Nikon D50 DSLR (April 2005)

Why is the new Nikon D50 still just 6.1MP?

News was "leaked" on March 31st about the impending arrival of the Nikon D50 DSLR, Nikon's latest offering to the Digital SLR world. Surprisingly however, it stays at just 6.1MP which is a surprise as it is nearly a year since the launch of Canon's 8MP DSLR the EOS 20D.

Nikon would not reveal any of the features or specs for the D50, but the Nikon D50 DSLR is one of several new digital SLR models that the company is planning to release. This follows the tremendous success of the popular D70 model that was released for sale in March 2004.

Susumu Enomoto, a spokesman for Nikon said, "We are now developing a full range of new models from the top-end to popularly-priced models, but we can’t say anything more now". The price is expected to be well under a grand ($) and will be seen as a Nikon "entry level" DSLR. It fuels rumours that the D70 will be getting a facelift too!

According to market researchers IDC, the sale of Digital SLR's will double over the next three years as people move up from the compact digital cameras. We will post more news about the new range of Nikon cameras and others, as it arrives.

1st April 2005 - Here are the specifications for the new Nikon D50 DSLR:

NIKON D50 DSLR Technical Specifications

Type - SLR (single lens reflex) digital camera with interchangeable lenses.

CCD - 23.7 x 15.6 mm; total pixels: 6.24 million

Image size (pixels) - 3008 x 2000 (Large setting)

Effective pixels - 6.1 million

Lens mount - Nikon F (with AF coupling, AF contacts)

Compatible lenses - (IX Nikkor lenses can't be used. Excluding lenses for the F3AF)

All functions supported except auto focus and some exposure modes

AI-P Nikkor All functions supported (except 3D colour matrix metering II and auto focus) Non-CPU - Can be used in mode M (manual), but exposure meter does not function, i.e. the electronic range finder can be used if maximum aperture of f/5.6 or faster is used.

Picture angle - The equivalent in 35 mm format is approx. 1.5 times the focal length of the lens.

Viewfinder:

Reflex mirror - Quick return mechanism

Lens aperture - Instant return with DOF (depth of field) preview

Focus area selection - This can be selected from 5 different focussing areas.

Lens servo - Auto focus (AF): Instant single servo AF (AF-S); continuous servo AF (AF-C); auto AF-S/AF-C selection (AF-A); predictive tracking (focus) automatically activated according to the subject status.