Nikon D50 versus Lumix FZ30

I just purchased the D50 and can try it out for 30 days from Walmart
($665.00). This is the only place I found where I can actually try out the
camera at home, put it though its paces, and truly see if it is for me. So
far, I like it. But I can't compare it personally to other cameras, see
below.

I have 4 questions: (Thanks for your patience)

1. Any comments about the higher ISO noise rep on the FZ30 compared to
the D50? I can't try out the FZ30 for free (restocking fee upon return).
The FZ30 has always attracted me for the 8 megapixels and the one lens large
Leica Zoom with stabilization, but I want to use it for a variety of things,
including sports stop action and available light (higher ISOs).

2. The D50 kit lens (G-ED) is reviewed to be not as good as the D70 kit
lens (D-ED), different focal ranges also. Would you care to comment on the
visual difference between these lenses? Would the "common" eye be able to
notice any difference? Again, I cannot try out the D-ED lens, unless
Walmart will order it for me. Even then I may then not be able to return it
if specially ordered.

3. I've struggled with considering the D200, mostly for its 10 megapixel
size. Other attractive issues are the coupled metering with older Nikon AI
lenses and very high fps continuous mode. Frankly, the price of the kit is
$2000.00, including the better D-ED lens (18 to 70), and I just can't
justify that expenditure now as an amateur. Certainly my wife can't also,
but she is open to it just the same, (God bless her). I'm the stalwart one
who is very money conscious.

4. The D70s has the better lens, but I think the body of the D50 has all
I will need. I could order the D50 body and the better Nikon lens, but the
price is just a couple hundred bucks from the D70s kit price of $1200.00
bucks list.

If I knew the FZ30 would perform well under higher ISO's, I'd opt for that
in a heartbeat, and never look back.

Thanks for considering these questions. I will gladly pay you guys for the
"therapy" you will give me here (wink).

Regards,

Sandy

...
1. Any comments about the higher ISO noise rep on the FZ30 compared to
the D50? I can't try out the FZ30 for free (restocking fee upon return).
The FZ30 has always attracted me for the 8 megapixels and the one lens
large
Leica Zoom with stabilization, but I want to use it for a variety of
things,
including sports stop action and available light (higher ISOs).

2. The D50 kit lens (G-ED) is reviewed to be not as good as the D70
kit
lens (D-ED), different focal ranges also. Would you care to comment on
the
visual difference between these lenses? Would the "common" eye be able to
notice any difference? Again, I cannot try out the D-ED lens, unless
Walmart will order it for me. Even then I may then not be able to return
it
if specially ordered.

I was real close to buying the Lumix but for just a little more money I
think I got a much better and more expandable system.

I've seen three, maybe four Nikon "kit" lens'es offered with the D50. Which
one came with the Walmart package ?

Here's some advice that I got and applied and it saved me a bunch: Call
Dell.com's catalog sales 1-800 number. Even though they are not on their
web site, they will sell you D50 and D70 kits and will almost match the web
site prices of places like www.royalcamera.com - you do have to be patient
and spell things carefully for the order taker in India. And they will take
time while you hold to surf over to the comparison shop site that you must
mention.

In stock near Atlanta, GA. I got the D50 kit that came with the 28-80 lens
(which I sold on ebay for $50). It's the worst of those offered. Total
delivered price back at Christmas time was under $520 for the D50 kit.


By the way, I still don't believe it but it happened: At the same time I
bought a 512 mb mem card for the camera. Worked the process to send it back
since I changed my mind and bought a 1Gb card locally. They credited me the
full price including shipping, did Not apply any restock fee, and told me to
keep the memory card.

FYI, there's good resources on the internet for D50 and more general photo
related items:

nikonians.com
photo.net
nikoncafe.com

As an old and many years inactive Nikon SLR film guy I've had a lot to learn
about DSLR even though I'm an experienced digital P&S'er.

I read through those sites and made good use of ebay and the buy / sell
forums on the above sites to get a collection of lenses.

I'm using these with my D50 and N8008s:

18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G ED-IF AF-S DX Zoom Nikkor (wonderful, but won't work on
my 35mm full frame film camera)
The focusing motor is one of those magic ultrasonic things - and you can
manual focus whenever you feel like it, nothing to push or set.

28-70 f/2.8 AF Sigma (1st generation AF, old/heavy and fast enough to do
extremely well in no flash situations)

50mm 1.8 AF Nikkor (made in Japan, good fast walk-around and portrait.
Small enough to get lost in the bag. Best technical quality of all the
lenses.

70-300mm f/4-5.6D ED AF Zoom Nikkor (don't believe the somewhat negative
lens reports, by whatever magic the pictures from it are a delight)


The great thing about Nikon lenses is if you stay with the good ones you can
sell them months or years later with a very low overall cost of ownership.
The great thing about the D50 is it will use most all Nikon AF lenses.

The new 18-200 Nikkor is generating a lot of interest but will be out of my
price range for a long time.

Why not buy a Pentax for $599 (kit lens incl.) then supplement with one
of those
18-200mm zooms from Sigma or Tamron?
-Rich

"RichA" wrote in message
oups.com...
Why not buy a Pentax for $599 (kit lens incl.) then supplement with one
of those
18-200mm zooms from Sigma or Tamron?
-Rich


Which model specifically is this Pentax? What is the kit lens like, and are
Tamron lenses of decent quality?

Sandy

"Sandy Bloom, Ph.D." wrote:

Which model specifically is this Pentax? What is the kit lens like, and are
Tamron lenses of decent quality?

The camera is probably the Pentax *ist DL2. It's a very good camera,
with excellent image quality from the 6.1 MP sensor. The Pentax kit
lens is very good - it is far superior to the kit lenses sold with
Canon DSLRs, for example.

Tamron make some excellent lenses, however a consumer priced lens with
a zoom range of 18-200mm is not likely to be optically one of their
best. The same comments apply to the Sigma lens of similar focal
length range, however the Tamron is likely to be better made.