New To D5300 And Have Questions

GSXR_Rider

Senior Member
Long story short I'm not new to Nikon as a brand having just come from a D3200 that was replaced under my BestBuy GeekSquad warranty. If you're interested in reading my thread on that I'll provide the link at the end of this post. I picked up a D5300 today over the D5200 which I had also been considering. After speaking to a local camera store about the D5200 I walked away simply feeling put off from the D5200, though I'm sure it is just as good a camera. One of the staff members mentioned that it (D5200) was discontinued and that they sold them for $125 for just a body "all day long". That said, this camera shop has staff which are knowledgeable as well as reputable. Anyways my questions about the D5300 are as follows:

1. I have been hearing complaints about front focusing and back focusing issues with the D5300, can anyone elaborate on what this issue is exactly?

2. How can I test or detect front focus or back focus issues, is this just based upon how I feel the image looks?

3. Any major complaints with the D5300? (As far as I know most Nikon's tend to be a safe bet and you really can't go wrong with what you choose)

4. How many actually purchase an extended warranty package (Geeksquad or other)?

Those are all my questions for now, hopefully some of you can provide me with insight, I appreciate any and all the help you guys can offer!

Link to my D3200 issue thread: http://nikonites.com/d3200/23828-autofocus-issue-d3200.html#axzz3dXiCeTou
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Long story short I'm not new to Nikon as a brand having just come from a D3200 that was replaced under my BestBuy GeekSquad warranty. If you're interested in reading my thread on that I'll provide the link at the end of this post. I picked up a D5300 today over the D5200 which I had also been considering. After speaking to a local camera store about the D5200 I walked away simply feeling put off from the D5200, though I'm sure it is just as good a camera. One of the staff members mentioned that it (D5200) was discontinued and that they sold them for $125 for just a body "all day long". That said, this camera shop has staff which are knowledgeable as well as reputable. Anyways my questions about the D5300 are as follows:

1. I have been hearing complaints about front focusing and back focusing issues with the D5300, can anyone elaborate on what this issue is exactly?

2. How can I test or detect front focus or back focus issues, is this just based upon how I feel the image looks?

3. Any major complaints with the D5300? (As far as I know most Nikon's tend to be a safe bet and you really can't go wrong with what you choose)

4. How many actually purchase an extended warranty package (Geeksquad or other)?

Those are all my questions for now, hopefully some of you can provide me with insight, I appreciate any and all the help you guys can offer!

Link to my D3200 issue thread: http://nikonites.com/d3200/23828-autofocus-issue-d3200.html#axzz3dXiCeTou
So you wound up with the D5300 after all? Excellent choice.

Also, front/Back focus has not been an issue with my girlfriends D5300 and this is the first I've heard of it being an "issue" with the D5300 in any way, shape or form. If I may ask, who's telling you this is an issue with the D5300?

Still, if you're worried about it, you can read this article: How to Quickly Test Your DSLR for Autofocus Issues and see what if there's a problem.

I get my extended warranties from Square Trade, but that's not to say the Best Buy warranty isn't good as well. I have a very low opinion of Nikon's "warranty" and customer service in general so I suggest you shop around if you're certain you want an extended warranty.

....
 

GSXR_Rider

Senior Member
So you wound up with the D5300 after all? Excellent choice.

Also, front/Back focus has not been an issue with my girlfriends D5300 and this is the first I've heard of it being an "issue" with the D5300 in any way, shape or form. If I may ask, who's telling you this is an issue with the D5300?

Still, if you're worried about it, you can read this article: How to Quickly Test Your DSLR for Autofocus Issues and see what if there's a problem.

I get my extended warranties from Square Trade, but that's not to say the Best Buy warranty isn't good as well. I have a very low opinion of Nikon's "warranty" and customer service in general so I suggest you shop around if you're certain you want an extended warranty.

....

Thanks! I have to be honest I was uncomfortable with the difference in price but BestBuy did price match and that helped me out quite a bit.

No one has told me that front/back focusing was an issue with the D5300 per say, I actually googled "Issues with D5300" to get an idea of any complaints users had and if there were any common issues noted by multiple users that I should be aware of.

