TECH SPOTLIGHT

Nikon D5500 offers exquisite focus, framing with new touchscreen

The Nikon D5500 adds touchscreen capabilities to its tilt/swivel screen, allowing photographers to focus and shoot with the touch of a finger.
The Nikon D5500 adds touchscreen capabilities to its tilt/swivel screen, allowing photographers to focus and shoot with the touch of a finger.

Summer vacation time is approaching, and most vacationers will be out trying to capture their memories with their cameras.

Nikon recently released a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera that not only captures photo memories, but video , as well. The DSLR cameras are the full-size ones with interchangeable lenses, as opposed to a fixed-lens point-and-shoot camera or the micro four-thirds cameras that have interchangeable lenses but are noticeably smaller than a DSLR camera.

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The Nikon D5500 requires a Secure Digital (SD) memory card. The camera retails for $1,399 but currently has a $350 rebate offered by Nikon, for a retail price of $1,049. More information is available at nikon.com.

The Nikon D5500 is what I would call an "everyman's" DSLR camera. It has better quality and more capabilities than the base D3000-series, but it's not to the semi-pro grade (or price) of the D7000-series cameras. It has features that are fairly common on high-end point-and-shoot cameras, but it offers qualities found in some of the better DSLR cameras.

The 24-megapixel Nikon D5500 has a few subtle changes here and there from the D5300, its predecessor. There is one major change, however, and it elevates the camera to a whole new level.

The camera adds a few special effects, as well as a couple of new shooting modes. The biggest change, however, is to the screen on the back. The tilt/swivel screen has been a big feature in the D5000-series cameras. This model, however, adds touchscreen capabilities.

The touchscreen allows you to control almost every aspect of the camera, particularly in live mode. You can adjust settings, move through menus, scroll through pictures and even edit the photos via the touchscreen. The best part is, it allows you to focus and even shoot just by touching the screen. It's incredibly convenient to be able to point to the exact point on which you want to focus and allow the camera to get the shot immediately. I really, really enjoyed that touchscreen.

There's one little downside to the touchscreen -- it's very, very sensitive. There was more than one photo I had to delete because I accidentally barely brushed the screen and got some crazy, out-of-focus shot.

The shooting mode button is in a fairly odd spot, tucked under the left side of the lens. It allows a quick switch from single shot to slow continuous, rapid continuous, quiet shutter, timer, remote control and remote with a 2-second delay. My only complaint with this is the quiet mode -- it's not very quiet. In fact, I found it barely quieter than the regular shutter mode. The only significant change was that it silenced the beep that signifies the focus is locked. The other modes worked fine, including the continuous shooting modes, which never seemed to stop.

I tested the camera with night shots, macro shots and landscapes, three of the more popular types. The camera did incredibly well for the most part.

I did find that the camera didn't always focus well in low light when using the touchscreen. However, it didn't do much worse than any other camera in such low light. Cameras need fairly significant contrast to autofocus correctly, and low light rarely provides that. So I can't say the fuzzy photos were really any different from what any other comparable camera would do. With decent contrast, it didn't do too badly. It did seem to work better in low light when focusing the old-fashioned way, with the focus button.

The camera impressed most with landscapes. I took the D5500 out to Lake Fayetteville for a sunrise shoot. While doing a few tripod-mounted shots with another camera, I used the D5500 to take photos by hand.

The camera delivered impressive color and a lot more sharpness than I expected with every shot. I've included a couple of samples on the Facebook page (facebook.com/pages/Tech-Spotlight-column/143770982301273). The samples were saved directly from the RAW files, without post-processing. In other words, they're straight from the camera.

I also decided to do a few macro, or close-up, shots with the D5500. In this case, I used the touchscreen and swiveled it to the best position for me to see, focus and shoot. I took photos of dew on leaves near the lake. Again, the camera was impressive with its color and sharpness.

The camera also shoots high-definition video, providing decent sound and crisp, colorful images. Video is initiated with a single touch of the record button near the shutter when the camera is in live view mode. The swivel screen really comes in handy for this.

I was very impressed with the Nikon D5500. I expected good quality, but it actually surpassed my expectations. The camera would be great for those wanting to get serious about photography or wanting to have the best quality possible from their images and video without paying for a full professional-grade camera. In the world of DSLR cameras, the D5500 is well worth the $1,050 retail price (with Nikon's current $350 rebate).

It certainly could preserve those vacation memories, in both still images and video.

Melissa L. Jones can be reached via email at [email protected].

SundayMonday Business on 06/01/2015

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