How to find out the shutter count on a nikon d50?

I'm planning to buy a secondhand nikon but first i want to make sure the shutter count isn't too high. Does anyone know anything about this, how to find out the number, etc? If a picture is taken on the camera and is named "dsc0640" could that mean that 640 pictures have been taken?

No necessarily. If it was set to continuous a year after it was purchased that number could actually be several thousand plus the 640. Check the exif data from one of the photos. If you're lucky it'll be there. Otherwise it's probably not available except to a camera tech - anyway that's how it is with my Canon cameras.

This is a fairly old camera so the count could be pretty high. Will you have a chance to see, hold,
shoot with this camera before you buy? If so look it over carefully and shoot with it and look at those photos as well.

I'm not totally sure about this but I think the D50's file naming can be reset. To be sure, take a shot with the camera and get a copy of the file then view its EXIF data. It's there under Total Pictures. If you don't have a suitable graphics utility to do that, try the freely downloadable Irfanview.

If you upload an un edited photo to Flickr you can check the EXIF data of that picture to find out the shutter count from the camera.

Same as with any nikon, take a picture, run it trough an exif viewer (opanda for example) and it's there. Unlike canon there's no way for a consumer to reset this counter.

If the camera looks good and has a count of below 20k it could be an interesting buy. D50 does have one weak point and that's the calibration of the internal flash. Set the cam to full auto and shoot indoors, the flash should pop up and fire. Push it down after the shot, it should lock. Repeat once. IF it still works the flash is good. If it does pop up but does not fire unless you push it down ever so slightly it needs adjusting. That's something you can do yourself but can be used to beat the price down.