Nikon D5

Main Features of D5

Lacking in the design is a built-in wifi option as well as flash, but thankfully there is a flash shoe for mounting an external flash. Considering, that it is an action camera, an articulated screen would've been better than the same old fixed one. Nikon D5 has a weather-sealed body and is resistant to water and dust. 

Design & Build

Weatherproofed and protected in a magnesium alloy shell, the D5 is ruggedly built and has illuminated control buttons. That makes for easy and convenient handling of the camera in the dark. You will find microphone and headphone ports on this camera for better audio and video recording and control. 

Holding the dimensions of 6.3 x 6.3 x 3.7 inches, the camera weighs quite heavy at 1415g. The heaviness actually is a result of a beefier battery and also the sport and action photography requires durability and robustness in a camera. The bigger and sturdier body is designed to withstand accidental drops and blows during filming a high-paced football match or a car race.

Screen & Viewfinder

The D5 uses 3.2 inches fixed type touchscreen that has a resolution of 2.359k dots. It is almost twice the resolution as the screen on its forerunner and provides quick and easy control of camera functions. The screen gives touchscreen functionality during both photo and video shooting. The camera is capable of shooting in 4K and allows for extracting 8MP photos from 4K videos. You can also film in the time-lapse mode for a seamless and smooth creative shooting. The D5 comes with a greatly improved autofocus system featuring 153 points, 99 cross-type and a centre point capable of focusing in lighting conditions as dim as -4EV. 

The viewfinder is an optical-type fixed eye-level pentaprism with 100% coverage. It comes with a slight improvement in magnification that is up to 0.72x now. The viewfinder comes in handy during a portrait shoot and under bright sunlight when it gets difficult to read. It lets the user have a more stabilized control over the camera and eliminate camera shake as it is closer to the body. However, for street photography, you can use Live view which allows for taking photos without using the viewfinder, making you less obtrusive. This is where the face detection focusing mode comes in that lets you focus on a face and handles the focus for you while you concentrate on framing and other adjustments during shooting. 

Sensor & Resolution

With an entirely new sensor and autofocus system, the Nikon D5 is designed with the focus on speed and reliability. Flaunting a 20.8MP full-frame 36.0 mm × 23.9 mm FX-format CMOS sensor, the camera boasts 31% more pixels than its predecessor, hence delivering a better image quality as well as colour contrast. The thing lacking in both the iterations is image stabilization and users have to use additional lenses with optical image stabilization to maximize the sharpness of their portrait shots. With this camera, users can shoot pictures at the maximum resolution of 5568 × 3712 pixels and videos in 4K (3840 x 2160 pixels).

Processor & Performance

D5 uses an EXPEED 5 processor and lets you shoot at a maximum ISO sensitivity of 100 to 102,400 that is expandable up to a staggering 3,280,000. You can shoot continuously at the max speed of 14 fps with full autofocus and auto exposure. 

Storage & Battery

The camera uses dual card slots for storing data and is available in 2 types; dual CF card slots and dual XQD slots. Using the same EN-EL18a battery as its forerunner, the Nikon D5 will give you 3,780 shots per charge that can easily be stretched to 4000 shots if you don't chimp the screen too much.

Connectivity Features

Sadly, the D5 lacks wireless connectivity features but allows for connecting to other compatible devices via its HDMI port or USB 3.0 port.

Best Lenses for

The camera uses an F lens mount and there are currently 302 native lenses compatible with this mount. Apart from offering one of the largest selection of lenses, Nikon F mount also features backward compatibility that lets you use F mount lenses even dating from the 1960s. It also supports lenses from third-party manufacturers.

Nikon D5 doesn't feature optical image stabilization system but you can use lenses that come with OIS such as  Sigma 20mm f/1.4 A, Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 25mm f/2 and Samyang 35mm f/1.4 AS UMC. Apart from these, there is a wide range of weather-sealed lenses available that you can use with this camera.