash especially impressed him. The only thing is that while the two included lenses are quite good, neither makes a good general purpose lens. The 18-55 mm is often too short, and the 55-200mm one is often too long, so you need to swap lenses a lot. That said, this being an SLR, I plan on picking up a third lens in the future that ranges from say 28 mm to 200 or 300 mm.

Highly recommended camera!

Just a quick note on this camera: I investigated this camera (as well as the Canon D20 and the Nikon D70) for about two months before I decided to buy it, but now that I have it, I couldn't be happier. However, get the camera with the Nikkor lenses. There are some deals out there that offer the D50 with off-name lenses that may or may not work well. I have the two nikkor zooms that work fantastically. Hope this helps.

This is my first digital SLR camera and I'm very pleased with it. The photos are terrific, the controls are mostly easy to learn and quick to access. My kit came with a 28-80mm lens instead of the standard 18-55, however. The battery lasts a long time and the screen is bright. Downsides: The LCD panel on top isn't back lit so if it's really dark you won't be able to see it. Also, the buttons you have to press to zoom in on a picture you just shot is kind of cumbersome. Other than that, I've shot over 800 photos with it so far and I'm in camera heaven.

I've had film SLRs for 30 years, and digital cameras for about 6.

I am blown away by the high quality of the Nikon D50. Clearly tremendous thought and effort went into the design of this camera.

The beginner can start taking great pictures out of the box with almost no knowledge of photography, while the advanced user will find almost every option and setting he or she needs.

This camera is the best electronic/mechanical object I have ever owned. It is a pleasure to hold, and even greater pleasure to use.

The Nikon D50 is a superb digital SLR camera that really can do it all. This camera is aimed at everyone from the beginning amateur to the professional who wants a spare SLR body to supplement a higher end camera body. The D50 allows the amateur to own an SLR body for about the price of a high-end point-and-shoot pocket camera. Of course, on top of this one must buy one or more Nikon (or compatible) lenses, but good lenses for this camera can be had at very reasonable prices.

In this review I will not elaborate a lot on the various features this camera has, since such information is available in more detail elsewhere. But there are certain things about this camera that really are impossible not to like. The autofocus is quick and sure, and features several modes including an automatic multi-field mode that tracks the subject. This, combined with the lightning-fast data buffer, allows the user to take rapid-fire shots of sporting events. And the various exposure modes available on the camera make good exposures, sharp focus, and vivid colors a snap. This is a really great camera for the enthusiastic amateur who does not want to stop and figure out F stops, depth of field, etc. Thus, the D50 offers the photographer an alternative to point-and-shoot cameras which also provide computerized exposure modes, but it has more advanced electronics than most of them, and most importantly it can utilize professional quality Nikon lenses to which the lenses on most pocket cameras cannot really compare.

Accessories? The obvious one is the choice of lens (or lenses). This camera is offered body-only or as part of various "kits" which provide some very good lens choices. You will need an SD card which is where the images are stored. Most users will do well to go with at least a 1GB Secure Digital (SD) card. Yes, Nikon deviated from its usual commitment to the CF format, and the D50 uses the SD format. No problem. Other accessories for the serious amateur will include a spare battery for the camera, and yes, perhaps an external flash. The camera comes with a very decent built-in flash which is fine for casual snapshots, but for the serious amateur the Nikon SB800 (my favorite) or SB600 is a must.

Basically, right out of the box, with a good SD card and lens, the D50 will do more than a high-end pocket camera for a similar price. But unlike the pocket camera, the D50 is a camera that one can grow into, right up to the level of near-pro. This is a fine piece of equipment.

Construction of the D50 is outstanding. It is plainly a solidly-built, quality instrument that feels great in one's hand--this is no flimsy amateur toy. This is a rugged piece of equipment that if treated with respect will give years of enjoyment.

The D50 is one of the very best deals out there as of February 2006 for the serious amateur photographer who wants to graduate to a digital SLR.

Here is my review of the Nikon D50, the best digital camera I ever owned.
When I went to buy this camera, I wanted a camera that would be able to take pictures faster than the compact models and most of all, a whole bunch of manual features that I could use when I wanted to.
I bought this model at Best Buy for 699.99$ with a 512 Mb card (Ultra II) 70$. All taxes included, it was about 800$ which is extremely low priced for such a quality camera. I got home and charged the battery, which took about 3 hours for the first time.

