Not only is this switch more awkwardly placed on the D5100 than the D3100, it takes the place of the drive mode switch that we like so much on the D3100. The negative side to the new Live View lever, is that the video record button is now located on the top of the camera. The D5100 is the first Nikon DSLR camera designed with in-camera filter and editing effects in still and video mode. Fill-flash, slow sync, auto slow sync, red-eye reduction, auto with red-eye reduction, slow sync with red-eye reduction, auto, slow sync with red-eye reduction, rear-curtain sync, rear-curtain with slow sync.

The size of the viewfinder is a key factor in the usability of an SLR - the bigger it is, the easier it is to frame and focus your shots, and the more enjoyable and involving process it is. The professional-grade D3s currently leads the way here with a top (expanded) ISO setting of 102,400, but models further down the line are increasingly benefitting from Nikon’s expertise in this field. This matches the size and resolution of the D7000's screen and it should make a significant difference when using Live View and focusing manually. We had asked Nikon about this at the D5100 launch event and were told it was going to be part of the feature set, so to find it isn’t was doubly disappointing.It offers effectively the same image quality as the higher-end D7000, at a lower cost, and it's hard to argue that this is not a good thing. The main reason why this camera is so popular among creative people is due to the multiple modes that it has. And finally, with the hinge now located on the side of the camera (rather than at the bottom) it’s also much more flexible in use.

Independent reviews [39] [40] [41] and image comparisons at all ISO speeds in JPEG [42] and RAW (with different lenses) [43] are available.

The live view switch is now positioned on the camera's top plate, divorced from the movie button, which sits up by the shutter release (and is completely redundant except when the camera is put into live view mode). While I did not scratch the LCD, I would recommend to protect it with a screen protector just in case.

The inclusion of filter effects on DSLRs is not all that new an idea; they were first seen on the Olympus E-30 back in 2008. The Nikon D5100 is one of the few cameras out there that can take both images and videos in high definition.If you’d prefer to alter your images post-capture and in-camera, then the D5100 offers a fairly good selection of editing tools within the Retouch menu, including options to resize, straighten and crop images, or to apply a magic retouch wand. For example, the camera won't necessarily shoot videos at the aperture that's displayed on the screen when you press 'record', although it will when shooting stills.

Auto modes (auto, auto [flash off]), Advanced Scene Modes (Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Close-up, Night Portrait), programmed auto with flexible program (P), shutter-priority auto (S), aperture-priority auto (A), manual (M), (Q) quiet mode. With the editable Picture Control settings it’s possible to dial in as much (or as little) saturation, contrast and sharpness as you want to get your images looking exactly how you want them to, with the D5100 proving consistently accurate in its calculations. In this article, we'll go over the basics of colorimetry so you can understand how we measure and plot color, and how colorimeters use this science to confirm your display's color accuracy. The play and magnification buttons are now ranged close to the 4-way controller, and the menu and delete buttons have swapped places. The lack of any kind of exposure level indication when using manual mode and live view is also a strange omission.

These allow the user to apply special effects (Night Vision, Color Sketch, Miniature, Selective Color, Silhouette, High Key and Low Key) to images as they are captured – rather than post capture as with the Nikon D3100 and D7000.