[from a letter to TD]
T, I’m afraid your Nikon D50 suffers from the same problem ours did. Your pics from the Mediterranean are overexposed.
As you recall, I gave the D50 to E for Christmas last year, and then we left for Mexico. Weeks and some 1200 pics later we came back to find that all (ALL) pics taken outdoors in daylight using full automatic mode were overexposed by 2 or 3 steps. E was devastated, she lost some 700+ pics (could not be brought to acceptable levels in Photoshop).
We did research the problem and found out that it is a known and common issue with the D50 line: images shot in bright sunny locations, using full automatic mode (matrix measuring system) are overexposed.
Complaints online are numerous and the situation begins to resemble that of Canon’s Elura 50 camcorder where the CCD sensor made by third party manufacturer was at fault. Canon refused to acknowledge the problem until complaints reached thousands, and the company eventually settled to fix at no extra charge all affected units (I seem to remember that the same third party CCD manufacturer also supplied Sony cameras, though I’m not sure whether Sony addressed the issue).
Well, Nikon finally did address the problem, in a half-assed way, by blaming the overexposure issue on users, saying that it’s the users not knowing how to properly mount lenses that causes damage to a lever that affects exposure. They posted a diagnostic page on how to inspect the lever. Guess what? It was not E’s problem, and I suspect it is not yours either. E never even detached the lens that came with the camera, and sure enough after inspecting it there was no damage to the lever.
The problem is caused by bad interpretation by the Matrix measuring system.
Bad news is: it seems that Nikon will ignore this until more people travel to sunny destinations and come back with all of their memories bleached out.
Nikon D50 is a faulty product.
Can you do anything about it?
To some extent – yes. Stop using the full automatic mode. Hey, why would you expect to have an easy photographing experience, eh?
Do this:
- Turn the dial to P (programmed auto).
- Press MENU, choose the CSM Menu (pencil icon).
- Choose METERING.
- Choose either CENTER WEIGHT or SPOT metering.
- Exit.
Use the P mode when taking photographs. The results will not be the same as with the MATRIX metering used in full auto and you will have to watch your shades. You may have to experiment with manual exposure compensation.
Center and spot metering eliminates the crappy MATRIX metering which causes the poor interpretation and results in OVEREXPOSED images.
Next thing to do: write Nikon and complain. It is unacceptable to release a product that delivers crappier results than a cheap point-and-shoot camera.
Thank you for a really clear explanation as to why my pictures are over exposed.
Thank you for the overexposure explanation. I have recently experienced it as well.
I have also started getting photos which were out of focus for no apparent reason. After using my D50 for 2 years, this problem suddenly came up, rendering over 50% of my work unuseable.
I have checked all the menu items and can find nothing out of order. Any ideas out there?
Do I need a new camera?
I just started having overexposure problems as well, rendering my action shots completely unusable. I tried the “P” mode, ISO 200 and spot metering, but it didn’t make any difference – still terribly over exposed. I’ll be looking for a new camera soon.
I mostly feel stupid for not listening to my gut – and googling “overexposure nikon d50″ 3 years ago when I started having this problem. What you describe is EXACTLY what started happening to me ALL of the sudden. I can tell you exactly where I was at the moment! I am partly relieved that it is not just me suffering from this extremley frustrating problem, and really, really unhappy with Nikon for not owning it. I will definitely be pursuing a repair ASAP on their dime. Only silver lining is that I stopped using Auto and P (after I had to take so many pics to get it right) and now mostly use Manual. I still think that my $700 camera should be able to take a photo in Automatic mode though.