The D200 and D2x WILL take better photos than the D50, though as you correctly point out, the D50 has better noise characteristics at high ISO.

I do not think so. I was thinking of getting a D200 as a second body as I often switch between birds and insects when I walk in the field. I thought D200 with VR80-400 and D50 with Micro-Nikkor 60mm should serve me well. In looking to details of the D200 I found many drawbacks of the D200 when compare with the D50.

1) D200 can not use regular Nikon batteries. I shall have to buy special D200 batteries as spare.
2) D200 use soon to be obsolete Flashcard compare with D50 use of the popular SD card.
3) D50 with 6 megapixel is already a pain in the neck when I have to load and process a hundred RAW files. Thinking of 10+ megapixel scare me.
4) the only features that I like in D200 are bigger and finer screen, more direct buttons instead of having to push two keys at the same time. All these only make D200 more convenience but not going to help me make better pictures.

For the D2X I think the camera is too big and too heavy. I believe the D200 will eventually replace the D2X.

Do you know something we don't?

No, I do not know any thing you don't. Just look at the number of p&s cameras (most of them use sd cards) that are being sold today compare to pro cameras. With differences in production volume there is no way for flash card to be able to survive the competition from sd cards.

My concern is personal, I do not want to buy an expensive 2gb card today and will not be able to use it in my future cameras.

It seems to be that more and more cameras are using SD but I think It will be a long time before they stop producing CF. The best idea is to have dual slots like you get in some Olympus and Fuji cameras - now that is a useful idea. You can have one expensive high speed card inserted for when you want to work quickly and a cheaper high volume card in the other slot for when it does'nt matter - and you need never run out of memory at that vital moment!

Good point but Sony use memory sticks and Fuji and Olympus use XD cards in their compacts so SDs aren't universal - yet(!) It'll be interesting to see how the camera-phone market with it's mini-cards develops, though.

The reason Nikon can make D50 smaller than D70s is probably because of the use of smaller SD card. I used to have Sony digital cameras now i have several Memorystick laying in the shoes box!

I think the future pro cameras will have built-in memories.

Your reasons are nothing to do with the quality of the photos. They are to do with other factors specific to you. Having to buy a D200 battery - which can be used in the D50/70 but not vica versa - is no big deal given the total camera cost. CF is not soon to be obsolete. The D200 can shoot at 6MP if required. The D200 will not replace the D2x though it will take some sales. They are different beasts.

The D200 has numerous advantages over the D50/D70: MLU, sensible self-timer, brighter viewfinder, larger LCD, higher MP, better build and sealing, better ergonomics (bigger buttons), much highe frame rate, better auto-focus, better metering, will meter with manual lenses, some sort of GPS wotsit, a sort of time lapse photography mode, and so on.

Of course for many the D50/D70 will be preferred. The D70 - which I own - is very good indeed.

Leif

The Canon 350D is smaller than the D50 but still uses CF but many people criticise its small size, even adding a battery-grip to improve the handling, so I can't see further miniaturisation of camera bodies being the way forward for DSLR design.

Obviously, the sales of compact cameras will be much greater worldwide, but I wonder how many extra SD cards will be purchased by the average user compared to the extra CF cards bought by SLR users

Yes, I can see this coming about - with a high-speed wireless transfer of files to a portable storage device of some sort.

In the good old days of film (less than a decade ago!) the majority of photos were taken on colour-print film. I think the figure was about 91% of the market, with B/W and slide film about equally divided in the share of the remaining 9% - yet there was far more choice in the range of films for the latter two despite their apparent small share of the market, so I think there's plenty of scope for the manufacture of a variety of card formats whilst there's a demand.

Competitions will force Canon and Nikon to make high quality dslr at reasonable price. There is no other alternative for them. Of course they will make some more $$$$ by adding "bigger buttons" and all those goodies.

This is an interesting article about future of digital cameras:

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/tech/st...101432,00.html