Nikon doesnt improve ? (Rant)

[Solarflare]

I am a proud owner of a Nikon D5100 and a Nikon D600.

There is a successor for the D600 out (D610) and there are already TWO successors to the D5100 (D5200, D5300).

Yesterday I watched this review of the Pentax K-3 from thecamerastore on YouTube and then it dawned me: NONE of these three new cameras fixes ANY of the bigger issue I have with my own cameras, of course with the exception of the sensor dust of the D600 (which is annoying but not my main problem with that camera).

The biggest problems I have with the D5100:
- No HSS (This is a nobrainer feature. You need to be able to use filllight, even in bright sunlight. Every professional does this all the time. Your camera cant do it ? You are not photographically complete !)
- No second cardslot for Backup (I think thats a total nobrainer and should be in EVERY SINGLE digital camera out there, no matter if point and shoot or whatever. Digital backup is a must - and not a luxury).
- No weathersealing (Again something that should be mandatory). Granted, I just use it in the rain anyway, so far without problems.

The biggest problems I have with the D600:
- There are 39 instead of 15 AF points ... but the way they are distributed is completely stupid, they are all in the center !!! I have less flexibility than with the 15 points of my D5100.
- I can accept that the D5100 is an entry level camera and the viewfinder is kinda, well, meh. But I'm wearing glasses and even with the D600, I still cant see the full image at any time, no matter how hard I try to. In fact it seems I couldnt see it with the D800 or D4 either ! What the frak ?
- The AF points are even harder to select than on the D5100 ! Because there are more AF points, but the technology to select them is still just endless clicking. The only camera that I've seen that fixes this is the new Panasonic GX7, which allows you to use the touchscreen to select focus (probably other cameras with touchscreen allow this as well).
- The button layout is frankly completely stupid and very slow to use. Especially, to change ISO, you have to fiddle with the fingers in your face if you're using the viewfinder.
- I really miss the flipscreen of my D5100 on my D600. Why does Nikon have such a great feature only in one of their cameras ?

Okay, maybe the D610 doesnt really count, because Nikon clearly released that to get rid of the shutter problem. But the D5200 and D5300 are clearly supposed to be upgrades. However, they only gave the camera more megapixels, more AF points, more this and that, but never fixed any core problems in the ergonomics and the lack of photographic completeness.

When I look at the new Pentax K-3, I kind of get the suspicion that the problem is simply how Nikon approaches camera design in itself. Instead of "okay we design a great, complete camera", like Pentax does, we get "okay we want a camera for this and that pricepoint, and we have to make a new model every X months at this pricerange".

 

[JohnS.]

Nikon can't please everyone.

Also, your average Joe Shmoe that's looking to get an entry level DSLR most likely won't care about secondary memory slots and HSS. Notice you said "Every professional does this all the time". Again, the target market for the D5100 most likely won't even know what HSS is, let alone buy an external flash for it. Hell, when I bought my first DSLR many, many, many years ago (D40), I barely knew what a DSLR was. All I knew was that it was a name for a fancy camera. And weathersealing? I may agree considering it is a $600 investment and to some people, that could be a lot of freaking money, but again, think of the target market. Some may accidentally get it wet thinking it automatically comes weathersealed but that's their own fault for not reading the manual before using it lol.

I couldn't care less about FF camera's since I'm too poor to even dream of owning one .

 

[amolitor]

Of the available, I dunno, 500 or so features that a DSLR might have, everyone has them ranked in some order and wants a camera with their top 20 and some smattering of the others.

Camera manufacturers can't produce very many different models, so they do their best to cook up 3 or 4 or 10 different combinations of features that will be "good enough" for the maximum number of people at a price those people are willing to pay. This means, basically, that almost everyone is going to be slightly dissatisfied.

It's too bad, but that's the way it goes!

 

[astroNikon]

If you take all the features that you believe should be in the 5100, and Nikon built it in and ADDED the cost for those additional features, then that would put you at the price of the D700. Which of course costs more.

Additional features do cost some amount of money,
and as mentioned the Nikon 3x00, 5x00 is targeted to different demographic people.

From some previous threads people find the 5x00 layout and features more than sufficient and efficient versus the 7x00, 6x0, 700, 800 series.