Link to front/back focus issues thread: Returned D5300 back focus problems: Nikon DX SLR (D40-D90, D3000-D7100) Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

I'm going to continue to shoot with the camera but I will try the test you have linked in so thanks for that!

I am hesitant to get another GeekSquad warranty since I feel like I lost that money on the last camera, even though they replaced my D3200 with the D5300.

Here is a shot I took just earlier, which now that I see it on here actually looks pretty bad to me. Settings on the camera were as follows: P mode with if what I remember correctly was an ISO of 4000 with the HDR mode in High. The closer I look it almost looks like there's a white halo off to the left side of the bike and that color representation isn't where I'd like it to be. If it makes a difference, which it may, it was overcast at the time I took this picture. Any input?: DSC_0021.jpg
 
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wev

Senior Member
Contributor
I have a pair of 5300s and shoot both every day, one set up for macro (90mm) and one for birds and such (150-600). I shoot under all sorts of conditions and have had no issues of any kind that weren't my own fault. I even manage a descent picture now and again.

I have Best Buy 2 year coverage on both -- the second body was a free replacement for my 5200, when its shutter went bad (at 127,000 clicks!).

As for your image, it is pretty much what I would expect shooting 4000 iso at 1/1600 using high HDR mode on a hazy day. Try it again with better light. You might want to switch to M and see what setting combo works.
 

GSXR_Rider

Senior Member
I have a pair of 5300s and shoot both every day, one set up for macro (90mm) and one for birds and such (150-600). I shoot under all sorts of conditions and have had no issues of any kind that weren't my own fault. I even manage a descent picture now and again.

I have Best Buy 2 year coverage on both -- the second body was a free replacement for my 5200, when its shutter went bad (at 127,000 clicks!).

As for your image, it is pretty much what I would expect shooting 4000 iso at 1/1600 using high HDR mode on a hazy day. Try it again with better light. You might want to switch to M and see what setting combo works.

Thanks! I have 15 days to decide if I want to get Geeksquad warranty for this camera. Its great to hear from other users that this camera (and other models) has/have a longevity to it. I'll try again when/if we get better conditions where I live.
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Based on what you've told me about the settings used yeah, that's about what I would expect as well. That being said, let me ask... Do you understand the relationship between Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO? I'm curious why were you using a HDR Mode for that shot much less with it set to "High"?
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GSXR_Rider

Senior Member
Based on what you've told me about the settings used yeah, that's about what I would expect as well. That being said, let me ask... Do you understand the relationship between Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO? I'm curious why were you using a HDR Mode for that shot much less with it set to "High"?
....

If I'm honest, not completely or very much at all which is due to my lack of time spent researching material outside of ISO settings. I took a fair amount of pictures with my D3200 and never really felt I was getting the results I wanted, except for a select few pictures.

In regards to ISO I am aware that in a situation where you have good lighting you want to run a lower ISO as opposed to one in which the lighting is not as good, although image quality degrades, or becomes grainy, the higher you run the ISO. I have been using Google for material but if you can point me to some helpful material that you'd recommend for the relationship between aperture, shutter speed and ISO I would appreciate it!
 

wornish

Senior Member
If I'm honest, not completely or very much at all which is due to my lack of time spent researching material outside of ISO settings. I took a fair amount of pictures with my D3200 and never really felt I was getting the results I wanted, except for a select few pictures.

In regards to ISO I am aware that in a situation where you have good lighting you want to run a lower ISO as opposed to one in which the lighting is not as good, although image quality degrades, or becomes grainy, the higher you run the ISO. I have been using Google for material but if you can point me to some helpful material that you'd recommend for the relationship between aperture, shutter speed and ISO I would appreciate it!

This site has some very good info :-
Camera Exposure: Aperture, ISO & Shutter Speed
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
If I'm honest, not completely or very much at all which is due to my lack of time spent researching material outside of ISO settings. I took a fair amount of pictures with my D3200 and never really felt I was getting the results I wanted, except for a select few pictures.