I went outside and tried it and I was really impressed by the quality given by this camera. The pictures were sharp and crisp and after about 100 pictures, I barely got ANY soft tonned pictures, if any. They were all sharp and clear.
Another thing that amazed me about this camera is the ability to let the camera do all the work for you with the focus, ISO, aperture etc. or being able to partly, or fully control it yourself.
Also, the camera turn on the second you to and taking pictures is very speedy.
Now that was during daylight. The same day, I went up on the roof of my house and tried to take some night pictures of San Francisco. I tried some manual controls and again, I was amazed with the results. Even at 800 ISO, the noise was barely noticable and when I put them on the computer and i sent them to my friends, they wouldn't believe I had taken them myself.
Last I am going to mention because, although it is only one of them, this one is one of the biggest qualities of the D50. It has a FANTASTIC battery life. I have used this little baby for one week straight, taking about 100-200 pictures a day and it did not even go down. I am telling you, this is the best battery and you could go on a trip for a whole month, without taking the charger.
Ok, I could talk for a long time about all the features of this camera and sound like I'm actually working for Nikon, which i'm not. It all rounds up to this: If you are looking for a great that camera that offers a lot of manual controls but also gives you great results on the automatic mode, well this camera is for you. Don't even think about going for the Canon Rebel XT because the Nikon D50 is cheaper, and is the best camera you can get for the money on the market.
If you are still hesitating, I suggest you take the plunge: you'll be glad you did.
Hope this helps, enjoy.
P.S: I strongly recommend you take the fastest SD cards on the market (Ultra II) to save your pictures. They might be a little more expensive, but it will save you a lot of time when taking the pictures. You don't neceserally to take gigs of memory, 512 is plenty enough.

its an exspensive point and shoot that lets you change lens but does not encourage you creativity with reguards to the process. It will help you take very nice photos...but at this price point the d70s is just around the corner if you want a better camera for function and the d200 is beyond that but still do-able if you already are walking in with nikon mount lens...point and shot..yup...arts and craft..yup...pro or weekend wedding warrior...not

enough commentry..bottom line...build is good, camera is balanced well, metering is very accurate but a 800 speed light is a must...600 if you on a budget...and make sure you buy cpu lenses...enjoy

Let me just start by saying "I Love this Camera". Buying the Nikon D50 DSLR has rekindled my passion for photography. Back in HS and college (when dinosaurs roamed the planet), I enjoyed my Pentax K1000 very much, and learned a lot (compared to my peers) about taking good pictures. Once digital cameras came out, the 35mm SLR when on the shelf for the ease and economy of lower quality photos. This year, I have combined the best of both worlds! The D50 takes nice shots right out of the box, and allows you to become as good a photographer as you want to become. I feel like a kid again, as I continue to explore more of the camera's possibilites, and have bought new lenses and accessories, to further add to the excitement. The potential of this camera is endless, and the results so far have been amazing. Nearly everyone who has seen my camera, and the pictures that it takes, has said that they want one too. My only "regret" was getting the 28-80mm lens, instead of the 18-70mm kit lens, but it gave me the opportunity to later buy an even wider lens (15-30mm), which I probably wouldn't have done if I had chosen the kit lens (which I'm told is superb). Other than that, I have no regrets about this camera, and can't even think of a single bad thing about it. And I can't say that about any of my previous 3 digital cameras (which were all good at the time, but had their limits). This is a camera that moves you from "picture taker" to serious photographer. It may sound funny, but it makes me feel young again. How many other things can you say that about?

After all my research it seemed to come down to Canon or Nikon. Canon just costs more. I've had this product now for a couple of months and love it.

The Nikon D50 is a point and shoot but you can also make it a manual. There is a Manual mode. This camera is the best use of my money and I have and will continue to reccomend it to friends. There are neumorus great accesories that you should buy with this camera such as a manual lens and a memory card. This camera is lightweight so you can take it anywhere and with its neumours settings you can set the camera to optimal conditions.
A GREAT BUY!!!!

I purchased my Nikon at Best Buy because I wanted a hands on with the Canon Rebel XT and Nikon D50. The first thing I noticed about Canon lenses is they seem to have a foggy coat as opposed to the Nikon lens which is very clear and provides you with the crystal clear image you want from digital photos. The Canon is heavy and the lenses are much larger in diameter as opposed to the Nikon with the D50 it's lightweight and the lenses are a petite size which will not make you feel like you are holding and extremely large unecessarily bulky camera. The functions with any camera on the Canon and Nikon are enough to make you go a little crazy but when I purchased my Nikon I bought Nikon - Digital Field Guide which I highly recommend.

