June 18, 2005 6:00 AM PDT
A digital SLR camera amateurs can afford
One megabyte of memory in 1985, for example, would have cost you about $400. By 1995, the same amount cost about $35. You might conclude that memory makers will eventually have to start paying you.
Still, watching prices of popular technologies crash to earth is always exciting while it lasts. Take the highly regarded digital single-lens reflex cameras from Nikon, for example. Over the years, prices for Nikon SLRs hit $5,000 (the D1 in 1999), $4,000 (the D1H in 2001), $2,000 (the D100 in 2002), $1,000 (last year's D70) and $900 (last month's slightly upgraded D70S).
Nikon's latest data point represents a delicious addition to the line: the D50, due next week. It takes the same spectacular photos as the best-selling D70S--for a list price of $750.
(These prices are for the body only--bring your own lens. With a great starter lens, the D50 will be priced at $900. Prices online will be even lower once the camera has been on sale for a few weeks.)
Now, $900 may still sound like a lot, but these are professional cameras--or were, until amateur shutterbugs started snapping them up. And that price frees you from the teeth-grinding annoyances of everyday consumer cams.
For example, the D50 powers up in two-tenths of a second, so you don't miss shots because your camera's not ready. You don't worry about running out of battery power by lunchtime at Six Flags, either; the D50's battery lasts for weeks on a charge. (It has a 2,000-shot capacity, compared with 200 to 400 on a pocket-size consumer cam.) And a digital SLR reduces shutter lag--the half-second delay after you press the shutter button--to zero.
But a digital SLR's most important advantage is that it takes infinitely better pictures than those little pocket cams. These are big, bright, sharp, professional-looking photos, with ultra-sharp subjects and gently blurred backgrounds. You can freeze motion, making a pool splash look like crystallized ice; you can shoot in the dark, leaving the shutter open to record the orange trails of car taillights; and you can fire off several shots a second, improving your odds of catching the bat meeting the ball, the cork exiting the Champagne bottle or the 5-year-old sitting still.
What you can't do with a digital SLR, though, is capture digital movies, compose shots using the back-panel screen (you must look through the viewfinder) or put the camera in your pocket; a digital SLR is bulky. Harsh trade-offs, yes, but that's the ballgame.
Still, the explosive success of Nikon's D70 and Canon's Digital Rebel proves that millions of consumers will overlook those cons to gain the pros--and to shoot like pros. So Nikon was smart to design, in the D50, a camera that offers the same stunning photographic quality as the D70 in a more family-friendly package.
What does "family friendly" mean? It would be easy to say that the D50 is just a stripped-down D70, but that wouldn't be accurate. The D50 is certainly a modified D70, but it adds as many new features as it takes away.
The lower price is a key feature. But so is the reduction of size and weight, made possible in part by a switch in memory format (from Compact Flash to SD card). In conjunction with its new, compact 18- to 55-millimeter starter lens (a 3x zoom, the equivalent of a 28- to 80-millimeter zoom lens on a film-based SLR.), the fully assembled D50 makes a much less intimidating-looking package than its predecessor. (It's 5.2 by 4 by 3 inches, vs. 5.5 by 4.4 by 3.1 on the D70.)
If you can afford a second lens, Nikon's new, equally compact 55- to 200-millimeter telephoto lens (equivalent to an 80- to 300-millimeter lens on a film camera) makes a great choice at $250. Its zoom picks up where the starter lens leaves off, bringing you 11 times closer to soccer goals, school plays and shuttle launchings.
The D50 also features an improved autofocus system; in sports mode (one of its six scene presets), for example, it can
7 comments
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the Canon 20D and D70 don't really qualilfy. Prosumer cameras,
yes. Pros use them, but they have compromises to make them
affordable. And pros who require a high level of performance
wiould be disappointed using such bodies for a wide range of
work.
That's okay. The point I'm sure is that they can provide
professional-level image quality. But it takes more than that to
make a pro camera. You need moisture proof bodies, as well as
those bodies being able to take rough handling. That's also
required for a true pro-level camera. Make no mistake, you get
what you pay for. These bodies produce spectactular results
compared to similarly prices PHD (Push Here Dummy) cameras
that have high pixel counts and fixed lenses, and are much more
compact. Image quality can't compare. But in terms or overall
pro performance, that requires more capable bodies to qualify
for the Pro label.
I end up with about 150 raw images on a 1Gb flash, that I can crop down to incredible smaller images that I wouldn't know how to get with a print camera.
I still load my 6006 with Superia 100ASA & carry it in my bag, for landscapes & backups, but digital has closed the gap to the pro ranks.
If I could figure out how to break in to professional photography, I 'd do it tomorrow - it'd sure beat EAI, ETL & other software integration.
I love taking pictures. I'll spend a whole day to get the shot I want. I just haven't figured out yet, how to get paid. But I'm getting cloer, thanks to my D70.
What you often end up with is a camera that in the hands of an amateur delivers worse results than something costing under $400.
So in the end justifying the $900-$1200 is not so much about the features, but more about whether I have the knowledge to use them properly.
The relevance here is that these camera companies are clearly aiming the cameras at the amateur market, not the pro market. Therefore it's all well and good being able to keep the camera on for two weeks, shoot 2500 shots at 3 shots a seconds, but if all you end up with is garbage, you might as well have missed the shot with a slower camera.
What does that mean? It reads to me that the D50 doesn't have the capability to switch ISO like the D70 does, but the tech specs from Nikon state that you can change ISO from 200-1600 by steps of 1 EV.
..Or maybe I can't read and it means something else.
Thanks again for the responses.
Richard Defendorf
Associate Editor
CNET News.com
Thanks,