Photoclubalpha

Nikon announce new D5300 with smaller body, 24mp sensor and no AA filter.

Yes and a cheap new 58/1.4 yours for just USD 1699.95. I suppose that if you ask nicely in a few months time your local dealer will throw in a couple of memory cards by way of a discount.

Somehow the new Zeiss 55/1.8 looks half way decent.

Shock the viewfinder is "almost" as good as a Dynax 5d ;-0
0.82x v 0.83 and an improvement over the 0.78x..wow Nikon really went for it!

I see they added GPS too.
But it's still got no proper flash support (yet again) and it's not really that exciting being blunt.
Entry Nikon isn't very good trust me, bad handling, crippled features it's not really even worth considering.

While Nikon persist in placing the Fn button round at the front just below the pop up flash I'm not interested. The Fn button is my main port of call on most DSLR's and its position in the A37/57 for me is where it should be or at least in that area. Sony as much as they are not perfect are far more ergonomic than the lower end Nikons. Only Pentax seem to get things right in the button placement stakes.

It's an interesting upgrade, reading the Digital Camera comparison between the three 5000 series cameras, but I'd be more tempted towards the D610, personally.

With Nikon you can program the Fn button to actually do something useful like ISO or WB. Handling wise these bodies have never been great as Nikon for some reason refuses to have hard buttons for ISO and WB, so get used to menu diving a lot or using the i button for quick access (that helps but it's not ideal)

They moved the drive button too for some reason. Some folks don't mind, but Pentax do a much better job on design on their entry models..and so do Canon being honest.

Nikon's problem is they have too many models still for sale, they have yet to clear stocks of D3100's or D5100's let alone try to sell the D5200 as well as the D5300.
They seem to have a cashback running on many models, looks like Nikon are trying to clear old stocks big time. Too many entry models and too frequently updated seems to be the problem, and not very substantial updates really (some will like no AA filter) can't say I find wifi that useful for a camera (gps is nice though)

That's before a def will turn up soon D3300 arrives

I think all these minor upgrades with new numbering designation 5100/5200/5300 and so on is a measure of desperation by Nikon, They know and we all know that DSLR sales are falling slowly but steadily and Nikon are not in as strong a position as Canon, so drastic neasures are needed.
I think in a way the smaller producers such as Sony, Pentax, Olympus/Panasonic will suffer less in the long run because they are not afraid to adapt and develop new technologies for a very changing market.
I suspect Nikon will be selling at cost soon just to maintain their market position.

I have recently been comparing pictures on the PC monitor from all the cameras I have owned and used in the past 9 years or so.

One thing has imediately stood out for comparison are the default colours.

With my old Olympus E-510, reds are reds, greens are greens and blue skys are well blue skys. The same qualities apply to my Sony A37/57 cameras.
Both exhibited excellent colour balance, with very true to life colours, may be a tad over cooked which is why I run my Sony's on portrait.

With both my old Nikons D5000/D5100 its a different story, reds have a pink tint, greens have a yellow tint, Blue skys and yellow flowers are over done slightly and apart from indoor flash of people which is excellent, the out door colour reproduction and balance was disapointing.

For cropped IQ, my old 10mp Olympus E-510 fitted with the excellent 14-54 F/2.8 lens leads the pack for sharpness, definition and fine detail with little or no noise, and thats running the camera on -2 sharpness, mind you it all goes a bit noisy above 800 ISO. Both Nikons come second but only when fitted with the excellent 18-105.
The Sony A37 seems a tad sharper than the A57, but both exhibit excellent IQ when using the best lens I have which is a KM 17-35. Both Sony's could equal the 510 but only when good glass is used, I said it before best glass makes a huge difference to IQ. There is better glass around than my KM 17-35 and no doubt even better IQ can be achieved. Sony seems to be quite unique in some ways as they respond quite dramatically to better lenses.

Needless to say, I was not that happy with the Nikon colours or their handling, so they got sold to pay for the Sony cameras and lenses. I will also hang on to my old Oly, as I still get a thrill out of using it, I might even get another second hand 40-150 tele zoom.
I forgot to mention the Pentax Kr, great camera, great to handle, super OVF, and IQ not half bad but it needed the best lenses [the kit lens was well below par] to get the most out of the sensor, and they were not cheap. So that went as well.