Nikon 16.2 Megapixels D5100 DSLR Review by NeoCamera With Rating 4/4

The Nikon D5100 is listed for retail at around $800 body-only, or $900 in a bundle with the AF-S DX Zoom-NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens. Here's the summary of review by NeoCamera, giving the camera a rating of 4 out of 4:

"The D5100 has a reliable and generally accurate exposure system. With most scenes, exposure compensation is not required and burnt highlights are rare. The metering system is not entirely conservative, so negative EC is sometimes needed to avoid blown out areas in backgrounds. There are 6 Picture Control styles, each can be modified in terms of sharpness, contrast, brightness, saturation and hue. The Standard setting provides the most realistic rendition but some colors are visibly off. Setting Hue to +1 improves things. A +1 adjustment in Saturation slants results towards more punch while reducing visible undersaturation. The Neutral mode provides slightly a softer and less contrasty look, while both Landscape and Vivid modes show over-the-top-colors not suitable to represent reality. The default Sharpness of 2 is a seriously soft, increasing it to 6 delivers much better results without visible sharpening artifacts. The white-balance system performs inline with modern DSLRs. Automatic white-balance is very often spot-on. Even artificial light is handled extremely well. Preset and custom white-balance are very accurate. While there is a high degree of WB options, including 7 types of Fluorescent lighting and 13 steps of WB fine-tuning along 2 axis, setting them is tedious and not entirely accurate since display colors cannot be adjusted. If you do know the exact type of lighting used or simply want consistency, the presets are quite useful though.

With class-leading image-quality, the Nikon D5100 provides an excellent choice for new DSLR users who want quality and simplicity. As a added bonus, the D5100 is priced extremely affordably considering its performance is only matched by cameras costing at least 50% more. Plus, it gives access to the second largest lens lineup of the industry. The performance of the D5100 is well-rounded with low image noise, good dynamic range, excellent white-balance, reliable metering, quick performance and a 4 FPS continuous drive. Color accuracy is not ideal but gets reasonably close for general use. The only limiting situation for the D5100 is action photography which would benefit from the much faster autofocus system of its higher-end sibling, the superb Nikon D7000. Sharpness is compromised by the kit-lens, but a good Nikkor lens can easily compensate for that. While focus speed, at least with the kit-lens, is on the slow side for a DSLR but users upgrading from a fixed-lens camera well get a dramatic improvement. While the feature set of the Nikon D5100 is reasonable for an entry-level DSLR, Nikon has adjusted its interface to reduce efficiency when used by advanced users, probably to prevent losing sales of the D7000. Particularly, anyone shooting from a tripod has to buy a remote release to avoid losing their sanity. In the end, the Nikon D5100 delivers amazing results from an entry-level DSLR thanks it its state-of-the-art 16 megapixels CMOS sensor which also captures full 1080p HD video. This combination makes it ideal for people looking for quality output without complications."