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Do I need a new camera?
#14

Don, I have had a D5100 since last summer and have 8,000+ shutter clicks on it. I really like it! I too have a D40 and the noise improvement on the 5100 is outstanding. On the D40, when shooting something like a lightning storm at night, I could start getting some noise at ISO 800, especially if I had to crop and enlarge the image. At 1600, the noise was rather noticable and when using Hi1, which is ISO 3200, noise was quite noticable under low light conditions. But, I figured a so-so photo was better than no photo at all. Before Christmas, my daughter was in a church play. I was a fair ways back and was having to use my 55-200 DX, which is something like f5.6 at 200mm. The church had spot lights on the players, but the rest of the church was nearly pitch black. Glad I didn't have to go to the bathroom, I would have broken my neck. Anyway, to get enough light to properly expose my daughter, I had to go to ISO 6400 on the 5100. Again, I figured a so-so photo is better than nothing at all. After downloading the images onto the computer, I had to crop them quite a bit and I was astounded at the lack of noise, as well as the lifelike color reproduction of the faces. No orange specks like on the D40 and no bluish black sploches in the dark regions. The 5100 also seems to have better color reproduction overall as well whether it's bright, dark, dim, cloudy and so on. I'm really pleased with the color, and auto white balance is usually adequate, although sometimes I still have to manuall set the WB especially when dealing with night scenes and different kinds of street lights. The 5100 also has more WB options like several differnt kinds of flourescent in addition to more ISO options like 250, 320 and so on.

With the 5200 on the horizon, the 5100 is $549 at Wal Mart, whereas I gave $599 for mine last summer. Before that, they were $849. The swivel screen on the 5100 is far more handy than I ever thought it would be and that's not even shooting video. I don't bend as well as I did several decades ago and the screen allows me to rotate it any direction to compose the shot or see the menu without having to get down onto my belly like a turtle. I really like the HDR feature. It won't give you the surreal HDR images some people get from photo program HDR, but instead it can make high contrast scenes look more like what your eye sees. It's not something I use all of the time, but I don't use the spare tire on my car all the time either. But when I do need it, I'm really glad I have it and the HDR is the same. Taking 2 consequtive images, it's usually no problem getting the shot hand held, even though the manual says to use a tripod. I've used the tripod only a few times with HDR. When I do use HDR, I take a regular shot as well. And the HDR does a better job than does D lighting at times when you have bright sunlit areas right next to deep shadows. So, if there's any way you can scrounge up the dough, I'd sure consider a 5100 while they are still available. I'm sure the 5200 will be better, but will also be way more expensive as well. The people in the know expect around $1,000 when it first comes out. As far as the new D3200 goes, there's no way I'd trade even up for my used 5100. The latter has too many of the good features the 3200 lacks. By the way, the 5100 18-55 kit lens has VR, which out D40s lack. I still have my D40 and I still use it, but when it comes to more difficult lighting situations, the 5100 comes out.

Hope you can get a 5100 because I believe you'd really like it and it's just more versitile than the D40 as well as vastly superior in low light. Good luck.
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Messages In This Thread
Do I need a new camera? - by Don Schaeffer - Dec 23, 2012, 10:08
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by alessya - Dec 23, 2012, 12:40
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by NT73 - Dec 24, 2012, 05:00
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by vlad - Dec 24, 2012, 05:46
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by Don Schaeffer - Dec 24, 2012, 06:55
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by Fritzm - Dec 26, 2012, 15:36
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by Don Schaeffer - Dec 26, 2012, 15:52
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by Fritzm - Dec 26, 2012, 16:03
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by Don Schaeffer - Dec 26, 2012, 16:11
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by plewis1026 - Dec 26, 2012, 18:41
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by Don Schaeffer - Dec 26, 2012, 18:48
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by fototaker27 - Jan 7, 2013, 17:09
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by olcoach - Dec 27, 2012, 18:02
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by photokev - Dec 28, 2012, 09:52
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by bikinkawboy - Dec 29, 2012, 23:49
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by Don Schaeffer - Dec 30, 2012, 10:00
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by vlad - Dec 30, 2012, 13:32
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by Don Schaeffer - Dec 30, 2012, 14:38
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by sinatraman - Jan 4, 2013, 20:07
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by Don Schaeffer - Jan 4, 2013, 21:16
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by vlad - Jan 5, 2013, 03:55
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by Don Schaeffer - Jan 6, 2013, 17:12
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by Don Schaeffer - Jan 7, 2013, 18:31
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by Barbara G. - Jan 8, 2013, 09:19
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by alessya - Jan 8, 2013, 16:17
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by Don Schaeffer - Jan 8, 2013, 17:40
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by vlad - Jan 8, 2013, 20:31
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by alessya - Jan 9, 2013, 03:15
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by Don Schaeffer - Jan 9, 2013, 11:23
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by markspend01 - Aug 15, 2013, 10:43
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by Don Schaeffer - Aug 15, 2013, 14:06
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by samyshah - Aug 16, 2013, 14:54
RE: Do I need a new camera? - by Don Schaeffer - Aug 16, 2013, 16:03

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