Technology and Photography (Coursework Sample)

Evaluation of Nikon D5100 Camera and Lens
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Overview
Nikon D5100 is a 16.2 Megapixels camera manufactured by Nikon Inc, Thailand. The cameras have have a resolution of 14 bits and a 23.6 mm X 15.6 mm CMOS sensor. The camera has interchangeable lens known as Nikon F-mount that allows its sensor to cropping at 4.78m pixel size at 1.5 x FOV crop.
Figure 1.1 : Nikon D5100
Key words:
Shutter speed: it is a measure in speed that the light takes to gent into sensor.
Aperture: describes the lens aperture is also called f-stop to measure on the amount of light that is supposed to pass through the lens at every instance. The word "STOP" seen during photography comes from the term f-stop. Therefore, additional exposure time is similar to "adding a stop" to the aperture. Similarly, the term "f-stop" can be used throughout the components of exposure treacle that include; shutter speed, , aperture and the ISO. The quality of a given image is, therefore, due to dissimilarities between the number of "STOP”, such as the movements and amount of lightness or darkness.
Exposure: is a term used to define the amount of time that the sensor receives light that is emitted through the reflection of lenses. Exposure is expressed informs of EV; where the relationship between shutter speed, sensitivity of the sensor and the lapse time for lens to open forms the Exposure Triangle
ISO: this is a well known initial for international standard for organizations but in this case it is used to describe cameras sensitivity to light. The ISO settings are important in controlling cameras sensors. Best exposure is achieved where there is a balance between the amounts of light entering the camera by a change to aperture diaphragm. Aperture diaphragm is the length in which the lens opens to control the amount of light to be allowed to the camera. Once the shutter is opened, the sensor can record given the amount of light allowed into it (Higgott & Wray, 2012).
ISO sensitivity is also been used as a specials manufacturing number to describe sensors sensitivity. For example, Nikon, D5100 and Nikon D5200 have a difference of 100 in-terms of sensitivity. Different products have different sensitivity ranging from 100 to 800 as the current and hence, this is a good measure for shutter speeds. Shutter speed can be from less than a minute to fraction of second depending on user’s preferences on different views. Shutter speed is directly related to the lenses type being used to achieve different aperture speeds. Aperture speed can be f/4, f/5.6, f/16 and f/22 (Peterson, 2000).
SPECIFICATIONS
* Exposure
The ISO, shutter speed and aperture speed are all the components of the exposure triangle that have a relationship that can be changed to fit user’s preference to given subject. When taking a photograph, a given image reflects off light that absorbed by sensor at different time intervals. Difference in time intervals to absorb light is the main characteristics’ for sensor speed for a given sensor. Nikon D5100 has a light meter that when subjected to sensor is capable of measuring the amount of light getting through. The generated results are then compared against the ISO settings for sensitivity to get the exposure value (EV) (Peterson, 2000).
The table below shows reciprocal settings rendered by "sunny 16" rule which states that, when an f/16 aperture is used on a broad sunny day, a shutter speed equivalent to its ISO settings can produce proper exposure. This table shows reciprocal exposures with an ISO of 100.
F- STOP

2.8

4.0

5.6

8

11

16

22

SHUTTER SPEED

1/4000

1/2000

1/1000

1/500

1/250

1/25

1/60

From the table above, when sensors sensibility is doubled less exposure time is needed. This is why the aperture of f/2.8 has a shutter speed of 1/4000 faction as the maximum speed per second and comparable to f/4.0.
* Depth and Motion
From the table above, the exposure setting at different levels and different shutter speeds influences important factors such as depth and motion. The depth of a field and motion affects two characteristics in a given image such as blurriness and image clarity. As earlier noted, shutters speed measures the time interval it takes for light to get to the sensor. Hence, an image becomes blurry when less time gets to the sensor in regards to less time taken to capture the image due to movements (Smith, 2000).
Nikon D5100 have improved features where the user can freeze motions from moving images or even making a still the object appear as if it was in motion during the time of image capture by blurring. These images are shown in figure 2.1 that shows freeze image and figure 2.2 that shows intentional blurring of an image respectively.
Figure 2.1 : "freezed image”
Figure 2.2 Still image
BODY AND DESIGN
* Connectivity to other devices
The table below shows Nikon D5100 accessories that are either purchased optionally or supplied with the camera
Accessory Image

Description


lenses


Stereo microphone


Flashes


Eyepieces and View finders


Cables and Cords


Cases


Wireless Transmitters


Remote controls and releases

CAMERA CHARACTERISTICS
Operation Modes
Nikon D5100 has improved operational modes that include movie mode, auto and manual modes. For example, the camera have the manual mode where still images can be edited to movie mode due to effects discussed earlier such as editing blurriness and images on motion. These effects are incorporated to change an image using different color scenes such as brightness creation, darkness, color sketch, color outlining, changing atmosphere and editing slideshows to make a movie (Loder, 2008). These modes have the following characteristics:
Movie mode:
* 1080p30/25/24
* 720p30/25/24
* 424p30/24
Other characteristics include
Sensitivity

* ISO 100 – 6400
* To ISO 25600 with boost

View finder Magnification

0.78x

LCD Monitor

* 3.0" TFT LCD
* 921,000 pixel TFT
* Articulated

Dimensions

128 x 97 x 79 mm
(5.0 x 3.8 x 3.1 In)

Image processing engine