I highly recommend anyone who is a novice and wanting to delve into photography for a serious hobby or even for the fun of just having a great camera should consider the Nikon D50.

I was looking for a digital camera that would not be outlandishly expensive, produced good quality images, had SLR design, reasonable battery life, did not have the very annoying noticeable lag between activating the shutter and acquiring an image, and provided the flexibility to be more than a `point and shoot' camera. I found all those features and more in the Nikon D 50. In my opinion it is an excellent digital camera and certainly more than lives up to its Nikon badge. The battery life is unbelievable - I have taken several hundred images, downloaded them and accidentally left the camera on for over 24 hours and it is still going strong. So far I have not found anything about this camera that I do not like.

way beyond expections, charge the battery for 2 hours and your ready to go right out of the box, make sure to buy the 18mm-55mm lens, some companies are selling the camera with knock off lense or the 28mm for a hundred cheaper but you loose all wide angle shots, ease of operation is incredible, as with my nikon s4 the family dog gets white eyes, sooner or later someone may figure out red eye correction, also the picture project software is a piece of junk, it is slow and not at all user friendly, as far as the pictures on this camera they are fantastic, the size is ideal, suggest buying the 70mm-200mm zoom, and take classes to learn the full potential of this great camera

Now I can take good pictures fast . Big change from non-SLR cameras I was using before. Excellent camera for the price.

Got the D50 recently after much research. Feels right and takes superb photos. Got it just in time for our son's wedding...and we couldn't be more pleased with the results. The one gig card and long battery life let me snap away without worry. Also, recommend the SB600 speedlight for the serious indoor stuff. (In my opinion, the model 800 is not worth the extra bucks). Highly recommend this camera for the serious amateur looking for an SLR! Nikon hit a home run with this one.

The D50 has all the Nikon quality I've come to expect. Images are excellent, of course. But the thing that most impresses me is how fast this camera is in every way that matters. When you turn it on, it's ready to shoot--no perceptible warm-up. When you press the shutter release, it shoots right then--not half a second later like many digital cameras, which miss critical shots. You can shoot in rapid sequence--no waiting around for it to process the last shot. It focuses fast, too. Spring for the extra money for a high-speed SD card and you'll get screaming transfer times, too.

The only complaint I have is the little rubber cover that hides the USB and other ports is a little hard to get smoothly all the way back into place. A pretty minor complaint.

An unexpected bonus compared to all the little digital point-and-shoot cameras I've used is the D50 has a 3:2 aspect ratio instead of 4:3. This means you're shooting the same aspect ratio as 35mm film (36mm x 24mm) and it conveniently fits a standard 4x6 print at your local photo processor without any unwanted cropping happening.

I purchased my D50 in november 2005 with the kit lens and I love it. I use it for sport photographt so the slow burst speed is disapointing. Otherwise this camera is excelent. I have used both the D70s and D50 and they are very similar. One glaring flaw is the lack of Comander Mode when using speedlights wirelessly. This camera has very low noise. At ISO 1600, the D50 has less noise than the Canon Digital Rebel XT at ISO 200. That is amazing and very nice for shooting in poorly lit gyms.

I purchased this camera because I was interested in taking some photography lessons using an SLR camera. I researched and researched and just couldn't find any real negatives for this camera. My point-and-shoot camera has a fast startup time, but there is the traditional delay in actually taking the picture. Action shots on this camea are great. You can point, shoot and it takes the picture immediately, not 1-2 seconds later. I like the range of contol from Full auto to manual. I can learn techniques and see what various setting do, but then just put it on auto when I need someone else to take the picture. I've had it for about a month now, and taken in around 400 shots. I have no regrets about this purchase, and a co-worker purchased the same camera based partly on my recommendation of it!

I was very dissapointed with my Nikon Coolpix S4 which I bought last Nov 2005, it was due to short time for reasearh. Therefore it took me almost 3 months searching for my second Digital camera and my first Digital SLR. I look through out comments and other Pro web sites and I bought some magazines. Finally I narrow my choices which Nikon D50, D70s and Cannon 350D in my list. After full consideration and with limited budget I bought D50.

