NIKON IS taking deserved pride in its new D5, a full-frame digital SLR camera that produces excellent image quality worthy of the professional photographers for whom its designed.
The auto-focus system is exceptional and fast, with high ISO sensitivity good for any lighting environment. And you can also take 4K movies as well as photos at 20.8-megapixel resolution.
The D5 has already claimed a Red Dot award for product design and the Technical Image Press Association named it the best DSLR model in the “professional/action” category.
The top-class image quality comes courtesy of a new 20.8MP FX-format CMOS image sensor. FX-format means “full-frame format” – the sensor is the same size as 35mm film and a broad dynamic range to yield the rich and natural tones and accuracy in even the finest details. The subject can be extremely vivid or textured in such a way that most cameras would have difficulty capturing it, but not the D5.
Adding to the impressive performance is an Expeed 5 image processor, upgraded to harness the power of new sensor, a second processor to handle the auto-focus, and a great Nikkor lens.
If you’re used to compact cameras, the D5 can feel intimidating. The body is 160x158x92mm and the weight 1.4 kilograms.
There are two versions with different storage. One has two slots for CompactFlash memory cards, and the other two slots for XQD memory cards. The model I tested had the CompactFlash slots and weighed 1.415kg with the cards installed – but without a lens attached.
The body dimensions derive partly from the vertical shooting grip, which makes taking angled shots comfortable because the shutter, main and sub-control dials and a joystick for selecting focus points are all at your fingertips.
The already wide ISO range of ISO 100 to 102,400 can also be expanded up to the Hi-5 option of ISO 3,280,000. That means you hardly need any light at all to get good shots, with much of the credit shared with the CMOS sensor and image-processing engine. Your pictures will be great even within the ISO 3200-to-12800 range often used in sports photography.
The rapid auto-focus is highly responsive to moving subjects now that AF system has been given a complete overhaul and a Multi-CAM 20K auto-focus sensor has been added. The sensor module offers 153 focus points, 99 of which are cross-type sensors affording broad and dense coverage of the image area.
The centre focus point has a detection range beginning at minus-4 EV, and detection with other focus points begins at minus-3 EV, so the auto-focus works in even extremely dim light on low-contrast subjects. There are two joysticks for selecting focus-points, one horizontal and the other vertical.
Auto exposure (AE) and auto white balance (AWB) are also impressive because of a new 180K-pixel RGB sensor for Advanced Scene Recognition.
Professionals don’t use full automatic exposure, so the only auto mode is Programmed (P), in which the shutter speed and aperture are automatically chosen. With the main command dial you can adjust the aperture and thus the shutter speed to get blurred backgrounds frozen motion.
You also have Shutter-priority auto (S), Aperture-priority auto and Manual, the last of which is the go-to mode for the pros.
With all this technology, you can see how continuous shooting becomes possible at a quick 12 frames per second – in all image-quality modes and ISO settings – with the subject easily tracked as a stable viewfinder image thanks to a new mirror-drive mechanism.
The Pentaprism Single-Lens Reflex viewfinder has 100 per cent frame coverage and is bright and clear even in bright sunlight. But the high-resolution, 3.2-inch LCD monitor is great for composing your shots and can be operated by touches of your fingertip. You just tap to focus on any spot.
The high-resolution, 2,359k-dot monitor offers a brilliant display in live view and the touch screen enables fast navigation through even a large number of stored images.
The D5 and its multitude of buttons and dials are easy enough to get used to and in some ways make everything convenient.
The Mode button, for example, changes exposures. Just press and hold it while turning the main command dial to flip modes. Then you have a button for changing bracketing type, and function buttons front and back for rolling through customisable shooting settings. Buttons for changing drive modes, white balance, image quality, ISO value and exposure compensations are also provided.
In my test I used an AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1:1.8G ED lens fixed at 24mm wide angle. My landscapes were beautiful with sharp details with fully saturated colours, regardless of the available light.
Wat Hong Thong on the Samut Prakan seashore surely never looked so good as in my shots taken in Standard option, but then Vivid turned the deep-blue evening sky and gold chedi of the temple into magnificent adornments. I also played around with the Neutral, Monochrome, Portrait, Landscape and Flat choices.
Indoors at the office, my portraits also turned out great, the subjects accentuated against blurred backgrounds. In other aspects of its fine performance, the camera was ready to shoot |the instant I switched on the |power, and I noticed no shutter lag at all.
The Nikon D5 has a suggested retail price of Bt219,000. The AF-S Nikkor 24mm 1:1.8G ED lens retails for Bt23,900.
Key Specs
– Lens mount: Nikon F bayonet style
– Image sensor: FX-format CMOS with 20.8MP-effective pixels at 35.9×23.9mm
– Shutter speed: 1/8000 to 30 seconds in steps of 1/3, 1/2, or 1 EV, Bulb, Time, X250
– Focus: Nikon Advanced Multi-Cam 20K autofocus sensor module with TTL phase detection, fine-tuning, 153 focus points including 99 cross-type sensors and 15 sensors that support f/8
– ISO: 100 -102,400 expandable to 3,280,000-equivalent
– Exposure metering: TTL using 180K pixels; RGB sensor; centre-weighted, matrix, spot, highlight-weighted
– Highest movie resolution: 4K UHD 3,840×2,160 pixels/30fps in MOV H.264/MPEG-4 format
– Viewfinder: 0.72-inch Pentaprism Single-Lens Reflex
– Monitor: 3.2-inch 2,359k-dot TFT-LCD touch-screen
– Storage: CompactFlash (CF) (Type I, compliant with UDMA), two slots
– Interface: 10-pin Remote Terminal, Type C mini-pin HDMI connector, headphone connector, stereo microphone input 3.5mm, USB 3.0 Micro-B connector
– Ethernet: 1000 Base-T (Gigabit) Wired LAN
– Battery: EN-EL18a Lithium-ion, 3,780 shots
– Dimensions: 160×158.5x92mm
– Weight: 1,415g with battery and two memory cards
This source first appeared on The Nation Life.