Nikon D5100 review (with 18-55mm VR lens)

We're used to Canon and Nikon leapfrogging each other in terms of product announcement timing and technology updates, but this year they're finally going head-to-head in the budget dSLR market. Nikon's D5100, a replacement for the 2-year-old D5000, directly takes on the Canon EOS Rebel T3i as an evenly matched competitor. An improvement over the D5000 in almost all respects, the D5100 acquits itself well enough on enough counts to make it a formidable sub-$1,000 dSLR.

Despite the higher-resolution sensor, the D5100 delivers visibly better image quality at all ISO sensitivities than the D5000, although the D5000 has slightly better white balance. It has an excellent JPEG noise profile, very clean up to ISO 400 and, despite some detail degradation from color noise, quite usable up through ISO 1600. Beyond that depends upon the content of your scene, though I wouldn't recommend ISO 6400 or higher. Though there's far more color noise in the high ISO JPEGs than I'd like, there's still enough detail, color saturation, and tonality to make the photo usable.

Canon leans just a touch more on the color noise suppression than Nikon, which I think produces slightly better results. It also helps that at equal settings the T3i delivers brighter exposures, with slightly better white balance, than the D5100. (Until Adobe delivers a D5100 codec for Camera Raw I can't do any raw-processing comparisons.)

Colors in the default Standard Picture Style seem to have the saturation pushed just a little, which produces attractive, relatively accurate results. I prefer the Neutral picture style; the others are too contrasty, which results in loss of shadow and dark midtone detail. (You can always increase the contrast later, but getting that detail back is hard.) However, the Standard doesn't shift the colors excessively as on some consumer dSLRs.

	Nikon D3100	Nikon D5000	Nikon D5100	Nikon D90	Nikon D7000
Sensor (effective resolution)	14.2-megapixel CMOS	12.3-megapixel CMOS	16.2-megapixel CMOS	12.3-megapixel CMOS	16.2-megapixel CMOS
	23.6x15.8mm	23.6x15.8mm	23.6x15.6mm	23.6x15.8mm	23.6x15.6mm
Color depth	12-bit	12-bit	14-bit	12-bit	14-bit
Sensitivity range	ISO 100 (expanded)/200 - ISO 3200/12,800 (expanded)	ISO 100 (expanded)/200 - ISO 1600/3200 (expanded)	ISO 100 - ISO 6400/25,600 (expanded)	ISO 100 (expanded)/200 - ISO 3200/6400 (expanded)	ISO 100 (expanded)/200 - ISO 3200/6400 (expanded)
Continuous shooting	3fps n/a raw/100 JPEG	4 fps 9 raw/100 JPEG	4 fps n/a raw/100 JPEG	4.5 fps n/a	7 fps n/a
Viewfinder magnification/effective magnification	95% coverage 0.80x/0.53x	95% coverage 0.78x/0.52x	95% coverage 0.78x/0.52x	96% coverage 0.94x/0.63x	100% coverage 0.94x/0.63x
Autofocus	11-pt AF center cross-type	11-pt AF center cross-type to f5.6	11-pt AF center cross-type to f5.6	11-pt AF center cross-type	51-pt AF 15 cross-type
Shutter speed	1/4000 to 30 secs; bulb; 1/200 sec x-sync	1/4000 to 30 secs; bulb; 1/200 sec x-sync	1/4000 to 30 secs; bulb; 1/200 sec x-sync	1/4000 to 30 secs; bulb; 1/200 sec x-sync	1/8000 to 30 secs; bulb; 1/250 sec x-sync
Metering	420-pixel 3D color matrix metering II	420-pixel 3D color matrix metering II	420-pixel 3D color matrix metering II	420-pixel 3D Color Matrix Metering II	1005-pixel 3D color matrix Metering II
LCD size	3 inches fixed 230,000 dots	2.7 inches articulated 230,000 dots	3 inches articulated 921,000 dots	3 inches fixed 921,000 dots	3 inches fixed 921,000 dots
Video	1080/24p; 720/30p/25p/24p H.264 QuickTime MOV	720/24p Motion JPEG AVI	1080/30p/24p; 720/30p/25p/24p H.264 QuickTime MOV	720/24p Motion JPEG AVI	1080/24p/25p; 720/30p/24p/25p H.264 QuickTime MOV
Rated estimated max HD video length	4GB/10 minutes	2GB/5 minutes	20 minutes	2GB/5 min	20 minutes
Audio	Mono	Mono	Mono; mic input	Mono	Mono; mic input
Manual aperture and shutter in video	Aperture only	Aperture only	Yes	No	Yes
Wireless flash	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Memory slots	1 x SDXC	1 x SDHC	1 x SDXC	1 x SDHC	2 x SDXC
Battery life (CIPA rating)	550 shots	510 shots	660 shots	850 shots	1,050 shots
Dimensions (inches, WHD)	4.9x3.8x2.9	5.0x4.1x3.1	5.0x3.8x3.1	5.2x4.1x3.0	5.2x4.2x3.0
Body operating weight (ounces)	17.7	21.6	19.6	26	27.3
Mfr. price	n/a	$629.95 (body only)	$799.95 (body only)	$899.95 (body only)	$1,199.95 (body only)
	$699.95 (with 18-55mm VR lens)	$699.99 (est, with 18-55mm VR lens)	$899.95 (with 18-55mm VR lens)	$1,049.99 (est, with 18-105mm lens)	$1,499.95 (with 18-105mm lens)
Ship date	September 2010	April 2009	April 2011	August 2008	October 2010

Though it's still probably not up to the standards of videographers, the video is better than Nikon's previous consumer efforts, and the camera itself is more consumer video-friendly than the T3i. Video is sharp and decently exposed, though it lacks the subtle tonal gradation Canon manages to produce (in part due to the lower, 18Mbps bit rate) and there's quite a bit of aliasing and what looks like rolling shutter that it's attempting to aggressively suppress (resulting in a stutter).

However, if you just want a video mode that you can easily jump to without interrupting your still shooting, the D5100's design inherits the D7000's intelligence. The switch on the side of the mode dial toggles between regular and Live View/Video mode, so you don't have to use an awkwardly placed mode on the dial. And the record button is in a great spot by the shutter; it's easily reachable with your forefinger, but not in a spot where you're likely to hit it by accident.

The kit lens/D5100 combination produces some very sharp images, though there's more fringing than I like. By default distortion control is off, and the lens' slight barrelling is symmetrical; overall, it's not bad. The corrected image, though, isn't quite rectilinear in the upper left quadrant. Though there's no fringing/aberration in unusual or unexpected spots, there's quite a bit on blown-out, high-contrast edges.

All the cameras in this class deliver performance that's more than capable of handling typical consumer shooting, though the D5100 generally ranks at the slower end of a fast group. It powers on and shoots quickly, in just under 0.3 second. On average, it focuses and shoots under good light in 0.3 second--it occasionally went much faster--and a decent 0.6 second under dim conditions. It gets a little pokier than the crowd with relatively high shot-to-shot times: 0.6 second for JPEG and 0.8 second for raw (and 1 second with flash enabled). That's a little slower than the D5000 and a lot slower than the T3i, though it's still quite good. Its burst rate of 3.8fps, like the T3i's 3.6fps, isn't bad but they are among the slowest in their class. Most important, however, shooting with the camera feels fast and fluid; I never felt like the autofocus or processing overhead got in the way of getting the shot.