I love this camera which makes me learn faster. For Beginner I would advise to buy this camera and worth for your money. The lens is 18-55mm and I bought somes lenses that is Nikon 50mm f/1.8, nikon 85mm f1.8 and Nikon 70-300mmG which is very cheap and I would buy for my next lens is 12-24mm (I think my lens already completed)

My Next DSLR will be either Nikon D2X or Nikon D200 and my D50 will be my back up or 2nd camera...

Do not take long just buy this camera it wouldn`t upset you...

I bought a three-megapixel point-and-shoot digital camera back in 2000 and took close to 10,000 pictures with it over the years. It was still working fine but I was beginning to run into many of its limitations: poor battery life, slow shot-to-shot performance, inability to focus in dim conditions, noisy images at high ISO and/or long shutter speeds, SmartMedia memory cards limited to 128 MB and etc.

The D50 has none of these problems. I took a couple hundred pictures over the Christmas holiday (with frequent use of the flash) and never had to charge the battery. The D50 has a high-speed, ~3 frame-per-second mode and can take pictures as fast as you'd like.

I purchased the 18-70 DX lens instead of the 18-55 lens that normally comes with the D50. With this combination it rarely has trouble focusing. And even if it's a little off, you can manually fine-tune the focus after the autofocus has given it its best shot. It is so nice to have a true, optical, through-the-lens viewfinder. I often had parallax errors with the viewfinder in my old P&S.

I'm also a huge fan of the D50's low noise at high ISO settings. I can shoot at 1600 ISO in dim conditions with about the same level of noise as my old camera has at 100 ISO.

If you think you've grown out of your P&S digicam, go ahead and get a D-SLR. The performance is so much better and it will make you want to start taking pictures again. And unlike point and shoots, megapixels don't matter as much with a D-SLR. Take the Canon 20D, for example. It is an 8-megapixel camera (vs the D50's 6-megapixels). While it sounds like a lot more, in reality you'll only be able to make a print that's about 2 inches wider (and the D50 makes beautiful 8x10s).

Get one. You'll love it.

The D50 has everything a beginner could want: autofocus, aparture setting, shutter speed, etc.. I feel that when I leave the beginner stage, it will be able to accomodate my skills for a very long time.

My firstdigital was a finepix 1.4 Megapixels, then a 4.1 and now my first digital SLR Nikon D50, Just perfect for novice SLR users looking for a nice handly camera to shoot creative photos...
The only con is the shutter speed, the fastest is 1000, not so fast for sports pictures...
NO problems with battery, memory or accesories...

My work recently bought the Canon Rebel XT with the 18-55mm lens. I took it on a couple trips and to some sporting events and realized that I wanted a DSLR. However, the Rebel XT is about $900, so I looked into other options. A friend of mine recommended Nikon saying it was all she used. So I did some research and decided to get this D50. So 1 month and 1000+ pictures later, what do I think? I LOVE it! Even if the Rebel XT was the same price as the D50, I still would have picked this one. The camera is larger then the XT, which I like because it fits my hand much better. The XT is too small around the grip for most people, IMHO.

In terms of picture quality, I don't think I could be happier. I took some pictures at a baseball game the other day and was getting 1/3200 second shutter speeds and very clear pictures. The only not so good part (which I also read about on dpreview.com and agree with) is ISO 1600 produces some slightly grainy photos. So, the ONLY time I would use 1600 would be in LOW light situations where a printed photo won't be larger then maybe 5 x 7 or 8 x 10.

Now the best part about having this camera, is there is a song about it. Thank you Paul Simon.

This camera is amazing! If you know how to use a 35mm SLR, then this camera should be a doozie to use. The only set back is that the slowest speed you can use is 200 ISO (which produces light noise); however, this is only minor to the many options that this camera has. If you are thinking about buying a digital SLR, think no more!

Since so many folks already described the camera I will concentrate on issues I do not like about it:

1. Pictures are unacceptably soft when shooting out of the box. Fortunatelly one can use program mode to improve sharpness. Still, this should not be necessary.

2. Pictures are unacceptably overexposed in sunny destinations. Again, one can correct this by jacking up the contrast setting in programmed mode. And again, this should not be necessary.

Camera is very heavy if you're used to some of the new slrs with plastic bodies. Nikon, it seems went back to the days of F401, F601 and F801 when cameras where solid built, but at a cost to hikers and travellers. Add to it a good quality zoom lens, with glass optics and solid body and you are facing back ache. Still this is not a complaint, I like a heavy camera, it helps steady a shot. Potential buyers should be