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eikachu

eikachu

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I'm looking to buy my first DSLR and am having a little trouble deciding what to get.

I like the feel of both the Sony SLT-57 and the Nikon D5100/D5200, but can't decide between the three. I'm not a fan of the electronic viewfinder in the SLT-57, but love its speed and super easy panorama function. I'm also a fan of SLT-57's price. The only thing I feel the Nikon cameras are missing is the speed, but I don't really know how often I'll need that since I plan on primarily using my camera for travel and portrait shots.

I'm leaning towards the Nikon cameras, but don't know if it's worth it to spend the extra money on the D5200. I do plan on getting some pictures printed on those wrap around canvases at some point and don't know whether or not I'll appreciate those extra pixels.

Is the D5200 worth the extra money? Is my aversion to the SLT-57's electronic viewfinder a deal breaker?
 
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A
If you prefer OVF to EVF, go Nikon. Just make sure you base your opinion on the a57 EVF, and not EVFs on point-and-shoots or other cameras (I cannot use cheap EVFs, but I much prefer the a77 EVF to an OVF).

The speed is not really worthwhile unless you're an action photographer. I have an a77, which can do 12 frames per second. This means that if you were to shoot for 1 minute (not continuously), I end up with close to 1000 shots. If it takes 5 seconds to review each shot, that 1 minute of shooting translates to 1 hour of sorting photos to pick ones out for editing. I did this once, right after I got the camera. It was not fun. It is nice if you're a professional sports photographer. For almost anyone else, over 3fps is not all that...
If you don't like the electronic viewfinder already, don't buy that camera. I found it to be nearly unusable.

The megapixels don't matter much, but the dynamic range and noise control are important, as are the ergonomics of the camera body and the selection of lenses. I don't know about many Nikon cameras outside of the D800 and DnX series, so I can't help with your D5100 or D5200 choice. I think that Nikon has too many conflicting camera models down in that low-cost market. Have you tried reading the reviews about those cameras?
 
eikachu said:
eikachu wrote:

I'm looking to buy my first DSLR and am having a little trouble deciding what to get.

I like the feel of both the Sony SLT-57 and the Nikon D5100/D5200, but can't decide between the three. I'm not a fan of the electronic viewfinder in the SLT-57, but love its speed and super easy panorama function. I'm also a fan of SLT-57's price. The only thing I feel the Nikon cameras are missing is the speed, but I don't really know how often I'll need that since I plan on primarily using my camera for travel and portrait shots.

I'm leaning towards the Nikon cameras, but don't know if it's worth it to spend the extra money on the D5200. I do plan on getting some pictures printed on those wrap around canvases at some point and don't know whether or not I'll appreciate those extra pixels.

Is the D5200 worth the extra money? Is my aversion to the SLT-57's electronic viewfinder a deal breaker?
Click to expand...
If you don't like the electronic viewfinder, the Sony is not for you. Simple. You might get used to it, but you might not. Why take the risk? As for the Nikons, they are both good. Only you can say whether the extra cost of the 5200 is worth it. If you have doubts, my suspicion is you'd be quite happy with either one, so go for the bargain. If there were some compelling feature on the 5200 you wouldn't be questioning the price. You'd think IT was the bargain.
 
I have tried reading reviews. CNET's review and Snapsort's comparison both say the D5200 is a far better choice than the D5100. I wish the full review on this site would be posted since I love the compare tool in the conclusion section.
 
eikachu said:
eikachu wrote:

I have tried reading reviews. CNET's review and Snapsort's comparison both say the D5200 is a far better choice than the D5100. I wish the full review on this site would be posted since I love the compare tool in the conclusion section.
Click to expand...
I've got a d5100 and I'm very happy with it. I suspect that the reviews are doing the normal lazy reviewers trick of just pushing up the new model because its new so it must be way better.
 
If you prefer OVF to EVF, go Nikon. Just make sure you base your opinion on the a57 EVF, and not EVFs on point-and-shoots or other cameras (I cannot use cheap EVFs, but I much prefer the a77 EVF to an OVF).

The speed is not really worthwhile unless you're an action photographer. I have an a77, which can do 12 frames per second. This means that if you were to shoot for 1 minute (not continuously), I end up with close to 1000 shots. If it takes 5 seconds to review each shot, that 1 minute of shooting translates to 1 hour of sorting photos to pick ones out for editing. I did this once, right after I got the camera. It was not fun. It is nice if you're a professional sports photographer. For almost anyone else, over 3fps is not all that useful.

Panorama mode is a gizmo, and not all that useful. On an a55, practically, very few of the panoramas came out without relics from the way they were stitched together.

Major upsides of Sony are IBIS (which makes for much better low-light photography, since it allows you to use wide aperture lenses stabilized), EVF (which lets you preview exposure and white balance before you shoot -- so even complete neophytes can use fully manual modes, and lets you accurately review photos in any lighting), better automatic modes (like a point-and-shoot, the camera sees what it is shooting), and working pivot LCD (on the Nikon, focus sucks in live view).

Major upside of the Nikon is the OVF, and the slightly better high ISO performance.

Major draw is the focus system. Sony has focus zoom, which is really nice for accurate manual focus. Nikon has OVF, which is nice for fast manual focus (esp. if you toss in a split prism focus screen). Sony can do things like face detection and scene detection, so it always focuses on the right thing. Nikon's is considered a bit better if you have time to manually tell it what to focus on. Etc.
 
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Solution
If money is an issue you could consider the Nikon 3200: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikon-d3200. The 5200 preview details the main differences between the two models and a quick search should turn up more than a few opinions on this forum. If you don't need what the 5200 offers you can save some cash...
 
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