In regards to ISO I am aware that in a situation where you have good lighting you want to run a lower ISO as opposed to one in which the lighting is not as good, although image quality degrades, or becomes grainy, the higher you run the ISO. I have been using Google for material but if you can point me to some helpful material that you'd recommend for the relationship between aperture, shutter speed and ISO I would appreciate it!
Well having read most of your posts it seems to me you're running headlong into the DSLR learning curve, which is fairly steep. It's nothing hard to understand but there's a lot to know about shooting with a DSLR that you need to know in order to start getting good shots.

Now, if you've made a lot of adjustments to your cameras settings, I'm going to suggest you reset everything back the factory defaults so you can start learning how to shoot properly and get good results; if you've adjusted a lot of settings things may not go as planned. To do a reset you press and hold both the MENU and INFORMATION buttons (you'll see they both have green dots by them) until the camera turns off briefly to complete the reset. Once that's done we're going to make a couple small changes to a couple settings. I'm assuming you are shooting JPG, but correct me if you're shooting RAW.

If you haven't done a reset at the very least turn off the HDR setting you enabled. This is an advanced shooting mode you don't need right now and it will make your shots look wonky if you don't know how to use it.

Second, we're going to increase the Sharpness and Saturation settings of the Standard Picture Control:

Press Menu, drop down onto the SHOOTING menu (camera icon), click on it, then drop down to "Set Picture Control".
From the "Set Picture Control" menu, click right one time and then drop down to STANDARD and click right one more time.
From this, the Standard Picture Control menu, highlight the "Sharpening" setting and adjust it to +7.
In this same menu adjust the "Saturation" setting to +1.
Press OK and you're done here.​

Next, you're going to learn about the Exposure Triangle. No matter how far you go in photography, no matter how fancy or expensive your camera, you will never get away from the basics of the exposure triangle. The importance of understanding these three principles and how they interact with one another can NOT be overstated. This is the bedrock foundation of all photography. Here are some articles to help get you started.

Understanding Exposure -- From Cambridge in Color.
This website has a LOT of excellent tutorials. I suggest you poke around here and read up on anything that interests you.

Understanding ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture -- by Nasim Mansurov. See also his Photography Tips for Beginners
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GSXR_Rider

Senior Member
Thanks! I'll take a look at everything you both have added as soon as I have a chance, got to say there are some extremely helpful people on this forum.
 

GSXR_Rider

Senior Member
Just a quick question:

Was shooting with the D5300 in my room in P mode with a low ISO at low light, I've got the 18-55 VR lens that collapses (newer design I believe), had the lens set at 18mm and was taking a picture of a shoe. If I moved the shoe to close to the lens it would focus hunt BUT it wouldn't click like my D3200 used to, once I moved the shoe a few inches away from the lens it would automatically lock focus. This is normal right?

My guess is that I was under the minimum focal distance for the lens so it wouldn't focus but once I reached the cusp of that focus range it locked on and beeped to signal it had found focus and was ready to fire.
 

wornish

Senior Member
Just a quick question:

Was shooting with the D5300 in my room in P mode with a low ISO at low light, I've got the 18-55 VR lens that collapses (newer design I believe), had the lens set at 18mm and was taking a picture of a shoe. If I moved the shoe to close to the lens it would focus hunt BUT it wouldn't click like my D3200 used to, once I moved the shoe a few inches away from the lens it would automatically lock focus. This is normal right?

My guess is that I was under the minimum focal distance for the lens so it wouldn't focus but once I reached the cusp of that focus range it locked on and beeped to signal it had found focus and was ready to fire.


View attachment 165235

If this is your lens then the min focus distance for af-s is 0.28m (0.92 feet) so I think you are right. Also if it was very low light then your camera AF-S might hunt or just stop working thats all normal.
 

GSXR_Rider

Senior Member
View attachment 165235

If this is your lens then the min focus distance for af-s is 0.28m (0.92 feet) so I think you are right. Also if it was very low light then your camera AF-S might hunt or just stop working thats all normal.

Can't see the attachment... I think it was probably close to half a foot, lighting wasn't great so I think as you said its normal... which is a relief.
 
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