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bizarre experience with 3 copies of Nikon D5100

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Lol so funny I came accross this.

Guys.. the d5100 is junk. Seriously..

I just bought a d5100 and a 35mm AF-S 1.8g last week.

Took it to a wedding. My wife has the Nikon d5100 and I had the t3i.

Couldn't wait to see the high iso performance of the Nikon.

Kept it in S mode at 1/50s, f1.8, and auto ISO up to 3200. (dark reception hall).

On review we noticed this straaange phenomena. The subject were out of focus and it seemed to consistently focus behind the subjects. Never noticed that before as I've only owned Canon dSLRS's.

I then do some tests like literally an hour ago trying to figure out what is wrong and found out what is wrong:

With a 35mm, at say, f3.2 (sharpest for this lens), if you focus on an eye ball, you get the ear in focus. The further away the subject, the more the 'whole body' gets out of focus.

Amplify that across a baguette hall at f1.8 and you have some bad pics.

Now here's the thing, the d5100 doesn't have AF correction. It COULD , but it's firmwar disabled lol.. WOW! Only the d7000 has it. Lol.. truly amazing.

So basically getting a d5100 is some sort of crap shoot on how your pics will come out.

To make matters even worse, the typical owners of Nikon's are very.. shall we say.. 'fan boyish'. So everything is a user error or the problem doesn't get noticed because they aren't serious photographers who care about this things.

For those togs here who want to focus on an eyeball, and have it stay in focus when you take the pic, there is nothing you can do about it with the d5100. I'm not sure what returning the lens for another will accomplish. It doesn't matter what shutter, what setting, etc. 80% of the time you will get an incorrect depth of field.

NOW I know why so many people were complaining that the pictures came out 'soft on the Amazon review. This is the reason why.
 
Cruch said:
Lol so funny I came accross this.

Guys.. the d5100 is junk. Seriously..

I just bought a d5100 and a 35mm AF-S 1.8g last week.

Took it to a wedding. My wife has the Nikon d5100 and I had the t3i.

Couldn't wait to see the high iso performance of the Nikon.

Kept it in S mode at 1/50s, f1.8, and auto ISO up to 3200. (dark reception hall).

On review we noticed this straaange phenomena. The subject were out of focus and it seemed to consistently focus behind the subjects. Never noticed that before as I've only owned Canon dSLRS's.

I then do some tests like literally an hour ago trying to figure out what is wrong and found out what is wrong:

With a 35mm, at say, f3.2 (sharpest for this lens), if you focus on an eye ball, you get the ear in focus. The further away the subject, the more the 'whole body' gets out of focus.

Amplify that across a baguette hall at f1.8 and you have some bad pics.

Now here's the thing, the d5100 doesn't have AF correction. It COULD , but it's firmwar disabled lol.. WOW! Only the d7000 has it. Lol.. truly amazing.

So basically getting a d5100 is some sort of crap shoot on how your pics will come out.

To make matters even worse, the typical owners of Nikon's are very.. shall we say.. 'fan boyish'. So everything is a user error or the problem doesn't get noticed because they aren't serious photographers who care about this things.

For those togs here who want to focus on an eyeball, and have it stay in focus when you take the pic, there is nothing you can do about it with the d5100. I'm not sure what returning the lens for another will accomplish. It doesn't matter what shutter, what setting, etc. 80% of the time you will get an incorrect depth of field.

NOW I know why so many people were complaining that the pictures came out 'soft on the Amazon review. This is the reason why.
Click to expand...
I'm sure yours could be one of the problem ones....but when you get a new one, on DX with the 50mm it's better to start out at 1/80s for hand held no VR to eliminate more camera shake from the equation. ! 50s on FF should be fine. On the D7K I set 1/80 min with Auto ISO (when goofing with ISO) and get pretty good results. Good Luck and hope you get better results. As you can see, D5100 focus issues don't come up often so I think your next one has a great chance of doing better.
 
As you'd expect for a camera at this price-point though, there's no AF micro-adjustment; the EOS 600D / T3i doesn't offer this either . However, the Nikon D7000 does.

This camera is in a much smaller and lighter body, there is no internal lens focusing motor, and the list goes on. This and the Nikon D3100 are "starter cameras" for DSLR. If you want more, get the Nikon D7000 - a totally awesome camera!

--
Steve Bingham
http://www.dustylens.com
http://www.ghost-town-photography.com
 
The D5100--Like trainer wheels on a bicycle, right?

How about a little more nuance (and evidence --benefits, not features), unless you're just the stand-in for the fanboys who used to constantly push the D90 in the face of the D5000 owners?
 
Mako2011 said:
I'm sure yours could be one of the problem ones....but when you get a new one, on DX with the 50mm it's better to start out at 1/80s for hand held no VR to eliminate more camera shake from the equation. ! 50s on FF should be fine. On the D7K I set 1/80 min with Auto ISO (when goofing with ISO) and get pretty good results. Good Luck and hope you get better results. As you can see, D5100 focus issues don't come up often so I think your next one has a great chance of doing better.
Click to expand...
I was wondering what a good min shutter speed would be for a pretty steady hand, but with minor surprise pictures I want to take. I figured 1/30 on auto iso mode would be good enough but while hiking this weekend, I took quick pictures of animals, people, etc (w/zoom) and it came out blurry. When I say 'quick', I mean I take it from holding the camera while walking and pulling it up to eye level to take a quick snap shot. I'm in motion when I hit the shutter.

I will try 1/80 next time.

Also, I'll try the box test to see if I have back focus issues as sometimes I noticed my shots are not as sharp as they could be.

Gary
 
garyhgaryh said:
Mako2011 said:
I'm sure yours could be one of the problem ones....but when you get a new one, on DX with the 50mm it's better to start out at 1/80s for hand held no VR to eliminate more camera shake from the equation. ! 50s on FF should be fine. On the D7K I set 1/80 min with Auto ISO (when goofing with ISO) and get pretty good results. Good Luck and hope you get better results. As you can see, D5100 focus issues don't come up often so I think your next one has a great chance of doing better.
Click to expand...
I was wondering what a good min shutter speed would be for a pretty steady hand, but with minor surprise pictures I want to take. I figured 1/30 on auto iso mode would be good enough but while hiking this weekend, I took quick pictures of animals, people, etc (w/zoom) and it came out blurry. When I say 'quick', I mean I take it from holding the camera while walking and pulling it up to eye level to take a quick snap shot. I'm in motion when I hit the shutter.

I will try 1/80 next time.

Also, I'll try the box test to see if I have back focus issues as sometimes I noticed my shots are not as sharp as they could be.
Click to expand...
I should have included that a general guide for hand hold shutter speed (no VR) is 1.5 x focal length on DX and at least the focal length on full frame. This is just a guide for reducing the affects of blur due to camera shake. Some folks have much better hand holding technique and can get much slower.

For focus testing I double that...use a steady tripod...and suggest a remote or timer. Do not use the box test as it can lead to misidentified results. Simply use a large flat high contrast target in good light (brick wall or newspaper on wall). Take a few shots, at 50x the focal length from the target, In Live View and use those as a basis for comparing same with normal single point viewfinder focus...if they both come out very close then stop....if not, research how to best test further. Good Luck



 
So, maybe the problem is with the D50 ;)
 
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