Steve's Digicams Forums - Would a Nikon D50 with the 18-55mm lens kit have macro capab

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I was thinking about possibly trading up my Canon S2 IS digital camera for the Nikon D50 kit. Mainly because the Canon cannot white balance under metal halides in my aquarium. Plus I have an old inferior nikon 2500 camera that does better then the Canon. Also the nikon kit is only about 300 more then the Canon setup.

Although the Canon is superior in so many other ways to the old Nikon.

Anyway I am wondering if the Nikon is going to have Macro capabilities out of the box though?

Thanks.

reefanatic wrote:

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Although the Canon is superior in so many other ways to the old Nikon.

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Do you know what you are talking about or is itall what you heard other people say? Please define "so many other ways".

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Anyway I am wondering if the Nikon is going to have Macro capabilities out of the box though?

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The 18-55mm Nikkor has a minimum focusing distance of 28cm (if my recollection is accurate). You can search for the lens' specs on the web. If you go for the D50, may I strongly recommend you get the body only and then get yourself the Sigma 17-70mm DC MACRO lens that will fulfill your needs (as best as you have described them).

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Although the Canon is superior in so many other ways to the old Nikon.

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Do you know what you are talking about or is itall what you heard other people say? Please define "so many other ways".

Yes, he knows what he's talking about--he owns both cameras. He's saying the S3 is superior in many ways to his old Nikon point and shoot (not the D50). But the auto white balance on the S3 won't handle his lighting situaion. I'm not sure if he couldn't get the manual white balance to work right either, or if it's just too much trouble to him to be setting it all the time.

Nevertheless, the canon S3 is inaccurate in it's auto white balance:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons3is/page5.asp

Unfortunately, even most DSLRs aren't that much better when it comes to auto white balance. But, some cameras do have the ability to fine tune the white balance, some by color temperature. And shooting in raw is another good option, which makes it easy to correct the white balance after the fact.

kenbalbari wrote:

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Although the Canon is superior in so many other ways to the old Nikon.

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Do you know what you are talking about or is itall what you heard other people say? Please define "so many other ways".

Thanks for that, could say it better myself.

Yeah I know how to do the custom white balance, but for some reason I cant seem to get it to work. Well anyway I found an amazing deal on a Pentax IST DL with the 18-55mm kit for $419 new. So I jumped on it! Hopefully I will be able to get better photos now.

Thanks.

Rather than fighting with custome white balance (which is sometimes hit or miss), I usually shoot in RAW. This allows you to fine tune white in post work, rather than leaving it up to the camera.

The 18-55 does not have "true" macro capability, meaning it can't reproduce images 1:1 or better, the traditional defintion of macro. However it can focus pretty close, and will be able to serve you in a pinch.