It has a 23.7 mm by 15.6 mm DX format image sensor with 6.1 million effective pixels. It also has a 2.0" (50 mm) polysiliconTFT LCD with 130,000 pixels. The camera uses a through-the-lens full-aperture exposure metering system. It can simultaneously record NEF and JPEG data to a Secure Digital storage device. Like its newer, higher-end sibling (the D80), the D50 uses Secure Digital instead of CompactFlash cards found on previous Nikon digital SLRs. The camera is powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery which is claimed to be able to take up to 2,000 shots on a single charge. The camera is compatible with PictBridge printers and can shoot 2.5 frames per second in continuous mode. The camera's dimensions are 133 mm in width, 102 mm in height, and 76 mm in depth.^[1]

The D50 is the only entry-level Nikon DSLR to have the autofocus motor ('screw drive') built into the camera body where the camera is backwards-compatible with mechanical autofocus lenses (Nikkor AF series) dating back to 1989. This feature has been eliminated on later entry-level models and is currently only available on mid-range and advanced models. This makes the D50 the lightest Nikon DSLR to have the autofocus motor.