Nikon D5600

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Nikon announced today another entry point DX camera, the D5600.  Obviously the company works along different target lines as the launch takes place immediately after the release of high-end products such as 19/4 PC-E Nikkor and AFS 105/1.4 Nikkor E.  The D5600 continues the dumbing-down trend initiated by its predecessor, the D5500. One has to use Snapbridge and/or Blu-Tooth and an app on a 'smart'phone to get such basic features as GPS, to take but one mind-numbing step on the downwards spiralling ladder.

The D5500 D5300 remains the pinnacle in the D5xxx series, for better or worse. At least it makes a nice IR camera for me ... And with an updated aGPS file loaded, its GPS tagging works pretty well too. No additional gadget is required.

As gleaned from the above, my enthusiasm for these never-ending robot-engineered 'new' designs is held with abated breath. However, and fortunately many would say, there are lots of people out there thinking differently from myself or have their own requirements. NG would like to call on any member feeling the D5600 and its ilk are the answer to their prayers. Post your impressions or thoughts in this thread, either for the D5500, or the new D5600.

Corrected a typo: the pinnacle for sure is the D5300, not any of its successors. Sorry for any inconvenience or confusion. Thanks go to Øivind Tøien for pointing this error out.

[richardHaw]

i was expecting more from them 

[Ilkka Nissilä]

While I think always-on connectivity where image transfer is automatically taking place in the background (instead of wifi where the connection has to be re-etablished after the camera has been off with iOS devices) is important, from what I've read it doesn't work as well as expected in the  Snapbridge enabled cameras that are out so far. Rather than introduce more cameras that support this technology, Nikon should improve it to the point where it works for 90% of the users and smartphones on the market, or revert back to a different technology which works better, and only when the technology has been implemented in a near-universally approved and acclaimed manner,  then spread it to other cameras in the lineup. I fear that Nikon risks ruining its reputation by bringing out this technology in more cameras before it is mature, fully functional and reliable.

The touch screen  in the D5 works ok for reviewing images, scrolling and zooming. I use this at times. Implementation of the scroll bar functionality in the D5600 seems sensible.

Another feature which should be implemented in the D5x00 series particularly is better live view AF. I see people using this series of cameras often out there, relying entirely on the LCD for composing and timing their images, and I think many must be frustrated at Nikon's LV AF performance. Canon has made great progress in this area with their latest dual pixel AF system and I think it's vital that Nikon show that they can do something similar as well, so that the use of the camera for either photography or video, when taking advantage of the flexible LCD screen, becomes more fluid.

[MILLIREHM]

Too late for photokina

Would be fine if it helps for Nikons sales,

but Nikon is having a hard time showing that they are technologically top when Canon has the Dual-pixel Af and they have got nothing to compete

Snapbridges usability is not too attractive so far as I could see on the D500

[arthurking83]

i was expecting more from them 

Actually I was expecting less from them! :p
To see only 'this' much dumbing down is surprising .. ie. I reckon it could have been worse.

One question re GPS(if Bjørn or anyone else could elaborate on) .. does the bluetooth system in the camera not allow direct connection to a bluetooth GPS device?
That is, directly connect a bluetooth logging device to the bluetooth system in camera, like a foolography device can .. or do you have to use the whole snapbridge system(bt and wifi) to connect to a smartphone of some type.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

A good question. I have to have a look at a D5500 as it should probably  behave similar. If the USB port is like that seen in a number of other recent Nikons, a Foolography Blutooth-based GPS device might fit and be able to 'hi-jack' the data transfer. However, in these cases Nikon apparently also offers their own GPS module?

[Akira]

Apparently Nikon is hurrying up for popularizing SnapBridge, but is suffereing from the delay of the software development.  Another bummer is that the previous wifi-enabled models are orphaned including D750 that  I use.

The lack of SnapBridge software for the PC and Mac is also annoying.  Bluetooth is common among the notebook computers, too.

I once tried Nikon Mobile Utility, and was disappointed by the awful image quality of 2M thumbnail.  Better to use the integrated cameras in the smartphones.

[bjornthun]

Ilkka, the alternative to Canon's dual pixel AF is on sensor PDAF, which can be found in Sony sensors. Both Sony and Fuji use this kind of sensor now in their mirrorless APS-C offerings. Nikon should buy those sensors and thus be able to fix liveview AF. On sensor PDAF works with adapted Sony SLR lenses, so should work for Nikon as well, since Sony and Nikon DSLR lenses use the same kind of AF motors. Problem solved, if only Nikon bought those sensors. They are used in the two year old Sony A6000, which is the same price range as the Nikon D5x00 cameras, and the D5600 is brand new...

[Akira]

The essential difference between the on-chip PDAF sensor by Sony and the Dual AF sensor by Canon is that the PDAF pixel of the former is used only for the focus info and thus the lack of the image info has to be interpolated.  The Dual AF sensor offers both the focus info and the image info.

[bjornthun]

I have owned the Oly OM-D E-M1, Sony A6000 and currently own the Sony A7 and A7 mk II. The interpolation required for on sensor PDAF has so far caused no issue what so ever.

[Akira]

I've also used NEX-5R/T and Nikon 1 J1 with on-chip PEAF sensors and share your experience.  The problem is that the on-chip PDAF sensors are defunct in low light situation and switched to CDAF only, which slows down the AF speed and often leads to hunt.  The low light performance of the dedicated PDAF sensors of DSLRs are superior in this regard (on condition that there is no discrepancy between the focal planes on the image sensor and the AF sensor).

The CDAF only Panasonic mirrorless cameras and Olympus E-M5 MkII tha I used worked admirably in this regard, and I felt no need for the on-chip PDAF sensors.

[bjornthun]

Some of my lenses are quite fast, so I've not had issues in low light, yet. I guess that f/3.5-5.6 kit lenses may be problematic, though. With f/2 or faster lenses AF is just fine.

[Akira]

Yes, my Zuiko-M 25/1.8 worked admirably even in (quite) low light, whereas Panny 14/2.5 tended to hunt a bit.  The m4/3 lens I enjoyed the most has been so far is Samyang 7.5mm/f3.5 fisheye, though.    Highly recommended!

[richardHaw]

reading the comments here made me realise more that Nikon is out of touch with it's clients
they used to be pretty good at this

[David H. Hartman]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is that Snapbridge is intended for social media and should not be relevant to many here. It bridges a DSLR through a smartphone to sites such as Instagram that do not accept uploads from computers.

Dave Hartman