New Nikon D5100 user looking for some advice.

M

MikeGuarneri

New member
Hi guys,
I've recently ordered a Nikon D5100 with the kit 18-55mm lens on it, and am looking for advice on shooting techniques, and how to get the best quality from the camera. I'm also wondering if you guys have any suggestions for a low budget stabilizer unit, I've seen a lot of different styles and ranges in price, and I'm wondering what a good all purpose stabilizer for a DSLR would be. I'm going to be a First-Year Digital Film student this year and would love any and all advice you guys on here have! If it's important, the primary usage for the camera in the short term (until i can find some like minded film students that would like to do any sort of sketches, filming, short films, etc.) will be for 'pro-shot' style concert recordings for a friend of mines band.
 
I have a D5100 which I find can give some excellent video output despite its manual exposure limitations. The aperture can be set, but must be chosen before you enter the Live View. If you chose aperture priority mode you can alter the exposure by +/- 3 stops which gives you a bit more control. And it is a good idea to them lock the exposure using the AE-lock button on the back of the camera. You can select an option in the menu where it will stayed locked until you either press it a second time or exit Live View. The camera choses the shutter speed & ISO and the most annoying aspect apart from the lack of true manual exposure is the fact the camera does not display what settings it using! The displayed shutter speed and ISO info only applys to photographic stills. It has one big advantage over the D3200 in the fully articulated LCD screen which is most useful for video.

I set the Picture control in the menu settings to A for sharpening & Contrast & 0 for brightness, saturation & hue using the Neutral picture option. HTH
 
The camera choses the shutter speed & ISO and the most annoying aspect apart from the lack of true manual exposure is the fact the camera does not display what settings it using!
Click to expand...

Enough said. To the OP, if you have a chance to return the D5100 and get the D3200 do it! You also get 24 MP stills and a a brand new sensor to boot! The lack of articulated LCD is minuscule compared to what you gain otherwise.
 
Well, for the money, even though I seem to have overlooked the D3200, I'm still very happy with the features it's got. I'm not really going to be doing anything with it that the drawbacks it has will really hamper me for the time being. I'm currently getting my Associates in Digital Film and probably will rarely need it for coursework, it's mostly for me to become acclimated myself with film on a direct level. When I was younger me and my friends made a few 'movies' we thought were cool, but I'm simply trying to stretch what I've ever been able to do this far, and impress myself. Once I enroll for my BA/MA at a better school I'll probably start looking for either a pro-hdslr, or simply a true professional video camera. I definitely do agree with you guys though that the D3200 does seem like it's the better of the two. If I'm very disappointed with the D5100 I probably will take your advice and return it, but for my purposes I think It'll serve me well.

Other than the camera's exposure limitations, do you have any general advice for a 'budding filmmaker' that I should take into consideration? What type of lighting to use with an HDSLR, what type of stabilizer rig (I've seen ones with weights, handles, hanging things, and crazy things in all sorts of different styles), is a matte box even worth the investment or does a lens hood work well enough for most situations? As I've said, for most of my life up until now this has been a hobby, I've started taking it more seriously, thus investing in a decent (albeit lesser to a 3200) camera, and trying to get a degree to find myself some sort of work in the film/television/hell even advertising industries. I'm here to learn as much as I can, oh teach me oh masters.
 
Don't let anyone scare you off the D5100, it's a much better camera than the D3200. In my view, manual exposure controls are useless without a real-time histogram display, which all of these Nikon DSLR's lack. As a consequence, the most practical way to shoot video on a Nikon is in Aperture-Priority mode, relying on the camera's light meter to automatically set the ISO appropriate to light conditions at your preset aperture and shutter speed. Once you understand how Nikon cameras work in auto-ISO mode, their semi-manual approach to setting exposure makes sense, and is actually very convenient. After shooting several hours of footage, I've come to prefer it to conventional manual controls. Here's how to set up the D5100 for video shooting:

In the ISO Sensitivity Settings sub-menu:

Auto ISO Sensitivity Control: ON
ISO Sensitivity: 100 (set to lowest ISO you want the camera to use)
Maximum Sensitivity: 3200 (set to max ISO you want the camera to use)
Minimum Shutter Speed: 1/60 (preset to your desired shutter speed)

The twist here is that you use Minimum Shutter Speed to manually preset the video shutter speed you want the camera to use. Since I always shoot at 1/60, I've only needed to set this once. The camera then uses its light meter to automatically set exposure with an ISO between the (minimum) ISO Sensitivity and Maximum Sensitivity presets. However, if the required ISO for a scene lies outside your preset ISO range, the camera will override your Minimum Shutter Speed preset. If shutter speed is too slow, I use the Exposure Compensation button to lower exposure until the shutter speed is boosted back up to my preset speed. Once all settings look good, I use the Exposure Lock button to keep the exposure fixed during your shot.

While this may sound convoluted, it gives you just as much control over exposure as Manual mode would. Here's how you use it in practice:

1. Set your desired aperture.
2. If you prefer, adjust focus in viewfinder.
3. Enter Live View mode and confirm focus.
4. If needed, use Exposure Compensation to set desired shutter speed.
5. Press Exposure Lock button.
6. Press Video Record button to start filming.
 
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