Nikon D5500 DSLR camera: the bottom line is good shooting

So the new Nikon D5500 SLR has gone for a big swim in the free market. After I’ve had the new device for over a month and tried it in almost every situation an inquisitive photographer could find himself in, I want to clearly understand what was the residual result when the camera went back to its manufacturer?

Compact, lightweight, comfortable ergonomics

Nikon D5500, especially in combination with the staff lens AF-S Nikkor 18-55 f/3.5-5.6 GII DX VR takes up little space in a backpack or handbag and weighs much less than higher-class cameras. With its relatively small size, the camera is comfortable and graspable, and all the controls are where you can easily reach them. Buttons are just enough not to get lost in them and quickly and confidently change the shooting parameters. Settings that aren’t on the mechanical buttons can easily be changed with a couple of taps on the camera’s touchscreen.

I must say that the Nikon D5500’s display is a separate story. Large, wide-angle, good color reproduction and resolution. In addition to all of the above, it’s touch sensitive and rotatable. The sensor allows for a lot of interesting features. For example, by pressing the display in LiveView mode, you can focus on a specific part of the frame and take a picture. You can also turn the touch screen into a full-fledged control unit. If you compose a frame in the viewfinder, you can move your finger to the right side of the screen and the focus point will move according to your movements. This is an option I will miss a lot on the Nikon D810. As well as a pivoting display that lets you “take” high and low shots without getting up on your toes or bumping into the mud on the street.

A full range of creative modes and settings for advanced shooting

Along with all sorts of automatic modes and effects in Nikon D5500 is the main creative modes P, A, S, M, which give full control over shooting parameters. As you learn how shutter speed, aperture and ISO sensitivity affect the frame, you can switch from automatic to creative modes. The design of the camera even pushes the user in this – each of the creative modes has its own position on the mode dial, and the 16 automatic modes huddle together in a single SCENE position.

And once you’ve mastered basic shooting techniques, the Nikon D5500 will help you go a little higher. The camera has a RAW shooting mode, which records all the data coming from the sensor into the file without compression. It expands the photo editing possibilities many times over.

In addition, for fans of landscape photography, you can set the low ISO value of 100, as well as a mode deferred shutter and a mode of pre-lifting the mirror, which will avoid blurred photos from the movement of the mirror.

Quality picture, wide sensitivity range and acceptable photo quality at high ISO

Thanks to technology Picture Control in Nikon D5500 can adjust the sharpness, sharpness, contrast, brightness, saturation and hue photos, and save these settings in a special preset in addition to several existing. This allows you to quickly obtain images with the parameters that are closer to your style. But if you’re leaning toward off-camera photo processing, you can shoot in RAW format and process your shots in a graphics editor. Either way, you’ll have the opportunity to get great colors with the Nikon D5500, both immediately and in processing. the camera very accurately determines the white balance, including in difficult lighting conditions, which eliminates the need to first select the correct white balance settings, and then a long and tedious to remove the stray tint from the photos during post-processing.

The wide ISO range also expands the camera’s capabilities. ISO 100 allows you to capture quality landscapes and slow shutter speeds for soft water photography. Low noise at ISO 3200 opens up the possibility of shooting the stars, where this sensitivity is considered the most desirable. And the low noise at ISO above 3200 lets you shoot reportage even in dark rooms.

Large fleet of light and quality optics

The Nikon D5500 is equipped with a DX-format sensor, which is half the size of a 35mm film or FX-format sensor. That means the D5500 can be used with lenses designed for DX-format sensors. Lenses like these, even the faster ones, are much lighter and lighter than full-frame lenses. So once you’ve picked up a fleet of optics for the D5500, you’ll be surprised at how light your backpack is. For active travel and long walks, the weight of your gear is not least important.

For DX-format cameras, Nikon has a range of optics that cater to all photographer’s needs and cover all focal ranges and price niches. As a stock lens to replace the included AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6G VR II by the way, very decent for its class for Nikon D5500 can advise AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 17-55 mm f/2.8G IF-ED, which gives unprecedented picture quality. It’s not a cheap lens, and Nikkor has a number of worthy alternatives. For example, a lens with a fairly long focal range and good aperture ratio, the AF-S DX NIKKOR 16-80 mm f/2.8-4E ED VR.

As a wide-angle lens for the D5500, we can recommend the AF-S DX NIKKOR 10-24 mm f/3.5-4.5G ED and the AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED VR II or the even longer-range AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300 mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR.

For those who don’t want to lug around a bunch of optics and rearrange the lenses in the Nikon fleet, there are some mega zooms – lenses with a wide range of focal lengths, such as the AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-140 mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR or AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-300 mm f/3.5-6.3G ED VR.

But if you’re aiming for high picture quality and want to tackle a wide range of creative tasks, the D5500 can be fitted with macro lenses from the Micro Nikkor series, such as the AF-S DX Micro NIKKOR 40 mm f/2.8G or the AF-S DX Micro NIKKOR 85 mm f/3.5G ED VR.

Also among the DX lenses is the AF DX Fisheye-Nikkor 10.5 mm f/2.8G ED, which has a 180-degree angle of view and freakishly distorts space.

As you can see there is a lot to do. And note, most of these lenses are equipped with a vibration reduction system, which is appreciated not only by photographers but also by cameramen – thanks to the VR system it is much easier to shoot smooth videos by hand without using a tripod or monopod.

Availability of a Wi-Fi module to control the camera and copy photos

The Nikon D5500’s Wi-Fi module has several useful features at once. Nikon Wireless Mobile Utility turns your iOS or Android device into a camera receiving station. Photos can be selected for upload from the camera menu i button in viewing mode, then “Select/deselect to send to smart device” option , as well as from the app. Unfortunately it’s not possible to send photos to a computer the same way.

You can also use WMU to fully control the camera. When you select the Take Photos option in WMU, the camera goes into Live View mode and the phone displays everything the camera “sees”. Through the app, you can select the focus point and choose a delayed shutter mode. Photos can be instantly sent to your phone or tablet.