FYI, Amazon US has a special on the d5100, $496 body only, and if you look in the specials box right below the new/used/refurb line, at the bottom of that box, you'll see a free 16gb Sandisk card to go with it.
That's the best price I've seen and is less than $100 off of the best price that I've seen for a used d5100, which was $420 plus shipping. I get "free" shipping at Amazon, so I couldn't pass on the deal and picked one up for my IR project.
Another source - Cameta has them for $496 brand new or $449 refurb, free shipping and no sales tax collection in CA. Bought from them several times with no issues.
The camera arrived today and I must say, this is really a small camera. It's not a whole lot larger than many P&S cams that I've seen, so I'm really pleased with that.
But, the dam thing has yet *another* battery size.... I'd assumed that it would share batteries with the d7k, but that's a no go. So, I await the battery while it charges and I ordered a spare from Amazon. The thought of having to carry 3 battery types and 3 chargers is not pleasant, but I'll make do.
Kerry Pierce wrote:
The camera arrived today and I must say, this is really a small camera. It's not a whole lot larger than many P&S cams that I've seen, so I'm really pleased with that.
But, the dam thing has yet *another* battery size.... I'd assumed that it would share batteries with the d7k, but that's a no go. So, I await the battery while it charges and I ordered a spare from Amazon. The thought of having to carry 3 battery types and 3 chargers is not pleasant, but I'll make do.
Kerry
I lucked up somehow. My 1 v1, D7000 and D600 all use the same battery
Jack OBrien wrote:
I lucked up somehow. My 1 v1, D7000 and D600 all use the same battery
Ya done good, Jack.
Dunno about luck for me, but do know that it was PPPP on my part.... Because that's only the Nikon batteries that I have to contend with, d3s, d7k & d5100, assuming that I leave both d300 & d700 at home. If I carry one/both of them for backup, then it's 4 batteries. Then I have 2 GoPro's, a panasonic lumix, and a Sony camcorder that have different batteries as well. idjit... I don't count the small tape recorder that I carry for voice notes, cuz it takes AA's.
Ah well, the battery is charged and I've made the changes to the settings in the camera. I really like that LCD. It makes it so much easier to see, especially while manipulating controls and changing settings on the fly. Not much need for menu diving, as I'd feared. I hope to get a few clicks on it tomorrow and see how this little camera does.
Big Appa wrote:
Kerry, i've been somewhat interested in the D5100. May I ask why you bought one?
I'm going to have it converted to a full time Infrared camera at LifePixels. It has an excellent sensor for noise performance and MPs, compared to my older bodies that were candidates for conversion, ie the d200 or d300. Actually, those bodies are worth more or equal to, the cost of the d5100 new.
I don't often use a tripod for IR, but the flip/twist screen is just perfect for the times that I do. Otherwise, I'm rather ignorant as to the capabilities of the d5100, so I hope that's enough info to satisfy your question.
That'll do, thanks. The sensor is what interests me too. I do have a D200, and shoot manual focus lenses nearly all the time. Thought about a D5100 with a small prime such as a 35mm 1.8G AF lens for an all around lightweight camera.
Seems to me that the d5100 would be very nice for the kind of kit you describe, Ed, except that I don't know how easy it would be to use MF. It does have the Rangefinder mode, that you can turn on. The camera is tiny, very light. The 18-70 looks HUGE when it's attached to the camera.
The only problem I've had with it thus far, is the radically different UI from what I'm used to seeing and the User Manual is just about worthless. There is a supplement, called the d5100 Reference Manual that has all of the info needed to actually operate the camera. You can download both of them from Nikon USA if you want to see what the camera will do.
There is a screen mode that you can turn on where the LCD comes on and shows you all of the settings and allows you to move through them, changing any of the settings that you want to change. The only gotcha that I've discovered so far, is that you can change the WB to Preset Manual, using that screen mode, but you can't set it to actually take the test shot needed to set the WB. For that, you have to go menu diving.
There isn't a user favorites bank to store your favorite items that you change all of the time, like ISO, WB preset and so on. But, there is a Recent Settings menu that keeps a record of the most used items, making it easier to access them.
There are no extra LCD panels, none on the top of the camera. The main LCD is the only one. There are very few buttons on the outside and I don't yet know how many (if any) of them are programmable.
My initial impressions are still positive. It's a pretty neat little camera, with very good IQ and I think it will be very easy to use as a dedicated landscape/still life camera and maybe even do some low level subject tracking.
I looked up the lens list and the d5100 will meter with almost any Nikon lens. AF will only work with AF-S or AF-I lenses, but the Rangefinder will work with almost any lens that has an aperture of f/5.6 or faster.
I also just learned that the Recent Settings menu can also be used to store things as My Menu, so you can store your most used settings without an issue.
Only the Function button can be programmed to 1 of 9 different functions, such as WB or ISO.
Big Appa wrote:
That'll do, thanks. The sensor is what interests me too. I do have a D200, and shoot manual focus lenses nearly all the time. Thought about a D5100 with a small prime such as a 35mm 1.8G AF lens for an all around lightweight camera.
Ed
You'd be much better off with the D7000 - you can program in your AI / AIS lenses (similar to D200 and up bodies) and the viewfinder is much better. I tried MF'ing a D5100 once, it's like looking down a tunnel.
edl415 wrote:
You'd be much better off with the D7000 - you can program in your AI / AIS lenses (similar to D200 and up bodies) and the viewfinder is much better. I tried MF'ing a D5100 once, it's like looking down a tunnel.
D5100 VF is not great for manual focus but Live View is helpful, and Ed's use of a 35/1.8 DX will not be affected. The compelling arguments for D5100 over D7000 is lighter weight and flip LCD.
rico wrote:
D5100 VF is not great for manual focus but Live View is helpful, and Ed's use of a 35/1.8 DX will not be affected. The compelling arguments for D5100 over D7000 is lighter weight and flip LCD.
Yes, the 35/1.8 will be fine, but if he uses MF lenses nearly all the time I think he'd have a better experience with the D7000. If he wants to live view everything, the NEX5 would be the ticket when they were $369 body only last week.
D5100 is a great body. It's basically a three generation newer D40 for only $100 more.
So, I await the battery while it charges and I ordered a spare from Amazon. The thought of having to carry 3 battery types and 3 chargers is not pleasant, but I'll make do. 