Gadgetory

hey everyone Greg here with science studio and we are back at it with another product review meet the newest addition to our camera lineup the nikon d50 100 now it isn't the newest or best camera on the market but if you can snag it for a great price you will not be disappointed here's our pick for the best budget DSLR camera at three hundred dollars so the first thing we did was mounted on our handy tripod make our way down to the local pond and test this thing out we had an 1855 millimeter lens as well as a 70 to 300 millimeter lens so that we could focus on both things far away and close up so enough of the chitchat let's get straight to shooting and filming so I found the squirrel lurking nearby popped on the large lens vibration reduction and autofocus were both active next I pointed the DSLR directly at the Sun to have a good look at its aperture and shutter speed abilities the d50 one shutter speed can vary from one four thousandth of a second all the way up to thirty seconds shorter exposures are typically used in bright situations where as long exposures can be used in especially dark ones the ISO can also be adjusted anywhere from 100 to 6400 now in terms of special added features selective color is my personal favorite allowing the user to control which colors show up in a given photo in this case I selected only greens to show up but in the next photo taking it exactly the same place I selected only blues to show up pretty cool huh next I compared the image quality of a 16 megapixel Nikon point-and-shoot to the Nikon DSLR both are rated at 16 megapixels the results are very similar the D 5100 boasts a 23 point 6 by 15.6 millimeter CMOS sensor mirrored which is only averaged by today's standards but it's lighting capabilities are on par a cool feature of the D 5000 series is that each screen is hinged and movable the screen can actually swing out a full 180 degrees and also swivel in the vertical up to 270 degrees this specific orientation makes it a great camera for the occasional youtuber or a dynamic photographer who is always finding his or her way into small cramped spaces I can put a lot of thought into their standard macro lens apart from the excellent image quality zoom transitions are smooth and crisp which comes in handy when filming I do wish however that Nikon had added more rigidity to the manual focus ring which is made of plastic and is quite sensitive to the touch this is likely though due in part to the integrated autofocus motor within the lens which would require a less sturdy focus ring I recommend all novice users keeping the autofocus on if your lens supports it you can see in this clip here how the continuous autofocus software was able to keep up with my rather novice movements back and forth and occasional zooms the camera does only have eleven point autofocus detection but I never noticed it struggle to keep up with where I was going battery life is around 600 shots or about an hour to an hour and a half of video recording but after an entire day of doing all of this I'll tell you right now the battery readout in the camera stayed at a full three bars I was quite impressed the d50 100 boats a turn dial crammed full of presets as well as for manual modes the dial just below it can be used to select specific features within each of these presets a disadvantage to having a swivel screen is limited button placement but it's a compromise I was willing to make the simple operating system made the fully manual modes quick and easy to navigate through but more on that in a sec the camera supports an external microphone output a micro GPS add-on since the camera doesn't have a native tracking system built in a type see mini HDMI out something you really don't see much of and a mini USB adapter on the opposite side of the Dee 5100 is support for a single full-size as the D card okay so on a quick note back to nikon's operating system I have to mention here that I truly love how they integrate a similar design and order in each of their DSLRs hopping between this and the d7000 was a piece of cake if you're a novice many of these controls won't be difficult to handle in fact in several instances and shooting modes the OS will literally explain to you what a specific function does so if you have no idea what you're doing this can certainly come in handy but now even if you're a professional photographer the d 5100 offers enough robust versatility to rival a few of the newer DSLRs currently on the market it isn't the most phenomenal video recorder either and versatility is limited but you can shoot in full 1080p at 30fps as well as 720p at 30fps if desired so in conclusion the Nikon d50 100 might be a bit outdated in terms of the features it offers like the eleven point autofocus detection versus the d7000 thirty-six point and like the sixteen point two megapixel sensor first the D 3200 24 megapixel there are definitely trade-offs when it comes to purchasing any older model product but the point I want to make here is this for the price of around three hundred dollars you cannot go wrong sure you won't have the newest and best but the D 5100 offers a great incentive package the sensor is still stellar the battery life is great color depth and picture quality are on point and the swivel screen is it's pretty much just like the icing on the cake it's a great camera for anyone looking to shoot the night sky a son or daughter soccer game or a wedding our advice don't spend thousands of dollars on new ultra fancy cameras unless you absolutely have to do what we did and pick up a secondhand DSLR that's been taken care of and only a few years old you won't regret the money you'll save or the performance you'll reap this is science studio thanks for learning with us you