D40/D50 Comparison

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crazygeordiegirl

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Compared to the D40 does the D50 have any major benefits apart from the fact the D50 has in the inbuilt a/f motor that the D40 lacks.
 
crazygeordiegirl said:
Compared to the D40 does the D50 have any major benefits apart from the fact the D50 has in the inbuilt a/f motor that the D40 lacks.
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With the D40 being a lot newer than the D50, you'll get better high(er) ISO performance, and generally "newer" technology.

You can't buy a new D50, so you'll get a shop warranty at best, where if you get a new D40 you'll get 1 year (or 2 if the Nikon offer is still going) manufacturer's warranty.

The D40 is a slightly smaller body too, so if you've small hands that could be a good thing. If you've got hands like shovels - not so much.

I've not had a D50, but do have a D40 which is a great little camera.
 
OutLore said:
With the D40 being a lot newer than the D50, you'll get better high(er) ISO performance, and generally "newer" technology.

You can't buy a new D50, so you'll get a shop warranty at best, where if you get a new D40 you'll get 1 year (or 2 if the Nikon offer is still going) manufacturer's warranty.

The D40 is a slightly smaller body too, so if you've small hands that could be a good thing. If you've got hands like shovels - not so much.

I've not had a D50, but do have a D40 which is a great little camera.
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Thanks for that, I have a D40, I was just contemplating replacing it with a D50 however not sure if I would be doing the right or wrong thing!
 
I liked my D50s, plus points are that size wise it's closer to the D80 than the D40, it has more af points than the D40 and uses EN-EL3 batteries, so it can use those from a D70/80/90/200/300 etc(although the D80 up can't use the batteries from the D50).

The only real negative is that it uses slightly older technology, but chances are you'd hardly notice - I certainly didn't and I've had two of them, one was run in tandem with the D80 and the second (which ended up being returned to the seller) was used along side the D300.
 
Flash In The Pan said:
I liked my D50s, plus points are that size wise it's closer to the D80 than the D40, it has more af points than the D40 and uses EN-EL3 batteries, so it can use those from a D70/80/90/200/300 etc(although the D80 up can't use the batteries from the D50).

The only real negative is that it uses slightly older technology, but chances are you'd hardly notice - I certainly didn't and I've had two of them, one was run in tandem with the D80 and the second (which ended up being returned to the seller) was used along side the D300.
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Do you think the OP is worth getting a D50 over a D40 though? I'd probably say it would be a better bet to get a S/H D80?
 
OutLore said:
Do you think the OP is worth getting a D50 over a D40 though? I'd probably say it would be a better bet to get a S/H D80?
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Depends on what you plan to use it for. The D50 has the 1/500 (or up to 1/4000 with a modded cable) flash sync of the D40, but that aside a D80 is probably a better bet.
 
if it was me i would never replace the D40 with a D50 as there just isnt enough of a difference to make it worth the money. You would be better going for a D80 over the D50 but might be out of budget but atleast you would see the benefit.
 
Excuse me for dropping in like this; but what feature is there is the D50, which you're achingly missing in your D40, that makes you want to "upgrade"?

I've bought 3 D40 in 2008 .. it's a damn good camera by all accounts. I'd go so much as to say I upgraded my walk-about kit from a D70 to the D40, even though the sensor in the D70 was fantastic.

Point is, if there isn't something critical in the D50 that you need, then stay with the D40 and put any money you have on optional optics / glass.
 
Wail said:
Excuse me for dropping in like this; but what feature is there is the D50, which you're achingly missing in your D40, that makes you want to "upgrade"?

I've bought 3 D40 in 2008 .. it's a damn good camera by all accounts. I'd go so much as to say I upgraded my walk-about kit from a D70 to the D40, even though the sensor in the D70 was fantastic.

Point is, if there isn't something critical in the D50 that you need, then stay with the D40 and put any money you have on optional optics / glass.
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The blazingly obvious one is AF support for older non HSM lenses.
 
The only reason I can see to buy a D50 over the D40 is for the autofocus on non AF-S lenses.

Do you use any non AF-S lenses? If you don't then forget the D50 and stick with what you have.
 
The main reason I was looking was the support of non af-s lenses - there are alot available for less money than af-s lenses. However, after reading the above comments I may just stick with my D40 and save for more glass.
 
In that case, then which lens(s) were you looking for? May be you're better off without the autofocus :shrug:

I use a number of manual focus lenses and love them more than the autofocus counterpart .. case in point are the Nikon 28 f/2.8 AIS, Voigtlander 58 f/1.4, and have a Zeiss Macro Planar 100 f/2 coming .. all are far better than anything in autofocus.
 
Never knew that! Another new things learnt today :thumbs:
 
Sorry to take the thread astray but could you [WAIL] tell me about the lens that you use on the d40 that you have to manual focus.

I have a Nikon d40x and could I use them as well.

When I go on e bay I never know what to look for.
 
I use it mainly for macro work.

The Sigma 105 f/2.8; the Nikon 50 f/1.8 revered, Nikon 35 f/2 revered, and Nikon 28 f/2.8 AIS also revered. All these are great with the D40.
 
Thanks for the info.

If or I should say when I go on ebay what do I have to look for if I want to use the lens on my d40x?

Sorry to sound a bit thick.
 
If you're looking to buy a Nikon autofocus lens, make sure it's an AF-S lens .. I've even read that it will autofocus with older AF-I lens, but not too sure on this one. If Sigma, it has be an HSM lens to autofocus.

Otherwise, any Nikon lens made since the early 1960s onwards will work fine but you'll apparently need to meter and focus manually.
 
trinitronfan said:
You can't use the meter in the D40 with AI and AIS lenses.
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AI/AIS lenses will not meter in anything below a Dxxx body. So the D50 will not be any better in that respect.

I would (and did) choose a D50 over D40, purely for an autofocus motor. The ISO performance is no worse on a D50,
 
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