D50 Vs D40

[Nomadicbry]

Hi,

I've heard some great things about both cameras and I'm now swinging from buying a bridging camera... (10MP / 18X zoom) to buying a SLR.

I'm wondering as both have the same MP (6) would it be better buying a D50 second hand which should cost a lot less than buying a new D40?

Are there big differences between the cameras?
Is one superior or has the latest technology over the other?

It would seem that the D50 may be more in my budget rather than buying a new D40 however if the difference is big then I'll wait until I can afford the better camera.

Any thoughts and advice would be welcome on both cameras.

I should say though I've had 35mm SLR it would intially be used on auto settings whilst i play and learn with the controls to remember how I used to work my manual slr

Thanks,
Bryan

[nimbus]

I have never handled a D40, your decision may be based on body size, the D40 is rather more compact than the D50. The D50 body also incorporates a built in focus motor, which enables it to autofocus older AF and AFD lenses. The D40 is only able to autofocus lenses with a built in focus motor. There are a large number of excellent older lenses available which therefore cannot autofocus on a D40. For this reason alone,personally I would opt for the D50. The image quality from these is good, I have seen good used examples locally at £129 recently.

[El_Sid]

D50 basic specs...

D40...


Biggest mechanical difference is in the AF system. The D40 has no in-camera AF motor and so can only operate in autofocus mode with modern AF-S lenses (and a few older lenses that have built in motors) while the D50 does have the in-camera motor and AF coupling so is fully AF compatible with all AF Nikon and independent lenses.

The D50 also has 5 AF points rather than the 3 of the D40. One odd thing the D50 has that may not apply to the D40 is an unusually high flash sync speed of 1/500th - most cameras normally top out at around 1/250th.

Which would I go for? The D50 as it fits my hand better than the D40. I do have a D50 and actually did buy it in preference to a D40 partly because I felt the D40 was perhaps a bit too entry level for my personal use - though in truth I suspect I'm probably being a bit unfair on the D40...

Either will do you very nicely and I don't believe you're missing out on much buying a D50 in preference to the D40 - especially as the D40 was launched only about a year after the 50...

PS Here is an example of what the D50 can do. This image was taken on a tripod using the AF-S 18-70mm f3.5-4.5 Nikkor lens.

[sillyconguru]

One odd thing the D50 has that may not apply to the D40 is an unusually high flash sync speed of 1/500th

The D40 has a 1/500th flash sync speed also.

[Towershot]

The D50 for the lenses you can utilise,
Cracking image Nigel.

[Garfield]

Having owned both, the D40 is so much better. Image quality is no different between the two, it's mostly the physical camera that is best.

The downside is of course that the D40 only autofocuses with AF-S (or HSM) lenses. However, with the number of AF-S and HSM lenses available, you should be able to use virtually every focal length between 10 and 600mm.

[Nomadicbry]

Thanks for all the helpful advice
However got an excellent deal on the Sony A200 got it for £259 new and couldn't turn it down to be honest at that price
Nice pic Nigel... very impressive

Cheers
B

[El_Sid]

However got an excellent deal on the Sony A200 got it for £259 new and couldn't turn it down to be honest at that price

Can't say I blame you. The A200 is probably the best deal going at the moment...

Nice pic Nigel... very impressive

Cheers guys...