After ~13 years with the Nikon D3300 I decided it’s finally time for an upgrade. It’s a Nikon D5300! Well, it’s barely an upgrade, more of a sidegrade. At least it’s in a much better, almost new condition. The old one started to show its age with the SD card reader and the lens mount, both of which have intermittent connectivity issues.
So what changed? Well, the biggest difference is a new display. It’s higher resolution and fully articulated. The higher resolution is nice, but it’s still a far cry from any modern phone display. The articulation is nice, but surprisingly not nearly as comfortable as the flip-up screen of the Sony A5000. It’s barely usable for waist level shots, barely usable for selfies, and practically unusable in crowds. It’s nice for video work at least.
There’s a new autofocus system, which really does a better job than the D3300. This one has 39 focus points instead of 11, which allows more gradual focus placement. They are also much more consistent, more stable in low light as well. Probably because 9 of the 39 points are cross-type, instead of just the one on the D3300.
Image quality is mostly the same, they both have the same sensor. The D5300 however supports 14 bit RAWs instead of 12. I’m on the fence if this makes a difference or not.
There are also a couple or new features, like bracketing (haven’t used it), built in intervalometer (haven’t used it yet), WiFi (slow), GPS (set the time with it). So, mostly gimmicks.
Handling is fine, bit different, but easy to get used to. The live-view “lever” is still weird though.
So why this one instead of a newer mirrorless body? Money. This cost me 220EUR, a comparable mirrorless option (Z50) starts at 540EUR, which still needs another ~150EUR for the FTZ adapter so I can use my existing lenses. Even the Z30, which would be more of a downgrade starts at 450EUR. Everything got way too expensive.
Off topic, but you can now comment on my posts on the bottom of the page. Registration is optional, just enter a username. Or don’t.
Anyways, pictures:
