The 18-55 kit lens that comes with the camera does not display my current focal distance/depth of field on the lens. I'd like to know this without having to step up to a $400 lens. Any way to get the body to show me this, since according to Nikon the lens communicates the current distance to the body? No. That data isn't available on camera. I've pulled up a few of my pictures to look at the EXIF data and the subject distance on all of them says "0".
The 18-55 really isn't that bad for general photography. No, it isn't as sharp or as fast as more expensive glass but it isn't a trash lens either.
One of my favorites and one that has subject distance markings is the 50mm f/1.8. It is a nice lens and gets high marks and sells for around $100. The more I use that lens the less I mount some of my zooms. I don't have a D50, but I just tried it on my Canon 20D. My kit lens also doesn't have a window. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any way to 'exactly' tell the focal length. My lens has marks at 18, 24, 35 and 55 so you can guess pretty close. There is no option I could find under the cameras menu or the pictures info to display the focal length, I would imagine yours is similar.
If you don't need to know right away, there are many software programs the show it for you, including the built in Windows XP image properties.
Good Luck with your camera!
PS the 18-55's on both Canon and Nikon are pretty low quality lenses. As you grow with your camera you really should budget in a new lens. Ask around in the forums at doreview.com | 