So .. it's people priorities and how they use those features I guess.

My first "real" digital was a D70 .. but I really knew nothing about it.
As I was looking at a camera last fall I first looked at the 3100 but it didn't have the features that I needed, so I looked at the 5100 which also did not have the features I needed. Thus I ended up with the 7000.

And the "features" that I absolutely needed and looked for were:
1 - some weathersealing
2 - can use FX lens (screw drive)

The AF points, HSS, dual card slots, etc meant absolutely NOTHING to my requirements at the time. Matter of face I only used one card slot until I figured I might as well throw a (slow) spare card into the 2nd slot.

You have to select a camera based on your requirements and finances.

I currently would prefer the d4, but the finances prevent me from owning one.
I don't even know if I could afford a d600.
I could barely afford a d7000 and I had to put half of it on credit card to get it but my 2 requirements above dictated it. So it either was a d7000 or I save up and wait.

So I understand your rant, but realistically features cost money. a D5300 is theoretically better than a d4 unless your requirements prove that a d5300 is a waste of money compared to a d4. But if you don't have the money for a d4, you buy something else that you can afford or save up.

of course, the Pentax K3 with a lens costs $1,650. A few more dollars than a 5x00 or even a d7100.
And there's always the K30 but it may not have the features that you want.

 

[Mach0]

Not to sound like an arse but if you want more features, spend more $$. It seems that you want pro grade features ( aside from the flip screen ) at entry level price. It's never gonna happen. You have to pay to play.

 

[Derrel]

I have NEVER understood the idea of changing the ISO while the camera is at my eye, and I am in the process of taking shots...this to me seems a lot like the complaint that one cannot watch YouTube videos on one's smartphone while also simultaneously texting or conducting a voice call...in other words, a sort of made-up complaint. Of course, I grew up shooting ASA 64 Kodachrome for 10 years whenever there was "color in the camera", and I grew up shooting Tri-X at ASA 400 for 20+ years whenever there was B&W in the camera, so I am used to ASA/ISO being a basic setting that is set ahead of time, and then one "deals with it" knowing what the film speed simply "is", or "needs to be". So, I just absolutely can NOT see the need to be able to futz around with my ISO while looking through the viewfinder. If it's raining, I put my jacket on before I go outside.

 

[astroNikon]

I have NEVER understood the idea of changing the ISO while the camera is at my eye, and I am in the process of taking shots...this to me seems a lot like the complaint that one cannot watch YouTube videos on one's smartphone while also simultaneously texting or conducting a voice call...in other words, a sort of made-up complaint. Of course, I grew up shooting ASA 64 Kodachrome for 10 years whenever there was "color in the camera", and I grew up shooting Tri-X at ASA 400 for 20+ years whenever there was B&W in the camera, so I am used to ASA/ISO being a basic setting that is set ahead of time, and then one "deals with it" knowing what the film speed simply "is", or "needs to be". So, I just absolutely can NOT see the need to be able to futz around with my ISO while looking through the viewfinder. If it's raining, I put my jacket on before I go outside.

I actually just got used to change the ISO while through the viewfinder while shooting my kids sports, whilst the sun comes out behind clouds, and goes back behind clouds nonstop. So that feature came in handy for me to keep shutter speed up (while keeping background OOF at f/2.8). But maybe another way of doing it ... I'm still learning.

 

[Dao]

If Nikon build a camera that has everything people want, what are they going to do with the next version?

 

[astroNikon]

If Nikon build a camera that has everything people want, what are they going to do with the next version?

at a price everyone could afford ...

a D6 with selectable 1 gigaflop pixel sensor and fits in your pocket for $150.00

 

[Derrel]

I actually just got used to change the ISO while through the viewfinder while shooting my kids sports, whilst the sun comes out behind clouds, and goes back behind clouds nonstop. So that feature came in handy for me to keep shutter speed up (while keeping background OOF at f/2.8). But maybe another way of doing it ... I'm still learning.

