We really need a new camera. Has anyone worked with a Nikon D50?
I dont know much about it except the photo quality is suppose to be amazing. Is it user friendly? Does anyone have a digital camera they would suggest we look at?
For more information than you can possibly use, see
http://dpreview.com
Added - Some of the following doesn't apply to you but I don't know what you know so I don't know what to leave out.
The D50 is a digital SLR (DSLR). All of the current DSLRs have more photo quality than most of us will ever be able to take advantage of.
Heck, the point and shoots are now getting really good
http://rickleephoto.blogspot.com/2007/04/studio-photography.html and I've heard of a camera phone that is approaching them.
This is important because any camera that you have with you is better than one that is not with you.
There are cases that let you use SLRs underwater but they're expensive. There are water-resistant point and shoots (enough for casual snorkelling). Water-tight cases for the point and shoots are a lot cheaper but they are model specific. (Water absorbs red so you may want to color adjust for underwater. Some cameras try to do this for you - see below - or you can photoshop it later.)
Seriously consider image stabilization (IS) - you'll get more good pictures. Most newer mid-range and better point and shoots have it these days. (Some/all Sony SLRs have IS in the camera body. Canon&Nikon put it in the lens and some lens don't have it. In the body means that you have IS regardless of lens. However, Canon and Nikon have a much wider variety of lens, they're cheaper used, and some of them are beyond superb if you're into that sort of thing.)
Ignore digital zoom - you can get that when editing with the computer and it's never as good as optical. Unless you go with a DSLR, you want "enough" optical zoom. However, you won't see (good) 10x in a small camera. Too little zoom means that you get to edit or miss the shot.
If you're just taking pictures of small groups of people within 20 feet, 3x zoom will do. They're not very good for scenery and they're not very good if you're trying to take pictures of the shows, but they're almost impossible to shoot anyway because of the extreme dynamic range. (You can get good pictures of spotlighted things, but everything else will be black or you can get good pictures of the rest, but the spotlighted things will be all white. If you want both, you have to combine images.)
For DSLRs, you get 10x zoom range by switching lens or by spending a lot of money on a very heavy lens. (No, they don't solve the show problem. The good pictures that they use for advertising are staged with lighting designed for photography.)
If you've used a digital camera that you like, there's some chance that another camera from same family. (Canon's point&shoots are more like one another than they are like the DSLRs and I assume that the same is true of Nikon, Sony, et al.)
The big advantage of the DSLRs over point and shoots is the size of the sensor. Bigger can be way better. There are point and shoots with more "megapixels" than the D50, but the D50 gets more information out of each pixel. It also does a better job with less light. (Most point and shoots top out at 400 or maybe 800 ISO. The D50 almost certainly goes to 1600. Remember high-speed film for taking pictures at night? That was 1600 or faster.)
Some cameras that don't have interchangeable lens are roughly the same size as DSLRs. They have bigger sensors than point and shoots and some have decent 10-12x optical zoom range. These are good things.
FWIW - Char has the Canon XT (SLR also). It's a nice size and lets her use the lens that she bought for her canon 35mm. (If you own a couple of lens that you like, switching to another brand is very expensive.) The XTi (newest model) has a self-cleaning sensor. (When you switch lens, you can get dust on the sensor.) I have a 20d (also canon, because I want to use her lens). It's the same size as typical 35mm SLRs (remember them?) but its big advantage is 3200. Yes, it's more grainy than 1600 but when the alternative is no picture....
We also have a canon point and shoot that we also use underwater. It's older, so no IS, but it does color-adjust in the camera for underwater. (Even if you're going to photoshop, that provides more data for photoshop to work with AND it means that you don't have to photoshop as often. I wish that our DSLRs had that option because I have a lot of photos taken from a submarine that require photoshoping.)
I was jealous that my roomie, Mary, had a cruise before the repo (she's on the 4 night Wonder May 6-10 with her DS and DIL), so I booked a RCCL 5 night western 5/4-5/9 for DD and myself (splurged for an Owner's Suite-my birthday present to myself). I booked it on 4/12. RCCL screwed up the docs (sending them first to FL TA office and then listing them as Pier Pickup
). UPS finally delivered them today
.
). I bought some eye cream at Target and have been putting that on but it doesn't seem to make any differnce. Any suggestions?
C.
)
It might help if I didn't say things like, "Oh! That will be great for you pirate costume! Go put that in the spare bedroom!" What was I thinking? 
)
If not, no biggie.
i've bought 3 different times 435 in all and still need more lol- i have already used up all untill 2008 
