3 days left to return my D5100, I feel mugged by Nikon!

danceman

New member
I brought the camera as a result of the excellent reviews, and to complement my S5pro (D200). Just watching some of the propoganda on the D5100 guide on this site has firmed up my idea to get a d7000. The bizar section on taking a picture in live view almost made me choke! There the pictiure instantly appeared, I dont think so. Times vary a little but around 1.5 seconds is par for the corse! This makes taking any thing moving faster than a worm difficult, if not impossible! Then there is the problem that an image is only visible indoors or at night, any sign of sun and as the manual says " you need to take a picture,then review the histogram! No clues how you frame the picture?
The shutter release speed through the view finder is exemplary I measure around 0.05 of a second and at the 4fps it seems to be able to always get a perfect focus and exposure. Pity only one cross point autofocus sensor. Once I realised its obvious as you can see the directions of the others on the screen!
The lack of function buttons is my deal breaker, as you have lost the four Nikon has made no efort to make up for the loss. Not only buttons but the great rotating ring to switch shutter modes. Tonight I missed a great shot as I had lifted up the camera and pulled on the live view leave, nightmare! It needs a feature to assign that leaver too!
I have found that by setting the tiny toy button AEL to focus momentary lock,with some practice you can set the focus green on live view then lock it. Then its only about 480mS to get a shot, thats three or four times faster or a second a car at 30mph would have moved more than 8m!
The missing focus point select lock is diabolical, they are always moving, so easy to have them enabled by say pressing the delete key first. Why not make the four pad positions assignable and the ok button! Having two info buttons is also bizar! Just give the rear one a third option.
On reflection the missing focus srerew drive limits the use of all those lenses.When comparing cameras this should have been taken into account more at present it is not.
So given that its not a live view shooting camera, make it the same as,lighter not weather roof and D7000 and call it a day! Well maybe give it CLS commander. Its briliant with the SB400 completely a league ahead of the built in flash but the SB800 is a little to much and would be better used as a slave.
So will I return to the shop and upgrade to a D7000 and retire my s5Pro?
 

Patrick M

Senior Member
For every day use and instant snaps I'd never dream of using live view. Focus is fast and I've never missed a shot because of pulling the live view lever. I've used it enough now that my hands know where the buttons are.
the function buttons are a nice to have. With my D80 I had them set up beautifully, but you know what, after a year I used just one function ... And I can do this on the D5100 anyway.
I love the video with my VR ii lenses. Brilliant.
I'd thought the D7000 was the one for me, but I'm not at all disappointed with the D5100 and I'm learning more about it every day....and certainly my photography is getting better too with those effects/scenes. What I do is set the scene, check the settings, switch to manual, set the settings from the scene, then make changes and see the results. I did this with my D80 after taking a course with Nikon at their UK headquarters in Kingston, Surrey and the technique works on any camera obviously, but it's great practice anyway.

Give the camera a chance, it's worth it.
 

danceman

New member
Thanks for advice, looks like am going to keep it.
Forgot to point out the complete lack of metering when in live view, very strange. I don't know the politics, but why don't Nikon allow live histograms? I think every Canon can produce them.
Have you used the 9 custom settings? Found under picture control? They might be-useful?
Tried the new Tamron 70-300 VC , has strange VC, like a great force takes over, not sure if would go in and out of lock? Quite a shock as it locks! ? Also tried an old 70-300 VR optics were better but noticed its showing no VR on the picture data so may be faulty? The Tamrons price is dropping fast 425Euros here 385 on line.
Can I put a video here, or should I put it somewhere with a link?
I can see why someone recomended putting in A mode as other wise lens is wide open, think the sharpest is a stop down. Must try that next time.
 

Patrick M

Senior Member
Glad to hear it.
I'm a bit of a novice, so although yes, I've tried some, well all really, but I honestly didn't like the results. My Rose bed for example I tried hi tones, which resulted in a horrible washed out picture. A toy spotted cat ... Actually a doorstop my wife adores and calls er Doorstop, I tried with colour palette. I didn't like that either tho my wife did thank G :)
Playing with night shots. A dozen in my kitchen were all strangely blue.
I guess I need lots more practice, but hey, isn't that what it's all about !
 

ohkphoto

Snow White
I don't have this camera so I'm not sure I can help much except to encourage you to not give up. It sometimes takes a while to get these automatic settings to what you like. It also may be that you have a "bad" combination of settings and need to reset everything to factory default. I suggest reading the manual carefully and going step by step. I've had my Nikons for 5 yrs and still read the manuals because I've discovered something I didn't know.

Good luck to you and hang in there.
 

Alecto

New member
I've had mine since May. I just bought Dave Busch's 450 page book and it has been incredibly helpful in getting used to some of the little quirks like you mentioned. I only use the Live View when I am taking a shot over a crowd, like at a concert, because I am very short. The tilting screen and the Live View were two of the main features that sold me on the camera. No more pictures of the backs of peoples' heads for me!
 

Patrick M

Senior Member
I just had a landscape photography course at a local historical garden...and while my shots weren't great, I was able to spend 6 hours playing with my D5100 and it's great!
I made extensive use of the tripod ... Shame the battery on my remote control went flat...I never thought to carry a spare for that one!
using the tripod was a new experience - I never really used one much before this day. I use one that extends from 2' to 5' so that I can see through the lens. But I found that I could get really great shots across a lake by keeping the tripod really low and using the view screen horizontally. Wow. This was so easy and a really great way to use the tripod.

I love this camera.
 
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