A few years ago true photography enthusiasts would baulk at the idea of using a compact digital camera and would rather plump for a traditional SLR model instead. But with the continued improvement of digital SLRs, most professionals have now gone digital.

Nikon invented the mass-market digital SLR with the D70. Its little brother, the D50, inherits many of its sibling's best features, including a 6-megapixel resolution.

The robust body is available in either silver or black. Granted, it won't fit in your pocket as a compact digital, but even with its interchangeable lens attached, the D50 is lightweight for its size.

If you shop around online, it won’t break the bank either; we were able to find the D50 with a lens going for under £500 on some websites.

It's important to note that the camera is aimed at budding photographers, not random snappers, so we've looked at features more widely associated with SLR photography.

We tested the D50 on one of the most demanding subjects, a wedding. It was a bright, sunny day, which normally leaves many compact cameras overexposing the image. No such problem with the D50.

Even set in user-friendly auto mode, where you merely point and shoot, while the camera does the necessary exposure and focus calculations, the D50 produced colourful, detail-rich images, displaying everything on its 2in screen.

There are further hand-holding modes optimised for common subjects such as portraits, landscapes, sports, close-ups, night portraits and even 'child' (kids apparently have different skin tones to adults).

Plus there's a light sensitivity up to an equivalent of ISO1600, allowing for low-light photography without a flash. If you want to get technical or creative, manual shutter and aperture modes are offered, which allow you to control how much light reaches the camera's CCD.

Added to this is spot and centre weighted metering where the camera controls how bright an image is by measuring light from either a small point, or the centre of the image.There's also manual focus.

The D50 is compatible with a wide range of existing Nikon lenses for those who already own a film-based SLR. It accepts SD memory cards but you'll have to factor one into the price as none are supplied.

Connectivity to a PC is via USB 2, so downloading images is swift. In addition to a quick-start guide, a full reference manual is included on CD-ROM, along with Nikon Picture Project and Nikon Capture (trial version) software for Windows. The D50 is also PictBridge-compatible for direct printing.

If you want more control over your images than your digital compact currently allows, or simply want to take more professional pictures, then the D50 delivers on all counts.