Hello from Tokyo, and ...

... back to the Nikon fold. Bought a Nikon D40 when they came out, when was that, 2006 ? Not sure. It was fantastic. Foolishly sold it a year or so ago, having been tempted by the latest and greatest.

Here's what I went through in the last 12 months :

Fuji X100, JX420*
Panasonic GF1, GF3, G1, LX5
Olympus EPL2
Pentax K10D, K7
Ricoh GRD2, GRD4*
Nikon D50*

*Still own

That's just the ones I remember.

Also went through a full set of lenses for each of the u4/3 and Pentax platforms. I had everything from 300mm/f4 primes to 28mm.f2.8 pancakes, super-fast autofocus zoom wonders to 1950's manual lenses. Lenscap lenses, extension tubes, adapters, star-trackers, custom-made focussing screens.

What a journey !

After all that, and a LOT of photos, I have settled on the Ricoh GRD4 as compact ( it is superb, really ) and drum roll please, a Nikon D50 !

Yes, I've tried the latest and greatest. They are excellent. But ... looking at my pics, the ones from that original Nikon D40 still impress. So I went on the lookout for it's older but slightly-more capable companion, the D50.

The reasons being:

1. It has a focussing motor and I have a couple of non-AF-S Nikon lenses left over from the D40 ( and my earlier, Nikon film camera ) days. I used to use these as manual-everything on the D40, but I know I'll get more use from them with a working AF.

2. 1/500s flash sync. This was excellent on the D40, excellent on the Fuji X100, and I would really miss it. The D50 has the same mech/electronic shutter and unlike other Nikons I can find, supports 1/500s flash sync.

3. Size and weight. It's tiny but still manages an always-on LCD top display AND dedicated buttons for ISO, WB, QUAL just like the D300s, while being about half it's size and weight

4. Tiny LCD. I'm not a fan of the tendency for rear LCDs to grow, taking up most of the back of the camera and making the control buttons thus sit under the base of your thumb. I got rid of most of the cameras above because of handling, not image, issues. Many times, simple things like having all the controls crowded out by a too-big rear screen were enough to ruin the handling.

5. 2000 shot battery life. I remember this from my D40 days. I love not having to worry about the battery.

6. CCD not CMOS

The Panasonic LX5, Ricoh GRD ( both the versions I owned ) and D40 use CCD sensors, as does the D50. I seem to prefer the look. I don't care about pixels.

And finally ...

7. I found one mint in box for less than ¥10,000 ( less than US$100 ) with a 6-month guarantee.

So, I'm back and that's my story !

Paul, Tokyo

ps "2kon" is pronounced "ni-kon" in Japanese

Welcome Paul...

Hello 2kon...that is quite a list of cameras you've been testing out. I'm going to guess you like street photography based upon your choices???

Welcome to Nikonites!! I hope that you enjoy your visits here!

Pat in NH

Thanks for the welcomes, you all seem a friendly bunch !

Having severe difficulties using the site right now ( the Quick Reply box wont allow me to enter text, "Reply to Thread" doesn't operate, my login times out during post entry, and pasting text I prepare elsewhere in case of login timeout seems to add random line breaks and breaks the formatting. Once entered, text just goes gray and then the "Post Reply" button simply does nothing... ) so my membership may be rather short-lived if I can't find out what is going on ! Seems to happen on both my desktop and laptop computers. Anyway, I'll investigate.

Eye-level, yes I owned rather too many cameras, but it was instructive ! As I hinted, I think the online reviews can be deceptive. They focus on "this years sensor" far, far too much. Resolution shootouts. Dynamic range. ISO performance. I found that for me at least, how a camera operates was at least as important as any technical aspect of the resulting image.

Let's be honest, few times has anyone said to me "Paul, that photo has terrific per-pixel sharpness and must surely be approaching 12.7EVs of dynamic range !".

I learned. It's important we continue buying new stuff to keep the economy moving, but less so to improve our photography. The little D50 is a kind of statement of that belief. It does all that I need. It does it well. It handles well. I am getting superb pictures from it, not because of it's technical spec ( which is poor, by any recent standard ) but because I am not thinking about pixels, VR, lens-correction or ISO or fumbling with the buttons placed too close to my palm when I am taking a shot. Really, the photos are as good as anything I have obtained with far newer cameras. Where good = photographically interesting. I have plenty of technically excellent, dull pictures from "better" cameras, sadly !

Street-photography, I have minor interest to be honest. I was attempting to buy "one camera" to cover all usage scenarios. Hence a long and expensive foray into u4/3. I believed the portability advertising. In practice, I found that if it is not actually pocketable, it needs a neckstrap and I might as well have a DSLR. I also realised that composing by LCD is not ideal, and that EVFs are still poor. Finally I realised that one camera is a fools errand. Hence I now have the pocketable camera ( Ricoh GRD4, a joy ) and a DSLR for anything else. It's a good combination. The GRD4 really IS pocketable, so it adds nothing to carry it all the time. The D50 works for everything else.

If you can read this, it may mean my posting woes have at least temporarily been fixed. Let's see what happens when I try to post it. All text has gone grey again, so I hope I don't lose it !

Paul

Hello Paul, great that you stepped in to share your opinion, experience, thoughts and photos

Thanks, I think with the miserable site difficulties I am having, it will be a brief membership. It takes several MINUTES to load a page, if it works at all, and then buttons ( including the "Post" ones which are quite useful ! ) simply do not operate sometimes. Plus the problems noted above. It's getting really tiring already :numbness:

Haven't had any problems with other sites so I may just have to move to another forum.

Paul

Welcome to the site, 2kon.

I know several people who have or have had a D40. Most of those who had one wish they still did. I haven't owned one, but if I ran across a D40 in good shape at close to that price, I'd buy it!

Hopefully, the problems you've experienced posting will not last and we'll see you around here often for a long time.


​WM