It's my birthday... (Nikon D50)

[design_mom]

It's my birthday and my family (DH, parents, in-laws all chipped in) surprised me with a Nikon D50. DH picked the Nikon because I have an old Nikon film SLR and all my lenses will fit.

I haven't done much with my SLR since the kids came along. The point-and-shoot is a lot easier to shove in a diaper bag and I "lost the moment" a lot while trying to get my settings right on the old SLR. But, I'm really excited to check it out.

Right now the battery is charging up, but I can't wait to start playing around with it. I'm just so excited I wanted to tell *somebody!* LOL!

 

[YEKCIM]

Congratulations! I have the D50, as do several other forum regulars, and know you will enjoy using it. It's a great camera.

~YEKCIM

 

[Steve's Girl]

When trying to grab a quick snapshot of your kids, remember that program mode is your friend! I keep my Nikon D80 sitting out all the time and grab it like a P&S to get pictures around the house. Of course, the nice thing is that you can do so much more with it. But sometimes to catch those little rascals, you have to grab and shoot quick! Even in program mode, the photos with the DSLR are so much better than our P&S! You will really enjoy using it. Nice family by the way!

 

[design_mom]

When trying to grab a quick snapshot of your kids, remember that program mode is your friend!

Thanks for the tip. I didn't realize there was a program mode. I'm off to read the manual!

And thanks for the compliment on my family -- I think our kids are about the same age (although I only have two). DS is almost 7 and DD just turned 3.

 

[Furgus]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Nikon. I have had my D50 for a year now and I love it. Click the link in my sig, if you want to talk with other Nikonians.


Enjoy the camera, can't want to see the first pics.

 

[Gdad]

Very nice! You may also want to check out Nikon Cafe'

 

[KrazyPete]

Another Nikon! Woot Woot!

Seriously, congrats!

 

[Master Mason]

It's ok, we will talk to you anyway, even if you own a nikon

congrats on the new camera

 

[Rustysmom]

Happy birthday and congrats on the D50. I bought one for myself at Christmas for the same reasons, so that my old N50 lenses would fit it. The pictures come out so much better than from my old Canon A95, which I refer to as a "piece of cr@p". Oh how I hated that camera! Half the shots would come out blurry, and then the flash broke. Good. LOL

I love my D50 but I have a lot to learn about it too. I've been using mostly in "auto" mode so far because it's the quickest (hangs head in shame).

I found this guide online and I'm going to try to read a little bit each day. It helps explain a lot of the settings, which confuse me a little.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d50/d50-settings.htm

 

[Furgus]

Take Rockwell's advice with a grain of salt, some people think he is a loon, some of his settings people disagree with, myslef included. Look at some online forums for Nikon, those users usually have a pretty good idea on how to help you out if you have any questions.
Pick up either one of these books, they are both great. Basically they take the user manual and put it into English for you
Enjoy your camera, you will love it, and then you will want a D200

Nikon D50 Digital Field Guide

Magic Lantern Guides: Nikon D50

 

[tinksdad]

Yeh!!! Nice job family!! Congrats!!

Let's see those pictures.




I wonder if my family will get me the D2Xs for mine?????





I'm not going to hold my breath.......

 

[Master Mason]

I'm not going to hold my breath.......

if you hold your breath long enough, you will turn a pretty shade of purple, which will be a great photo opp.... so go for it

 

[cryssi]

congrats!

 

[Groucho]

Congrats! Enjoy your D50, I'm sure you will.

I love my D50 but I have a lot to learn about it too. I've been using mostly in "auto" mode so far because it's the quickest (hangs head in shame).

Try switching over to Program... it's basically just as easy, but you have a little more control. The only extra work you'll have is flipping up the flash yourself rather than the camera doing it automatically. You don't want that, if someone sees you at WDW with the flash popping up automatically, they'll come back here and speak ill of you.

 

[handicap18]

Congrats on the new D50. I've had mine for about a year and a half and LOVE it. I too recommend Program mode over AUTO because of the auto flash issue (I had when it pops up when I don't want it!!) and also you control the ISO instead of the camera.

Its a great camera, it has served me well to this point and I anticipate it serving me well for some time to come.

 

[Rustysmom]

Congrats! Enjoy your D50, I'm sure you will.


Try switching over to Program... it's basically just as easy, but you have a little more control. The only extra work you'll have is flipping up the flash yourself rather than the camera doing it automatically. You don't want that, if someone sees you at WDW with the flash popping up automatically, they'll come back here and speak ill of you.

Ha, ha. Go ahead and make fun of me with my popping flash. I took a couple of shots of my DD in program mode tonight, but I'm not sure how they came out yet. I'll have to get them on my computer and take a good look. I took the manual out and after she goes to sleep I'm going to read it so nobody at WDW makes fun of me.

 

[jonestavern]

Congrats

I've had my D50 for a year and a half now and love it. Because it offers modes from auto to full manual, it is a great camera to learn with. I started out using it mostly in auto mode, and have gradually moved to the more manual modes as my understanding of the process increases. BTW... I found the Blue Crane D50 DVD to be very helpful.

I haven't done much with my SLR since the kids came along. The point-and-shoot is a lot easier to shove in a diaper bag and I "lost the moment" a lot while trying to get my settings right on the old SLR. But, I'm really excited to check it out.

The D50 may be bulkier than your pns, but the power up, shutter lag etc. is so much faster than the pns that if the D50 is around, you will have a far better chance of capturing the moment, especially if the camera is in auto or program mode.

Again, Congrats and enjoy!

Chris

 

[design_mom]

Thanks, everyone for the congratulations and the tips! I will definitely look into the books/web site/DVD mentioned.

Is "program mode" the one marked P on the dial?

I had a chance to play around with the camera a little bit tonight and I'm having tons of fun. The pictures came out pretty well and whoever mentioned the lack of shutter lag was totally right -- I got the "moment!" I'm still not crazy about the pics I took indoors, so I'll have to keep working on that.

But...here are a few of the first pics!

My parents:

My DS -- he loves to jump for the camera... and it usually takes me several tries with my point-and-shoot to catch him in mid-air. Not tonight!

My DD:

I had a ton of fun playing around with the macro feature. I love the short depth of field.

 

[Groucho]

Yup, "P" equals Program. That's a good place to keep it most of the time. I still keep mine there normally so it's ready if I want a quick shot, then move to Av or Tv if the situation calls for it.

For indoor photos with no flash, you'll probably want to manually change the ISO level. If it's like my DSLR, normally it'll only use 200-400 ISO. Your camera can go up to 1600 ISO, so you can go in and set it for 800 or even 1600 ISO for indoor photos. The higher the ISO, the higher the noise level will be, but the camera controls noise very well, chances are that even an ISO 1600 shot, when viewed on your PC or printed out, will not have objectionable levels of noise.

Also, most indoor lighting is tungsten, which digital cameras have a hard time adjusting for. You can manually set to white balance to tungsten, which should give you truer colors instead of the very yellowed look, or if you shoot RAW, you can chance the white balance after the fact. The sooner you start shooting RAW, the more photos you'll be able to revisit later when you're ready to start doing more advanced RAW processing.

 

[design_mom]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the tip about the white balance!

I had already cut down on the blur a bit by changing the "film speed", but the color was still really orange. Changing the white balance made a *huge* difference!