ydgmdlu
Veteran
Engadget broke the news that Best Buy was starting to get stock of, and sell, the D5100 on Sunday. I went to a Best Buy store, and while the clerk who oversaw the camera area didn't know about it, and while there was no demo unit on the sales floor, a quick computer search through the store's inventory revealed that there were two units in stock. Another man, who was shopping for a new camera (and looking that the D3100 and the D7000), got one of them. I got the other one, with the intention of returning it later, since there was no demo unit for me to try. With no thorough reviews posted online yet, I thought that I would share the relevant information here. I'm sure that there are a lot of DVXuser readers who are eagerly awaiting the D5100.
What has been briefly discussed by a few other members in other threads is true: There is no manual exposure control. I went through all of the menus, and I checked the user manual. I also double-checked Digital Photography Review's screenshots of the D7000's menus, and sure enough, the setting for manual exposure in video mode is missing in the D5100, based on where it is in the D7000. I understand that aperture can be set, either with a lens that has an aperture ring, or with the camera body's controls before recording. I'm not sure if the camera obeys the manual shutter speed setting; I haven't had much time to play with it, but I'll need to do a motion blur test.
At the very least, the ISO is stuck on auto. Control over aperture and shutter speed are important, but the auto-ISO can still be a deal-breaker because you're ultimately still not in control of the exposure. The camera has an AE-lock button, yes, but (as far as I can tell) you have to keep holding it in order to maintain AE-lock. Once you release it, the camera goes right back to auto-adjusting the ISO. We're back to where we were three years ago with the D90. You can work around this shortcoming, but why would you? In order to get the exposure that you want, you have to point the camera at something, guesstimate the exposure by eye, and hold AE-lock every second that you're recording.
All things considered, this is not just ridiculous; it's unreasonable. Nikon took a huge step forward in the HDSLR realm with the D7000: Excellent image quality even in low light, well-controlled rolling shutter skew, decent H.264 codec, and manual exposure control. As an HDSLR, it was Nikon's first real competitor to Canon's offerings. So being Nikon's newest DSLR, why should the D5100 be a step backward in video functionality? We're talking about a difference that amounts to literally nothing more than a part of the firmware. I was stoked about the prospect of the D7000's video capability in a cheaper body (as I'm sure that many people were), but all of my excitement is gone and turned into frustration.
The final sick joke of it all is the fact that Nikon announced an external microphone accessory that's being marketed mainly for the D5100. Since Nikon has never sold dedicated video equipment in the consumer realm, the microphone is kind of a big deal (even if it proves to be low-quality). Nikon was trying to say that they're serious about DSLR video now. But the shortcomings of the D5100 prove that they're still seriously out of touch. It just reminds me of the total travesty that was the video mode on the D3100. Two steps forward (the D7000), one step back (the D5100). And here I thought that Nikon actually cared about staying competitve with Canon.
The GH2 is still the primary camera for me, but I wanted to recommend the D5100 to a friend as a serious tool for (hobby) videography. He'd buy the camera for taking stills anyway, but I was hoping that he could get his feet wet in filmmaking without a hitch.
P.S. The camera does offer some manual control over audio gain.
What has been briefly discussed by a few other members in other threads is true: There is no manual exposure control. I went through all of the menus, and I checked the user manual. I also double-checked Digital Photography Review's screenshots of the D7000's menus, and sure enough, the setting for manual exposure in video mode is missing in the D5100, based on where it is in the D7000. I understand that aperture can be set, either with a lens that has an aperture ring, or with the camera body's controls before recording. I'm not sure if the camera obeys the manual shutter speed setting; I haven't had much time to play with it, but I'll need to do a motion blur test.
At the very least, the ISO is stuck on auto. Control over aperture and shutter speed are important, but the auto-ISO can still be a deal-breaker because you're ultimately still not in control of the exposure. The camera has an AE-lock button, yes, but (as far as I can tell) you have to keep holding it in order to maintain AE-lock. Once you release it, the camera goes right back to auto-adjusting the ISO. We're back to where we were three years ago with the D90. You can work around this shortcoming, but why would you? In order to get the exposure that you want, you have to point the camera at something, guesstimate the exposure by eye, and hold AE-lock every second that you're recording.
All things considered, this is not just ridiculous; it's unreasonable. Nikon took a huge step forward in the HDSLR realm with the D7000: Excellent image quality even in low light, well-controlled rolling shutter skew, decent H.264 codec, and manual exposure control. As an HDSLR, it was Nikon's first real competitor to Canon's offerings. So being Nikon's newest DSLR, why should the D5100 be a step backward in video functionality? We're talking about a difference that amounts to literally nothing more than a part of the firmware. I was stoked about the prospect of the D7000's video capability in a cheaper body (as I'm sure that many people were), but all of my excitement is gone and turned into frustration.
The final sick joke of it all is the fact that Nikon announced an external microphone accessory that's being marketed mainly for the D5100. Since Nikon has never sold dedicated video equipment in the consumer realm, the microphone is kind of a big deal (even if it proves to be low-quality). Nikon was trying to say that they're serious about DSLR video now. But the shortcomings of the D5100 prove that they're still seriously out of touch. It just reminds me of the total travesty that was the video mode on the D3100. Two steps forward (the D7000), one step back (the D5100). And here I thought that Nikon actually cared about staying competitve with Canon.
The GH2 is still the primary camera for me, but I wanted to recommend the D5100 to a friend as a serious tool for (hobby) videography. He'd buy the camera for taking stills anyway, but I was hoping that he could get his feet wet in filmmaking without a hitch.
P.S. The camera does offer some manual control over audio gain.
Last edited:
