When I purchased my Nikon D50 two years ago, the only other choice from Nikon was the D70. At the time the D70 was an older camera (little did I know the D80 would be out in a few months) but more expensive. The D70 did have a feature I was interested in, a commander mode for the flash system. The mode meant that the internal flash could trigger an off camera SB800 flash unit.

In the end the D50 won out because of (IMHO) the better picture quality right out of the camera. I later purchased the SB800 flash as it had a commander mode built in, meaning that I could mount it on the camera to control a 2nd off camera Nikon flash (SB600 or SB800). I've never bought that 2nd flash to do that though.

A while ago I read on Strobist that the SB800 would work wireless in a legacy mode with almost any camera, so I though I'd try it out with the D50.

To set up the D50 to control the SB800 wirelessly:

1. Access the D50's menu system and select Flash Mode, Manual. Select the level of on-board flash you want. If you want the off camera flash to do most of the lighting then select 1/16 (the minimum).
2. Turn on the flash (while off camera).
3. Hold the "sel" button down for 2 secs to access the menu.
4. Arrow right to select the wireless menu.
5. Push the "sel" button to select.
6. Arrow down to select the SU-4 option.
7. Push the "sel" button to select.
8. Hold down the "sel" button to exit the menu.
9. The flash should now say remote.

When done:

1. Access the D50 menu and select Flash Mode TTL.
2. On the flash, hold the "sel" button down for 2 secs to access the menu.
3. Arrow up to "off" and push the "sel" button to select.
4. Hold down the "sel" button to exit the menu.
5. The flash should now say TTL (or whatever mode it was in before setting to remote).

Have fun using your SB800 with your D50 or other camera.