Nikon D50

Nikon's digital SLR division has been having a tough time of late, with Canon's aggressive marketing stealing much of the limelight. But the new D50, touted as a mass-market entry-level digital SLR in much the same vein as the A-Listed Canon 350D, is a fine product nonetheless.

The D50 is a stripped-down build of the D70 rather than a brand-new model designed more from the ground-up like the 350D. This isn't an inherently bad thing, but it does result in less than cutting-edge headline specifications. Chief among these is the D50's CCD sensor, sporting 'only' 6.2 megapixels, as opposed to the 8 megapixels of the 350D, although it's physically slightly larger, which in theory allows for better detail resolution. Maximum burst rate is marginally slower at 2.5fps - the 350D manages 3fps - and it has a 12-shot buffer in JPEG Fine mode to the Canon's 14.

Picking up the D50, it's very comfortable to hold. It does feel like plastic though: the 350D's body is also plastic but has a denser, sturdier feel. That said, the D50's body is by no means flimsy, and it's no featherweight: with the kit lens and battery, it weighs in at 828g; the 350D is 100g lighter.

Contrary to most other digital cameras, the Nikon accepts SD card storage. This is a clever move in a camera aimed at first-time digital SLR owners: there's a good chance they've already invested in a high-capacity SD card if upgrading from a digital compact. If you're starting from scratch, though, you'll still find SD media more expensive than CompactFlash and high-capacity Microdrives, as well as currently being limited to 2GB capacity.

There are a couple of operational quirks with the D50 that, although trivial-sounding, do have an effect when it comes to obstacle-free picture taking. The main concern is the 'command dial' scroll wheel used to set shutter speed or aperture, depending on shooting mode. This is mounted on the back and operated with the thumb, as opposed to Canon's design, where it's top-mounted just above the shutter and operated with the index finger. If you're trying to use the wheel with the camera to your eye in portrait orientation, your thumb gets in the way and you'll have to pull back.

In addition, once you've taken a picture, the Nikon drops into auto-review by default and displays the last shot on the 2in TFT for several seconds. During this time, the command dial is reassigned to scrolling through recorded images; getting it back to its usual function requires a half-press of the shutter release: it's a small operational point, but it wastes valuable time when you're trying to take an action shot. The D50 does score extra marks by allowing you to alter ISO and white-balance modes while referring to the top-mounted LCD screen, saving aggravation over the Canon, which forces you to look at the TFT for these often-used adjustments. But, inexplicably, metering mode - adjusted at least as often as ISO by many photographers - is relegated to the menu system.

Balanced against these slightly equivocal points are important areas of definite superiority over the 350D. The first is the shutter release. The Canon makes a staccato, sexy-sounding but unrefined click-whirr. The D50, on other hand, has better damping, making something more akin to a soft 'shooshing' sound that's far less likely to startle people into looking round when you're trying to capture them in a candid pose. Second is the presence of a proper spot-metering mode, covering just 2.5 per cent of the frame at the centre. The absence of spot metering in the 350D - the best it can manage is 'partial metering' covering 9 per cent of the frame - is a real point against it for some photographers. And if you prefer the fully automatic metering option, the D50's matrix metering system is markedly more difficult to fool, particularly in situations where, for instance, there's a bright band of sunlight falling across a subject. Furthermore, if you like to capture action shots with fill-in flash, the inbuilt flash unit will sync down to 1/500th of a second - over twice as fast as the 350D. Camera startup time is the same for both though - a near instantaneous 0.2 seconds.