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Nikon D50 review with 18-55mm f3.5~5.6 DX lens Gordon Laing, December 2005


 



 




Outdoor
/ Resolution / Noise / Corner sharpness / Fringe and macro / Geometry / Vignetting

Chromatic aberration and purple fringing

  To measure purple fringing caused by lens chromatic aberrations and sensor blooming, we photographed a custom test chart, left, with areas of very high contrast. We used the bundled lenses at their widest and longest focal lengths with the aperture wide open in Aperture Priority mode. The crops are taken from the upper left corner of the chart and presented here at 100%.

The D50 with the 18-55mm DX lens exhibits a little purple fringing at its widest position in line with its rivals. Fringing is reduced at 55mm, although remains slightly higher than the competition.

Nikon D50
Canon EOS-350D
Konica Minolta Dynax 5D
Pentax *istDL
18-55mm DX at 18mm f3.5
18-55mm EF-S at 18mm f3.5
18-70mm DT at 18mm f3.5
18-55mm DA at 18mm f3.5
18-55mm DX at 55mm f5.6
18-55mm EF-S at 55mm f5.6
18-70mm DT at 70mm f5.6
18-55mm DA at 55mm f5.6


Macro (bundled lens)

  To measure macro performance we photographed a custom chart using the bundled lenses at a distance and focal length which delivered the maximum possible reproduction. The dark lines are 10mm apart.

The image left was taken with the Nikon D50 and the 18-55mm DX lens at f8. Like other budget digital SLR lenses, the best macro performance was achieved using its longest focal length of 55mm. Here the lens captured an area measuring 70x49mm from a distance of 13cm. This is essentially the same as the competition, although superior to Konica Minolta.

Canon EOS-350D
Konica Minolta Dynax 5D
Pentax *istDL
18-55mm EF-S at 55mm f8
Max area of 66x44mm at 13cm
  18-70mm DT at 70mm f8
Max area of 82x54mm at 20.5cm
  18-55mm DA at 55mm f8
Max area of 66x44mm at 12cm

Nikon D50 results continued...

Outdoor / Resolution / Noise / Corner sharpness / Fringe and macro / Geometry / Vignetting

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