Yes, there *is* another way to do it. It is called AUTO ISO. If you check into how it works, you'll be amazed at how it works. This oughtta get you started. http://www.ehow.com/how_7559382_use-control-nikon-d7000-camera.html

 

[astroNikon]

I actually just got used to change the ISO while through the viewfinder while shooting my kids sports, whilst the sun comes out behind clouds, and goes back behind clouds nonstop. So that feature came in handy for me to keep shutter speed up (while keeping background OOF at f/2.8). But maybe another way of doing it ... I'm still learning.

Yes, there *is* another way to do it. It is called AUTO ISO. If you check into how it works, you'll be amazed at how it works. This oughtta get you started. How to Use the Auto ISO Sensitivity Control in the Nikon D7000 Camera | eHow

Yes I use Auto ISO .. but I wanted to learn more about ISO and understand at which settings the various light conditions dictate.
I use Auto ISO when I don't understand something .. then I can see it's settings ... all a learning process.

I also was doing one soccer game in Manual versus Aperture priority, but then I was playing with getting some motion rather than just stopped the motion totally.

 

[amolitor]

I actually change the ISO all the time, when I'm shooting basic parent pictures. I have it programmed to the front button+command dial thingy.

It's an awful nice feature. Auto ISO never really pleased me all that much, possibly the algorithm on my camera is just weak, or I just never learned to use it properly.

 

[robbins.photo]

Well being the proud owner of a 5100 I usually do one of two things - I have the function button programmed for ISO so I press it and change iso with the wheel. If I'm shooting in conditions where the lighting is fluctuating i'll switch to shutter priority and let the camera adjust the iso

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[Derrel]

Well, a couple of things. FIRST, in the FX Nikon bodies, the AF areas do not cover as much of the frame area as they do in the newer, higher-end DX bodies. This is just a fact of life, so, the fact that the D600's 39 AF areas do not cover as much of the outer parts of the frame is something you have to deal with. Smaller-sensor cameras that use the 51 point AF system have almost edge-to-edge AF area coverage, which is one of the reasons the D300 and D300s were so popular with bird-in-flight photographers like our own Coastal.conn.

My experience is that with the 51-point AF system, I get my best AF performance by setting it up to use 9 of the AF points in a group, but I have it set to display only "one" AF point that actually represents nine very closely-spaced points. With the camera in portrait orientation, I can press in on the very center of the 4-way controller on the back of the camera to move the lighted AF point to dead-center, another nudge of the controller moves the active AF area one spot upward, and then finally another touch moves my AF area group to 2 spots up from dead center, and then since iI have AF area wrap set to "on", another press will move the AF area "around the corner" and back to the bottom of the frame.

Some of the older Nikon's had far,far fewer AF areas. The D2x and the D200 had 11 total AF areas. The D2x has the best AF system I've ever used. 9 of the 11 points are cross-type, and it has a wider-area, 4-area grouping system that was almost ideal for people or action work. The D2x also had a 4-mode selector switch with single-point, group, group dynamic, and AUTO-area AF selection, making it the most-complex AF system Nikon ever offered in terms of "how the system works".

Nikon cut the D2x and D2h's system down from four options, to three options in the D3 series, and then down to TWO options in the D800. So, they really simplified the AF selection and AF area mode options in the newer cameras. The thing Nikon has done is shifted the AF system more toward allowing the inbuilt computer to TRACK THE COLOR of your subject. Nikon's done a crappy job of telling people what they expect users to do, which is: use the 4-way controller to first select a subject you want to focus on, press the shutter release to focus, and then allow the camera to achieve what they call "lock-on". The camera will then read the subject's reflectance and RGB makeup (its color signature), and then try to follow that,specific object, even if it moves across the frame.

So, what we've seen is that a 4-mode AF system was replaced by a three-mode system, and then beginning with the D800, it was dumbed down to a two-mode system, with fewer options for users. Almost nobody actually reads the manual these days, and almost nobody really, truly understands exactly HOW his AF system was designed to work. Because MOST people just use single-point AF, and ignore other options, they have a lot of gripes because they are not using the system as it was designed to be used by Nikon's engineers. If people have a problem with 39 AF points, they're probably not full aware of exactly how the system is designed to be used.

 

[amolitor]

Dude, I just tried out the 3D tracking mode on my lowly D3100, having TOTALLY MISSED the bit about how you have to "prime" it by telling it what to focus ON, and holy cow, it's like magic.