Nikon D50 Housing

Any guesses on how long it will take for a D50 housing?

I almost bought a used Oly5050 set up and then I read about this camera. The D70 was hard to justify (pricewise) for the hobby photography I am doing (even though I have lenses already).

Now if only they will split up the package and sell just the body.

How much cheaper is it than the D70??

I can't imagine there being enough of a savings to make it that atttactive when there are alot of D70 housing options and it has been proven underwater. The D50's performance u/w is an unknown.


Dave

Can't you get the D70/D70s body alone without the kit lenses? I don't know of any place that does sell the D70 only as a package with kit lens. For underwater, I think that D50 is probably $200-300 cheaper but when you add the cost of housing, ports and strobes, the differences in price is not really all that much (unless someone comes out with a really cheap housing but I have not heard of one yet). A couple of major benefit for D70 for underwater would be that it uses CF card so you can get bigger card. I don't know how big an SD card you can get but for D50/D70, I would get at least a 2 GB card. D70 has 2 separate wheels for shutter and aparture control where as D50 only has one so it will be more awkard trying to change the setting underwater. D70/70s also has so many choices as far as housing go while who knows what will be available for D50. All in all, I personally would go for D70s/70 rather than D50.

dbh:

How much cheaper is it than the D70??

I can't imagine there being enough of a savings to make it that atttactive when there are alot of D70 housing options and it has been proven underwater. The D50's performance u/w is an unknown.

Click to expand...

Right now the D50 is retailing for about $1150 Cdn as a package. I figure that it will be available for $850-950 Cdn as a body-only within 6-12 months.

So ... someone else buys a new housing and a D50 - figures out that they need more flexibility and they upgrade to a D70. Presto - one used housing on SB or ebay. I get the benefit of an SLR (no shutter lag) for a little more than what I would pay for a P&S. Since I am just a hobby photographer it works out okay.

pharmguy:

Right now the D50 is retailing for about $1150 Cdn as a package. I figure that it will be available for $850-950 Cdn as a body-only within 6-12 months.

So ... someone else buys a new housing and a D50 - figures out that they need more flexibility and they upgrade to a D70. Presto - one used housing on SB or ebay. I get the benefit of an SLR (no shutter lag) for a little more than what I would pay for a P&S. Since I am just a hobby photographer it works out okay.

Click to expand...

I looked around a bit and have not seen any manufacturers even making any announcement about supporting D50. Ikelite seems to be a bit faster than most but usually it would take them about 4-6 months to come out with the housing (faster if it is similar fit to previous model). Since D50 is a brand new body, it might take awhile. Other manufacturers especially aluminum housing, may take 8-12 months. Don't forget, dSLR housing will generally start at around $us1200-1500 and up, not including port. If you have 3-4 lenses that you would like to use, housing and ports probably will run you at least $us2000. I would not be surprise if most manufacturers will decide to skip D50 since it would not make too much sense to support both D70s and D50 when the price difference is not huge.
I also won't consider upgrading from D50 to D70s a wise move since you basically get the same camera with a bit more ergonomic and that's about it. However by the time D50 housing is available, D200 (or whatever D100 replacement is) may be close to coming out and that might be a better move, as far as upgrade is concerned.
Looking at Canon Rebel XT (D350) not many manufacturers seem to support it either and just stick to 20D. Ikelite seems to be the only one to support it as it happened to fit old Ikelite housing with little adjustment unlike other more form fitting aluminum housing. D50 may run into the same problem except that it is not even close in shape/size to D70s.

I just bought a D50 so I emailed Ikelite to see if they had any plans and if so when. The responded saying:

"Yes, we will be offering a housing for the D50. Look for production housings in September/October. Updates on our website soon."

I imagine it should be very similar in appearance and cost to the D70 housing.

Juan