I bought this to replace my D40x after the flash quit working (though I still have it as a backup). I had a few issues with the D40x, but I am extremely pleased with the D5100. There are only a few minor complaints I have, which I will detail below. I have only had it for about a week now but I think I made a great choice. I would consider myself a moderately skilled amateur but have absolutely no desire for anything bigger and better!Pros:
- The colors captured on this camera and leaps are bounds better than my D40x. I put them on the same tripod and took the same picture using full auto mode. Everything on my D40x had a reddish tint and the colors were not quite true. The colors from the D5100 were simply stunning and were considerably more accurate.
- There are 23 different levels of ISO sensitivity (my D40x had 6), and the pictures are considerably less noisy, even at higher ISOs. I used the same lens/shutter speed/aperture/tripod for both cameras and shot each one at 200, 400, 800, 1600, and 3200 using my remote. The picture from the D5100 seems less noisy at 3200 than what the D40x produced at 800. Anything higher than 3200 seems to produce some fairly considerable noise however, especially if cropped.
- Continuous mode is finally continuous! Using the same SD card in both cameras (16GB class 10) I attempted continuous mode. The D40x will take 3 frames per second, but only for the first second. By then the buffer is full and the speed is drastically reduced. The D5100 shoots 4 frames per second and takes at least 17 photos before any buffering is required. In theory this means that you have 4 full seconds of shooting before any buffering occurs but I have never once filled the buffer (though I never tried to deliberately do so either).
- I didn't purchase this with the intention of taking many videos, but after viewing a test video on my computer I was extremely pleased with the quality. The video is very sharp and the file size is very reasonable (was about 30MB for a ~30 second clip...or roughly 1MB/second at 1920x1080 and 30FPS). Note that the audio is monaural however. If you want to use this for more professional videos then you'll probably need to purchase the external mic for stereo sound (which is quite expensive in my opinion). This may eventually replace my dedicated video camera, though further testing and a telephoto lens will almost certainly be required.
- Live mode finally works, if you prefer using that (note: live mode *must* be enabled to shoot video).
- 11 auto focus points instead of only 3. This is great if you're using a tripod and can't really recompose shots.
Cons:
- The biggest annoyance I have with this camera is that it does not show up as a USB drive when plugged into a computer. It will still show up as an import source in some photography software (Aperture, iPhoto, etc.) though I have found the easiest thing to do is to insert the SD card into my SD to USB converter. Using my converter it will show up just like a mass storage drive and I can browse the files and pull the pictures and movies directly. Otherwise one must install Nikon's software just to import the files (which seems like a pain, plus I'll soon be running nothing but Linux which isn't supported).
- Aperture 2.0 does not recognize the movies files so it cannot import them. I don't have Aperture 3.0 so I can't speak for that, and I have no experience with Lightroom or Bibble 5.
- Aperture 2.0 cannot read the new 14-bit RAW files that this camera generates (though it would read the 12-bit RAW files from my D40x). I ultimately decided not to shoot in RAW anyway, but it's sort of a bummer that it doesn't support it as Aperture offers more editing options for RAW files. Again, I cannot comment on how well any other software handles these files.
Other thoughts:
- I haven't had any issues with image sharpness. Whether I use the 18-55mm VR lens or my 35mm f/1.8 lens (which I HIGHLY recommend), my pictures come out perfectly crisp and sharp.
- It has not suddenly stopped taking pictures, though I did purchase an extended warranty (parts and labor) for it. I now have 4 years of protection instead of just 1.
- There is no auto-focus motor on the body of this camera so make sure to purchase a AF-I or AF-S lenses. The older AF lenses will still work with this camera but you will have to manually focus every shot.
- My 16GB card will hold roughly 1600 photos using JPEG (Fine) format.
Review by B. Mayes
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