Nikon D5100 18-55mm VR Kit review
Takes beautiful photos and videos but at this price it needs more accessible controls. We'd stick to the cheaper D3100.
Specifications
23.6×15.6mm 16.0-megapixel sensor, 3.0x zoom (27-82.5mm equivalent), 775g
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Sadly, Nikon hasn’t taken this opportunity to reconsider the function of these buttons. There is still a pair dedicated to zooming in and out during playback or magnifying the live view image. Another two, marked Info and i, bring up various information and settings on the screen. However, there are no buttons for ISO speed, white balance or drive mode. Instead, these functions must be browsed to using the i button and navigation pad. Even these controls aren’t comprehensive; defining a manual white balance temperature or toggling the Auto ISO function is only possible via the main Menu, which is even slower to navigate.
It’s particularly disappointing that the D5100 doesn’t inherit the cheaper D3100’s lever for selecting drive modes. To make matters worse, the self-timer and automatic HDR modes reset to single frame advance after each shot, and reactivating them using the convoluted controls was extremely tedious. The one positive aspect to the lack of labelled buttons is that the navigation pad provides direct control of the active autofocus point when it’s not doing anything else. However, reach for this control too quickly after shooting and the camera starts browsing through shots stored on the SD card instead.
It’s not all bad news, of course. There are some new features that we really like, including the aforementioned HDR mode – something that’s common on Sony and Pentax’s SLRs but not seen before from Nikon. It’s fairly simple, taking two shots at up to 3 EV exposure difference, aligning them to counter small differences in how they’re framed and blending them for a single, high-dynamic-range photo. The ability to recover lost highlights and shadows wasn’t as dramatic as we expected but the results looked more natural than we’ve seen from other cameras.
There’s a range of special effects with names such as Color Sketch and Night Vision, although anyone with image-editing software won’t see much point in applying them in-camera. The High Key and Low Key effects are more useful, though, adjusting settings to correctly exposure the brightest or darkest parts of the scene.
Basic Specifications | |
---|---|
Rating | **** |
CCD effective megapixels | 16.0 megapixels |
CCD size | 23.6×15.6mm |
Viewfinder | optical TTL |
Viewfinder magnification, coverage | 0.78x, 95% |
LCD screen size | 3.0in |
LCD screen resolution | 921,000 pixels |
Articulated screen | Yes |
Live view | Yes |
Optical zoom | 3.0x |
Zoom 35mm equivalent | 27-82.5mm |
Image stabilisation | optical, lens based |
Maximum image resolution | 4,928×3,264 |
Maximum movie resolution | 1920×1080 |
Movie frame rate at max quality | 30fps |
File formats | JPEG, RAW; QuickTime (AVC) |
Physical | |
Memory slot | SDXC |
Mermory supplied | none |
Battery type | Li-ion |
Battery Life (tested) | 660 shots |
Connectivity | USB, AV, mini HDMI, GPS input, mic input, IR wireless trigger |
HDMI output resolution | 1080i |
Body material | plastic |
Lens mount | Nikon F |
Focal length multiplier | 1.5x |
Kit lens model name | Nikon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S VR DX Zoom-NIKKOR |
Accessories | USB and AV cables, neck strap |
Weight | 775g |
Size | 97x128x156mm |
Buying Information | |
Warranty | Two-year RTB |
Price | £780 |
Supplier | http://www.jessops.com |
Details | www.nikon.co.uk |
Camera Controls | |
Exposure modes | program, shutter priority, aperture priority, manual |
Shutter speed | 30 to 1/4,000 seconds |
Aperture range | f/3.5-22 (wide), f/5.6-36 (tele) |
ISO range (at full resolution) | 100 to 25600 |
Exposure compensation | +/-5 EV |
White balance | auto, 13 presets with fine tuning, manual |
Additional image controls | contrast, saturation, sharpness, brightness, hue, noise reduction, colour space |
Manual focus | Yes |
Closest macro focus | 28cm |
Auto-focus modes | 11-point (optical viewfinder); flexible spot, face detect, tracking (live view) |
Metering modes | multi, centre-weighted, spot AF point |
Flash | auto, forced, suppressed, slow synchro, rear curtain, red-eye reduction |
Drive modes | single, continuous, self-timer, interval, AE bracket, WB bracket, Active D-Lighting bracket, automatic HDR |