Question about buying a d50 cheaply

LabRat wrote
(in article ):

I have purchased 2 Canon dslr kits and a lens from BuyDig over the last 2
years and have never had any problems. My latest purchase, a Canon 17-40mm
L lens was ordered last wednesday and arrived three days later even though I
elected for the cheapest shipping. I highly reccomend them to anyone.
They have a refurbed 50D with 18-55mm kit lens for $489.

Well, I just ordered the Nikon 12-24mm from them (only place I
could find it in stock anyway). They were also a lower price
than most of the other places that had it on back-order. We'll
see how they do. :-)

Now if I could just find the 18-200mm VR, .... *sigh*


--
Randy Howard (2reply remove FOOBAR)
"The power of accurate observation is called cynicism by those
who have not got it." - George Bernard Shaw

(East Bay) Phil wrote:
I'd avoid the E-500 due to the noise issues. Also, there is no
upgrade path with Olympus, nor is there a good selection of lenses.
With Nikon, you have huge availability of lenses, both new, used, and
third-party.

In the course of investigating the Nikon, upgrade path has been
something I've begun to explore. I've read posts about the d70(s) vs
d50. I'm not experienced enough with the high-end to properly assess
feature differences. That said, if I'm looking at the d50 w/ 18-70 vs
the d70 w/ 18-70 at a similar price should I be looking to the d70?

No. By the time you go to the D70s, you're almost at the cost of a Canon
Rebel XT, which is better than the D70s in many ways. The D50 is perfect
for what you're looking for.

I'm going to take a spin over the local camera shop today to get a feel
for both of these models.

It's very bad manners to try out cameras at a local shop, then buy online.

From Nikon, I am only considering the d50 and d70.

Thanks for pointing this out.
Phil

On Wed, 03 May 2006 10:56:08 -0700
SMS wrote:

(East Bay) Phil wrote:
I'd avoid the E-500 due to the noise issues. Also, there is no
upgrade path with Olympus, nor is there a good selection of lenses.
With Nikon, you have huge availability of lenses, both new, used,
and third-party.

In the course of investigating the Nikon, upgrade path has been
something I've begun to explore. I've read posts about the d70(s)
vs d50. I'm not experienced enough with the high-end to properly
assess feature differences. That said, if I'm looking at the d50
w/ 18-70 vs the d70 w/ 18-70 at a similar price should I be looking
to the d70?

No. By the time you go to the D70s, you're almost at the cost of a
Canon Rebel XT, which is better than the D70s in many ways. The D50
is perfect for what you're looking for.

Hrmm. I found a refurb d70 + 18-70 for $699 at one of the recommended
online stores. That's what sparked my query. This is contrasted with
$399 for a d50 body + $2-300 for an 18-70 lens.

I'm going to take a spin over the local camera shop today to get a
feel for both of these models.

It's very bad manners to try out cameras at a local shop, then buy
online.

Point taken. As a rule, if a local shop sells or can sell within a
reasonable margin of the 'best deal' I will support the local
merchant. Rest assured that they do get business from me.

From Nikon, I am only considering the d50 and d70.

If interested in a D70, not D70s, e-mail me off-line supplying an
address which can handle a 5 x 1.3 = 6.7 MB attachment.

Actually, d70s as well. Oops.

According to (East Bay) Phil :
Slightly off-topic. Can someone with a nikon email me a raw image. I
use linux and would like to know if my system and photo gallery will
properly recognize their format.

Not without a de-munged e-mail address. :-) I *think* that I
know what is obvious to do, but nothing more.

My e-mail address as it appears in the headers is valid. If you
don't want to post a de-munged e-mail, send me an e-mail with valid
address and I can return an image.

I don't know photo gallery, so I don't know what it will do. I
use several other unix-based image manipulation programs, with "the
GIMP" being the most powerful.

For processing almost *anybody's* RAW, you can download and
compile dcraw (for free) -- and it can be used stand-alone, or it can
even be integrated into "the GIMP" as a plugin. And, of course, "the
GIMP" is free for the download with source if you so wish, so it should
fit into your linux operation as well as it does into my various other
flavors of unix.

FWIW, I have the Nikon D70, but it uses the same sensor and the
same RAW format as the D50.

Enjoy,
DoN.

--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

On Wed, 03 May 2006 10:30:22 -0700, Phil wrote:

Slightly off-topic. Can someone with a nikon email me a raw image. I
use linux and would like to know if my system and photo gallery will
properly recognize their format.

Thanks!
Phil
Phil,
Just a couple of questions - 1. Have you got the 'Gimp installed?
2. If you have then make sure that you also have 'ufraw' or 'dcraw' or
rawphoto installed.

--
Neil
Delete 'l' to reply

(East Bay) Phil wrote:
get the Olympus Evolt-500 kit.

I agree. Check out the E-500 before you make your purchase. I have
done my homework and this is the one I am getting.

I'll look into this. The only concern I've read of so far was that
there are some noise issues.

Given that the E-500 costs more, what sold you on it (over the nikon,
if that was in consideration)?

P

Noise "might" be an issue if you like to shoot ISO 1600 frequently. On
the up side noise can be cleaned up somewhat with programs like
Neatimage etc.

My reasons: 2 lens kit covers most of my situations, the Ultra Sonic CCD
filter reducing the dreaded dust-on-CCD issue was an attraction, the
overall feel/comfort of the camera and the very vivid 2.5" LCD display.
Olympus has a good range of lenses as well (perhaps not as extensive as
N&C) that are designed for the digital camera.

I bought the camera yesterday and I am very pleased with the purchase.

Note: I have found this NG is heavily biased towards Nikon-Canon and
often these folks can't see beyond their blinders.

Ron


--
And it really doesn't matter if
I'm wrong I'm right
Where I belong I'm right
Where I belong.

Lennon & McCartney

Freedom55 wrote:

Note: I have found this NG is heavily biased towards Nikon-Canon and
often these folks can't see beyond their blinders.

That's because at least one of the groups you posted to,
rec.photo.equipment.35mm is heavily biased twoard 35mm.

Olympus had good offerings and good lenses, but no real exotic ones
until Nikon took their two year "vacation" to retool for autofocus
around 1986-1988.

At that time, Olympus tried to fill the void with some really excelent and
exotic lenses (oh, for that 24mm tilt/shift) and professional support
equivalent to Nikon's. It never really caught on and Olympus limped
along until they started making digital cameras.

Their only new SLR product was the OM-30 which was an OEM'ed piece of junk,
which was also OEM'ed as the Nikon FM-10, and two FE versions I've
forgotten the numbers of (FE-10, FE-20?) and sold as a bunch of
under $200 kits with lens by several large companies.

They did produce some interesting point and shoot cameras.

They are producing digital cameras that are well rated, but to most of
us here, that's irrelevant. Here we discuss 35mm cameras.

Because of that bias there really is nothing to discuss about Olympus
cameras except old ones.

It's also important to note that Olympus is not a camera company. Olympus
is an OPTICAL company that makes among many other things DIGITAL cameras.
They no longer make film cameras and it was never their primary business.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 IL Fax: 972-2-648-1443 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838
Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/

Just a couple of questions - 1. Have you got the 'Gimp installed?

certainly.

2. If you have then make sure that you also have 'ufraw' or 'dcraw' or
rawphoto installed.

I have dcraw installed in order to increase the functionality of
gallery 2.x. That said, I wasn't and am still not certain that this
handles the decryption necessary for Nikon raw images. If it does this
automagically, I'm set. I'll take images as raw, save to DVD, and
upload to gallery for jpeg viewing.

P