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Nikon D50 User's Guide © 2006 Ken Rockwell.com About these reviews D50 with 18 - 55 mm. If you find this as helpful as a book you might have had to buy, feel free to help me write more with a donation...
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Nikon D50 User’s Guide Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 2 CONTROLS (every button and knob) FRONT 5 TOP PANEL 7 BACK 8 MENUS (every menu item in detail) PLAYBACK 10 SHOOTING 11 CUSTOM SETTINGS 14 SETUP 1...
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BASICS: CAMERA Many of these adjustments require you to be in be in the P, S, A or M exposure modes. You set that on the top dial. The cute preset modes often lock out some adjustments. I leave most s...
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I avoid FINE JPG because NORM gives me the same results, with half the file size. If I shot FINE I might run out of room on a card and miss a shot. Missing a shot is a very visible defect, and I see n...
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CONTROLS: FRONT of CAMERA Focus Mode (the little lever at the bottom of the lens marked AF and M): I set it to AF. This means Auto Focus. M means manual focus. In manual focus you have to twist the fo...
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I usually use Normal mode, since if I don't I can get some scary long exposures if I'm not expecting them in the dark. Red-Eye (eyeball icon): I never use this. It shines an obnoxious light in your su...
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firmware. No big deal. In REAR the D50's exposure setting in Program mode chooses slower shutter speeds and small apertures if you're in daylight. CONTROLS AND SETTINGS: TOP PANEL From left to right: ...
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CONTROLS and SETTINGS: BACK of CAMERA From left to right: Rectangles (also doubles as one of the two Green Dot * buttons): This controls the frame advance mode. You hold this and spin the rear control...
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If "Gd" flashes you're good. If "n G" (no good) flashes, try again. You can cheat (I do) and point the camera at a broad light source, like a fluorescent fixture, and get great res...
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MENUS: PLAYBACK MENU ("[ > ]" icon) back to top Press MENU and then select the "[ > ] " (play) icon to get into the play menu. Delete: This is helpful if you want to delete a...
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MENUS: SHOOTING MENU (camera icon) Press MENU and then select the camera (shooting) icon to get to the shooting menu. OPTIMIZE IMAGE: This is where you can program the look of an image. You can mimic ...
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Optimize Image Custom Settings As mentioned on the first page, I prefer the vivid color I get from Fuji's Velvia 50 film, so I tweak the D50 to give color as vivid as I can get. To do this I go to MEN...
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Mode IIIa is secret code for a standard s RGB mode which gives bolder color. I use this all the time. No, I have no idea how Nikon cooked up these numeric designations. Saturation is the vividness of ...
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ISO: This duplicates the ISO button. I only use this menu if I want to see this on the back of the camera instead of the top LCD. I explain the buttons duplicated by these menus here. (see “back of ca...
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mode for a few seconds after each shot. Because of this I make a habit of tapping the shutter button to return to shooting mode before I make any ISO, WB or QUAL adjustments. Otherwise I often would c...
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14: AE-L/AF-L: This sets what the AE-L AF-L button locks when held, and how. I leave mine in AE lock only, since in AF-S the AF locks when I press the shutter half way. I use this lock in strong backl...
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19: Self Timer: I leave it at 2 seconds, since I use the self timer to replace a cable release. Set it to 10 seconds (default) for enough time to run to get into a picture. You can set it to 2, 5, 10 ...
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it won't attach, and if you forget to hit DONE it will also forget everything you just did. So Sorry! I don't write the firmware. To edit or remove a character, select it in the Input Comment screen b...
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Someday the camera's firmware will work properly and rotate the image itself, but no camera does that yet. That's It! Enjoy! If you find this as helpful as a book you might have had to buy, feel free ...