- Shortcut button for metering. I change my metering mode alot, would be annoying to do it thru the menu each time.

- Front dial knob. Might sound insignificant, but after a while you do get used to controlling Aperture & Shutter speed on their respective front or back knob, especially in manual mode.

- Illuminated top LCD. If you take alot of night photos, you will miss that feature alot. You could use a mini-flashlight held in your mouth, but personally I'd grow tired of relying that each time I have to go out at night.

- Wireless flash. Probably a gimmick for most, but usefull once you know how to exploit it.

- Shortcut button for bracketing. Not that usefull if you shoot in Raw, but can be great for JPEG landscape photos that have alot of hightlights and shadows.

- Compactflash memory card. SD cards on the D50? ouch. Compactflash is the most common media type, and the more affordable when it comes to price/storage. The odds are about 10:1 that in 2-3 years, if you upgrade to a better model than the D50, your new SLR would need Compactflash media. That's easily a 150-200$ waste right there, if you own something like 2-3 x 2GB memory cards (you will get to a point where you'll want more than one card).

All-in-all, I love this camera and I doubt many will be disappointed with theirs. I would suggest you buy a flash unit like the SB-600 as well. It opens up a whole new world of indoors photography , both in terms of photo quality, and shooting speed (with the onboard flash you cannot shoot in bursts).

P.S. After you've purchased a flash unit, start saving money for a zoom lens. The 18-70mm kit lens is nice, but the zoom limit of 70mm will be become very apparent not long after you've purchased your camera. Take a loot at the new 18-200 VR ;)

P.S.2. There is something I dislike alot on the camera , and it's the fact it doesn't support high-speed USB 2.0. Yuck, I lost patience with the slow speed after a day only (transferring 2 gigs worth of photos does take quite a while), so I bought a compaqflash reader. Only 20$, but the camera should have been up to that standard, considering it's a recent model.
Enjoy

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Great camera, April 6, 2006
Reviewer: Christoph Joosten
I am using the 18-55 kit lens of the D50 on my D70s camera because of the light weight of the lens - almost half the weight of the 18-70 - and because it has less barrel distortion at 18 mm than the 18-70. True, the build quality of the 18-55 is less good than the 18-70, but I'm very careful so that hasn't been too much a concern to me.

I went out testing the lens and initially I thought the lens was very soft. I was going though the images in Windows Explorer and the images seemed soft even though they were taken with camera sharpening on "medium-high". How could this be? Eventually I realized what caused this: my computer wasn't fully resolving the JPEG file! Somehow, first enlarging each picture, then bringing back the size to fit the window, was necessary to have the image come out in its full resolution - which allowed true assessment of its sharpness. The 18-55 used on the D70s is fully capable of sharp pictures!

A nice site reporting sharpness, CA, vignetting and distortion of different lenses:[...]

I love the layout of this camera. Every important function (bracketing, white balance and white balance fine-tuning, etc.) can be easily accessed with buttons and dials without having to fumble through menus on the LCD. The camera turns on in a blink and there is no delay between pressing the shutter and the picture being taken.

Some features the D70s has and the D50 doesn't, and that I find really useful:
- Depth-of-field preview button
- Optional grids in the viewfinder
- Direct access button to bracketing functions
- A light on the top LCD display
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Nikon D70s, March 23, 2006
Reviewer: Frank N. Ellis

What can I say - it's a Nikon! I've been using the coolpix series for the past few years but miss the ability to zoom and focus the lens myself by twisting the lens barrel. This camera has more rave revues than others I looked at and, so far, has lived up to all of them.
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really its not a bad camera its..., February 21, 2006
Reviewer: Somanytools
just not a great one and if you can save a few more pennies and move up to the d200 you will never and I promise never regret it. I had a d70 ...2 actually...the first one crapped out on vacation...:( and the second worked flawlessly. A note on nikon and warranty and serve....they are awesome...fixed fast and actually replaced my d70 with a new one...at there discretion...so why don't i like the d70...well i hated the menu set up, I really did not like the way most functions were accessed, and well I am a film guy...so when moving to a digital camera I wanted that film camera feel... This camera to me was suposed to replace my 8008s and my 6006 film bodies I have been hugging and lugging around sence 1994. So I wanted that easy of use ...this camera does not give you that...the d200 which I have recenty upgraded to does...yes its 2x's the price; I know, I bought both remember...but I have to say its worth it. Its that simple..at least compare them side by side before deciding....so bottom line if your a camera person...a film buff...then this is not your camera...if your just a having fun, new to the digital 35 world, and have no film body exsperience...then you might very well love it....

PS: the d200 has only been out sence Nov 05 and has been in very limited supply so keep that in mind when they write best camera ever ect...

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