New 5300

zutty

Senior Member
I just picked up a new D5300 as a gift for a friend and am going to use it for a bit while I wait for my D810 to arrive. I'm used to having the luxury of the features of a D800 and D7100 but am looking forward to using the 5300's distinct features as well. Any pointers or quirks that I should look out for? Thanks.
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
My only advice is this: If your friend is going to be shooting JPG's (and even if they're not) do them a favor and go into the Shooting Menu/Picture Control and increase the "Sharpness" setting in all the different modes (Standard, Vivid, Landscape etc.) from the strangely low factory default setting to +6.

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RocketCowboy

Senior Member
If you plan on using the GPS functionality for geo-tagging, go ahead and grab/apply the A-GPS update file from the Nikon site and apply that.
 

kluisi

Senior Member
I just picked up a new D5300 as a gift for a friend and am going to use it for a bit while I wait for my D810 to arrive. I'm used to having the luxury of the features of a D800 and D7100 but am looking forward to using the 5300's distinct features as well. Any pointers or quirks that I should look out for? Thanks.

Wow...that's like a $1000 gift. You want to be my friend? :)
 

zutty

Senior Member
If you plan on using the GPS functionality for geo-tagging, go ahead and grab/apply the A-GPS update file from the Nikon site and apply that.
The only A-GPS update I could find was for Coolpix cameras...btw..I'm running a Mac if that makes any difference
 

zutty

Senior Member
Question: I have the Xii battery grip that requires taking the battery door off of the D5300....How is that done and is there a place to stow it?
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Actually I just took it out on a shoot and I just might keep it and buy her a Coolpix...grin...D5300 is a nice little camera.
I got one for my girlfriend recently (she desperately needed to upgrade from the D3200 she'd been using) and I'm mighty impressed with it too. Not enough to surrender my '7100 for, but wow... With a good lens the image quality of the '5300 is *shockingly* good.

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RocketCowboy

Senior Member
The only A-GPS update I could find was for Coolpix cameras...btw..I'm running a Mac if that makes any difference

I'm also using a Mac. I'll dig up the link when I get back to the house and post it for ya. Without the update, I seldom got a GPS location lock at all.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

cwgrizz

Senior Member
Challenge Team
My only advice is this: If your friend is going to be shooting JPG's (and even if they're not) do them a favor and go into the Shooting Menu/Picture Control and increase the "Sharpness" setting in all the different modes (Standard, Vivid, Landscape etc.) from the strangely low factory default setting to +6.

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So if you are saying to change the "Sharpness" in all settings (Standard, Vivid, Landscape, etc) to +6, will there be any difference in selecting one vs another when shooting? I haven't gotten my D5300 out to look at this Menu, so I could very easily be missing something.
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
So if you are saying to change the "Sharpness" in all settings (Standard, Vivid, Landscape, etc) to +6, will there be any difference in selecting one vs another when shooting? I haven't gotten my D5300 out to look at this Menu, so I could very easily be missing something.
Well most Nikon cameras have "Picture Controls". On my D7100 I can choose from Standard, Neutral, Vivid, Monochrome, Portrait and Landscape in the Picture Controls menu. Each of these Picture Control presets have their own adjustments to Hue, Contrast, Brightness, Contrast and Sharpness (the details of these settings are explained in the manual. The Sharpness setting, as set by the factory is very, very low and I always suggest moving that particular slider to +6.

There's only one Picture Control setting I don't increase the Sharpness on, and that's Portrait. If you want to adjust other settings in these Picture Controls you can (I make a couple very minor tweaks to Standard and Landscape) but these are personal preference tweaks we're talking about.

I hope that answers your question.

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cwgrizz

Senior Member
Challenge Team
After I posted the question, I then remembered the other options ie hue, etc and figured that was probably the case. Thanks, HF I will look at the whole group of settings for each one to decide what I want to do and "play". Ha!
 

zutty

Senior Member
I just checked the shutter count on this supposedly new D5300 and it is 500 snaps higher than it should be....I called B&H and they said I should return it for another one. Has anyone heard of this happening?
 

RocketCowboy

Senior Member
Thanks Charlie, but I don't really get how to apply this to my 5300. It downloads to my Mac as an ee file of which I have no idea to do with. Also I'm not sure what the goal of the procedure is.

The link I provided, it also has the detailed description of how to install the update on the camera.

Basically, without the update, the internal GPS has a very hard time determining where it is. The update is essentially a "hint" if you will, which helps the internal GPS lock in and keep that location lock quicker. If you don't plan to geotag pictures, it's not needed at all.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

zutty

Senior Member
Received the replacement D5300 and it seems to geotag photos perfectly, and I downloaded the app needed to my iPhone and I can now use it as a remote and to download directly to it if I like. Very cool.
 
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