Living with Nikon’s D5100

 Part 2 – the good stuff, and there’s a lot of it

If someone had asked me two or three years ago what I wanted in my dream DSLR, I would’ve listed just about all of the features Nikon put into the D5100, except for video. It’s that simple. What more can you ask from a camera? That it makes espresso coffee?

The only reason the D5100 is no longer a dream camera because you can buy one for less than $700. It’s a hell of a lot of camera for the money. In terms of image quality, it towers over the direct competition, and punches way above its weight as you can see from the comparison with Sony’s newest sensor.

Image quality – dynamic range

Here’s an example of the D5100’s tremendous dynamic range, in this tough shot against a bright window to the outside.

Another tough shot of a golden sunrise with extreme light and shade

And a third – clouds and contrasts like this are always tough on cameras

Low light shooting

When shooting in controlled conditions on a tripod, ISO 6400 comes out pretty clean, and even extension H7 – equivalent to ISO 12,800 produces acceptable results if you take care with light and steady shooting. As always, click on the images to see a larger file.

The Night Vision (scene) mode raises the ISO sensitivity limit from H1 or ISO 25,600 to the equivalent of ISO 102,400 equivalent, but it only works in Black and White. You see a lot of noise here, along with tremendous loss of detail.

Here’s a real-life ISO 6400 shot. There’s some noise, and some loss of detail (some of that due to the ultrawide Sigma 8-16mm lens) but the image looks more than acceptable on a 24 in screen. My guess is that it would print OK up to A3 size.

Resolution, sharpness

Superb. Just click on the images to see a larger file

Catching the action

The essential ingredients are provided:

• 11-point AF System, fast and accurate
• Good burst speed and buffer depth
• Dynamic AF mode with 3D tracking
• Metering is more accurate than any previous Nikon
• Exposure lock and focus lock

And you can see how well it works

Handling and hands-on

The D5100 is about the same size as the D3100, just a fraction bigger than my old D40. It’s heavier, which makes it easier to hold steady. The body also balances better with bigger lenses. I have large hands with slim fingers, and I find the D5100 the perfect size and weight. I’ve grown quite used to the inward-angled grip, and size, weight and shape are just about perfect. I love holding the camera, and pushing the soft shutter. It’s an ‘elctronically-controlled vertical-travel focal-plane shutter,’ and it’s pleasant to touch.

That’s one thing I didn't like about the D700 I owned for a short time: the hard, metallic shutter. The other thing I don’t miss is the D700’s bulk and weight. The D5100 I can carry all day on bushwalks in a small Lowepro Adventura 120 bag. A big improvement on the D5000 is the 3-Inch, 921,000 pixel articulated LCD, this time hinged on the side. Live view mode focus is much faster than before, and the whole thing has become a whole lot more useful.

Other goodies

• Good battery life (600-700 shots)
• Effective Image sensor cleaning
• Electronic rangefinder for focusing non-AF-s lenses
• Intervalometer for time-lapse shooting

Reviewers say the Nikon D5100's penta mirror viewfinder is a bit of a letdown, given its magnification of 0.78x and frame coverage of 95% horizontal and vertical. Compared to what? A D3? It’s fine if you’re coming from a D40/60 body, trust me. I complained about the loss of the grid in the viewfinder but it turns out that the new focus points in their faint squares form a kind of grid that’s quite effective.

There’s more for the tech heads, mostly:

• External stereo mic jack
• Adjustable mic sensitivity
• GP-1 GPS unit support
• Support for Extreme Pro UHS-I cards
• Scene modes
• Effects

Scene modes are the usual lot, not very interesting to me, but a few of the effects are useful – selective colour, miniature, high key and low key.

Video

I don’t use this camera for video, so I’ll just list the features:

• Up to 1,920 x 1,080 pixel, full HD video, with 1,280 x 720 pixels (720p) option
• 25 or 30 frames per second, independent of resolution
• MPEG-4 AVCHD / H.264 compression, file format .MOV
• Built-in mic is monaural, includes connectivity for external stereo mic
• Full-time contrast-detection autofocus during movie capture
• support for the face detection and tracking
• Shutter speed and ISO sensitivity automatically controlled while recording movies
• Lens aperture cannot be changed when recording video

Kit Lenses

The 18-105 is probably the most common kit lens people choose for the D5100. This is not a highly regarded lens but it renders good colours and sharp images. Distortion is an issue at the wide end and at other points, and its pretty bad. You’d best switch auto distortion correction on, or be prepared to do some extra work in Post Processing. The lens comes with VR but it’s a big lump of a thing for what it does.

The twin kit with the 18-55mm and the 55-300mm is a better bet, since both of those lenses deliver images well beyond their humble specs and cost. The tele zoom delivers stunning images.

I already owned enough lenses so I just bought the body. My preferred lens combo is the old 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 and the new 55-300.

 

Bottom Line

Great camera. Astonishing how much Nikon crammed into this compact body. Hard to imagine what else you'd need to take great photos. Enormous value as well. Nirvana.

Kim

Comments

[Andrew]

I got the camera last May and love using it, glad other people are liking it as well. It was between it and the D90 but I was wanting a good photo camera and good video camera so went with this one. I usually use my 50mm 1.8D lens with it but want to get a tele lens next. Nice article.

[Kim Brebach]

Thanks for the feedback, Andrew.
The best tele lens I've tried is the Tamron 70-300 Di VC USD - and enormous value for money - but be warned: it's really hefty lens, that's why I ended up with Nikon's slower but OK 55-300.
Kim

[geodon online]

Hey I attempted to e-mail you about this post that i have a few inquires but cant seem to achieve ...

[Kim Brebach]

If you put your question here, I'll do my best to answer it

[TG]

Nice review! Got the same camera, and so far very happy with how it performs. I'm impressed of the shots you took while describing the dynamic range. How did you set up the camera? I've been in similar situations, but not the same results...

[Kim Brebach]

I set everything to neutral or off, IQ wise, and generally shoot aperture priority. The only thing I do turn on is Active D-lighting, which helps with DR. I also have a good photo editor that helps the final images (ACDSEE Pro 5). WHen you have high contrast scenes, try to focus on something in the mid range to avoid the extremes.

[TG]

Thanks for the info! What are the benefits of shooting aperture priority in your opinion? Just out of curiosity really.

[Kim Brebach]

AP just makes it easier to control depth of field, i.e. at f/2.8 for sharp front, faded background or blurred bokeh in portrait shots, or f/8 for landscape shots that are sharp front to back.