5. Exposure & Shooting

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As has now become a tradition, both models have a "green position" on the mode selector - the rotating dial to the left of the prism - to make shooting easy for beginners. In this mode, everything is automatic, once you've made certain prior choices, such as image size and the type of file format that pictures are to be saved in. Naturally we feel you should remove these "training wheels" as soon as you can. It would be a shame to keep using a camera with so many possibilities in this limited way!

Also for beginners, there are "scene" modes corresponding to typical shooting situations, such as portraits, landscapes, macro shots, etc. Again, users who are a bit more demanding should naturally use the traditional modes: program, manual, aperture priority and possibly shutter-speed priority. In manual mode, as on all models with only one control dial, you change the parameter being adjusted by pressing a button. It's less practical than with two separate control dials, but quite acceptable in practice, especially since manual mode is used relatively infrequently by purchasers of an SLR in this price category.

There are no surprises as far as metering goes. Both models offer the three modes that have now become classic: matrix, center-weighted, and spot. Naturally, except for specific needs, you'll usually use matrix mode, which is the best suited to varied types of shooting and almost always produces excellent results. Overall, we found the D50's exposure more consistent than that of the istDL, though the latter was still acceptable. On the Nikon, preceding models were often criticized for underexposing, which has been corrected. But in certain cases, the results can now be overexposure. You can't have your cake and eat it too...

As for the available ISO sensitivity levels, they start at ISO 200 and increase by whole stops, up to ISO 3200 for the Pentax, or 1600 for the Nikon. The Sony sensor is quite satisfactory up to ISO 800, but fairly noisy beyond that point; you'll have to be careful about using the highest sensitivity levels. ISO 1600 remains quite usable but ISO 3200 is much less so. Pentax offers an automatic adjustment mode for sensitivity, with very precise settings (limitation of the range of variation) - this can be very useful if you remember to use it.