Back With A D-SLR, Boys

So, after several years of using Canon compacts (mostly PowerShots G3 and S45/50), the price of digital SLRs dropped to the point where it was cheaper to buy one than upgrade to a Canon S80... and my collection of old Nikon lenses was sitting there, staring at me, accusingly...

Grab shot with D50 and sadly-defunct 35mm f2 AF-Nikkor

I had also been trying to get back into candid photography, and like most digital compacts, the Canons suffered from achingly slow startup times and annoying shutter lag.
(Incidentally, if anyone out there has dope on compacts with fast startup/low shutter lag, particularly the almost suspiciously low-priced Fuji E900, I'd like to hear from you.)

So I went for a Nikon D50, which, after a couple of days, I'm still astonished by... SLR design sure has moved on in the 13 years since I bought my trusty F-801s. I've used the old professional Nikon F4, and the D50 is as fast and responsive (in focussing terms), plus it has multiple focus points, built-in flash, 1/500sec flash sync(!)... I really thought I'd have to compromise to afford a D-SLR, but I remain gobsmacked at what Nikon have put into their bottom-of-the-range model...

When I was researching the D50 I couldn't find much information about its performance with older pre-D type AF lenses, so I'll do some tests with mine and post them here.