I have been looking for a good deal on a Nikon D-50 and have seen quite a few which appear to be bargains on ebay. Pete, I think you said you have a D-50 and D-70 both. One of the packages on ebay has the camera, three lenses (Nikkor) and a bunch of other stuff I don't need like bags, tripod, etc. for about $850. I want a telephoto, which will fit the D and my film Nikon N-65. Do any of you own or have experience with Nikkor 70-300mm or 55-200mm zoom lenses? One ad seems to indicate that the 200 is equivalent to 300 on a digital. Is this so? I will be using it for real trains, not models. Thanks.
Fitz: I have the Nikon D-50 and love it. It comes with a 18-55mm lens. Sometimes you see ads for a 20-70 mm lens with the Nikon D-55. This isn't a Nikon lens. I added a Nikkor 60 mm micro/macro lens and it is fantastic and use it for photo's of the JJJ&E. A piece of good advice, don't buy it on Ebay. Stay cool and run steam.....
Thanks, Bob. I found a shop in Lincoln City, 40 miles north of here, that's having a closeout. $499 without the memory card. Get the case and straps and all that other stuff. Think I'll make a trip tomorrow. And, yeah, I just want Nikkor lenses.
The 70-300 is a much better lens than the 55-200. There's two version, cheaper one is with non-ED glass and plastic mount. Also look into the Nikkor 28-200 (about $300). It's as sharp as if not sharper then the D70 kit lens. Slightly more compact too. Be careful about prices that are too good to be true. Make sure they are not gray goods. Also, Nikon will not honor your warranty if you bought from a non-authorized Nikon dealer. Beware! All Nikon DSLRs have a 1.5x factor so yes, a 200mm lens will be the equivalent of a 300mm focal length. Note that above 200mm, most people have difficulty holding the camera still unless in very bright sunshine allowing for a high shutter speed.
The Nikon 55-200 definitely is a digital-only lens. To me the only decent consumer lenses Nikon made in that range were discontinued years ago. Look for a 70-210mm f/4-5.6 AF-D or a 75-300mm f/4.5-5.6 AF on the used market. I have had both lenses as my main tele zooms for years and absolutely love the results. The only problem is that the focus on the N65 (and I'd assume the D50 as well) is very underpowered and would have problems focusing both of these lenses rather quickly. I have no complaints with them on my N80, however.
I have a D50 which was acquired as body only as I already has some AF zoom lenses I could use. Since then I picked up a used Nikkor 24-120mm AF-D lens for $199 on eBay which has proven itself really handy for railfanning. BrianS. Not sure where you are going with the underpowered AF on the D50, my D50 focuses as good if not better than my N90.
I have a D100 and a D70, and the D70 is a better camera. I bought lenses separately. A 24-85 zoom which will work on a film camera (about $300). A 12-24 digital only which is pricey but very good (about $1200). A 70-300 Nikkor, which was the cheap one (about $300). This give me a range of 12-300 (18 to 450 equivalent). I haven't tried any of the "kit" lenses so I can't compare. I'm pretty happy with this range--none of the lenses are bulky or heavy and they give me acceptable results. The 12-24 is the most used lens by far. I like to have two bodies in the field so that I'm not constantly switching lenses (and missing shots). I'm probably going to skip the D200 and wait for the next generation.
Thanks for all the inputs. I bought the D-50 with the 18-55mm and the 55-200mm. The 70-300mm was not in the store's stock (we have limited shopping around here). Got a 1 gig memory card and one (only one in stock 52mm UV filter). Only shot I have taken so far was excellent. No trains around here to shoot, so I'll try trucks for practice. Only on page 37 of the 136 page manual and already in the geek mode. Another question, what has been your experience with the battery pack life? The guy in the store said Nikon guaranteed 1500 shots on one charge (yeah, right, my point and shoot gets about 11). Also, have any of you used "bulb" mode? (I'm anticipating some night shots soon). How about the various manual modes, Aperture priority, Shutter priority? Thanks.
Fitz: You made a great choice. You're going to love the camera. I using high resolution so the battery life is about 600 photo's, which is fine for me. I purchased an extra battery as well as an extra 1 Gig card. I haven't used the bulb mode as I'm just taking photo's of the JJJ&E at this point. I've used manual mode, both aperture priority and shutter priority without a flash using a tripod. Also used the timer for shutter release which works very nicely. I have the 18-55mm lens and I bought the 60 mm macro/micor lens for closeups. Eventually I'll get the 55-200mm. What did you pay for that lens? Stay cool and run steam....
Bob, I got the 55-200 for $200, which is the best price I have seen for it. Came with a Nikon warranty, too.
You might find this link of interest; http://www.nikonians.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=list&forum=DCForumID201&conf=DCConfID3
Thanks Lenny, I hadn't seen that before. I have it bookmarked and will spend some time on it. I'm up to page 50 of 137 in the manual, and between the camera and the accompanying computer software, about the only thing it won't do is cook dinner for you. I can see that if you don't use it a lot, it will be tough to remember all the steps to take for EV changes and all the other options. You know what you need to do, but will you remember all the steps? Look in the manual, and by then the train is long gone.
Anybody ever get TRP (The Railroad Press)? I bought a copy to read while I was traveling and there is an article in the current issue (# 68 Jan/Feb?Mar 06) entitled: Digital vs. Film Road Test. It is about an author who decides to buy & try a Digital Nikon and buys a D70 and compares his results with that of his slides.... Harold
Battery life on a Nikon depends a bit on what you have turned on or off. I get about 600-900 shots before I notice the battery charge symbol has moved. Your results may vary. I have three batteries for two cameras--I've never come close to running out of power.
Harold, Yes I bought that issue due to the inside cover photo of an Alaska RR SD70MAC going through a snow storm. I read that article with interest and there's a lot of incorrect assumptions on the writer's part. The further I read the more I wanted to write to the magazine on the incorrect assumptions. The information presented a disservice to the reader about digital. You can tell he's obviously anti-digital.
I've noticed that once the battery display shows less than full charge the Auto Focus goes wonky and starts hunting.
I usually recharge the battery after shooting about 150 photo's. That could be one session depending on how many photo's I take. With the Helicon focus software 150 photo's could be 12 individual pictures. Stay cool and run steam.......
