Nikon D5200 Review

Overview

Overview and Tech Info by Mike Tomkins
Posted 11/06/2012

Field Test by David Schloss
Posted 06/14/2013

The Nikon D5200 marks the company's latest DSLR for "advanced beginners," upgrading the excellent Nikon D5100 with a brand new 24.1-megapixel CMOS image sensor and inheriting the relatively new EXPEED 3 image processor from the D3200, a slightly more affordable camera that debuted in April 2013. Meanwhile, the Nikon D5200 borrows the 2,016-pixel metering and 39-point autofocus system with 3D tracking from a more upscale model, the venerable D7000. Within Nikon's DSLR lineup, the D5200 currently sits between the entry-level D3200 and the enthusiast-oriented D7100.

As you'd expect, the D5200 retains its predecessor's useful Vari-angle 3-inch LCD display. And while it's been restyled, much of the body should be familiar to anybody who's spent much time shooting with the D5100. So should many of the remaining specifications. Although there are other updates -- such as a stereo microphone -- the new sensor, processor, metering and autofocus are the DSLR's key improvements.

Walkaround. At first glance, the Nikon D5200's front panel seems little-changed from its predecessor. The basic layout is similar, retaining a reasonable handgrip that's inset with an infrared receiver for a wireless remote control, and still nestling an AF assist lamp inside the grip adjacent to the Shutter button.

Look closer, though, and there are quite a few changes. Perhaps most notably, the sharply-defined crease lining the left side of the camera's front panel (as seen from behind) has moved inwards, creating more of a bevel around to the camera's side. Near its top, the crease runs beneath a raised area that provides a home to the D5200 logo, while at the bottom end it is covered by a rubber trim piece echoing that which covers the handgrip.

The red trim piece at the top of the handgrip has moved down just slightly, so that it is now entirely inset within the rubber grip surface as in other recent Nikon DSLRs, rather than simply occupying the space between rubber and plastic at the top of the grip.

Above the D5200 logo, another detail is conspicuous by its absence: the three-hole microphone grille of the D5100 is gone. The Function button on the left side of the lens mount has also lost its split personality, and no longer doubles as a Drive mode button.

Up top. A look at the top deck of the D5200 will answer how both of these changes were made. There's a new stereo microphone, sitting neatly in between the D5200's hot shoe and popup flash strobe. At the top of the hand grip, an extra button has joined the cluster from the D5100, and it serves as a dedicated Drive mode button.

In other respects, the top deck layout is much the same as before. The Mode dial still sits atop a lever controlling the Nikon D5200's live view mode, and the top of the handgrip is crowned with a Shutter button surrounded by a Power dial, plus dedicated Movie, Info and Exposure Compensation buttons. On the left of the viewfinder / flash hump is a five-hole speaker grille, and the D5200's shoulders are topped with recessed shoulder strap eyelets.

On the back. And so we come to the rear panel, dominated by that side-swiveling, Vari-angle LCD. There's still a pair of tabs at top and bottom of the screen, giving you a little purchase to pull it out from the camera body.

The changes from this angle are entirely cosmetic and ergonomic, with the control layout entirely unchanged. The protrusion adjacent to the rear grip is much taller, providing more leverage for your thumb, and so offering a more reassuring grip. (A rubber trim piece that rides most of the way up the protrusion also helps out in this regard.) The outer ring of the directional controller has also been restyled, removing the inner bevel and adding 45-degree markings between the arrows for Up, Down, Left, and Right.

Overall, the Nikon D5200 should feel welcoming to D5100 owners. The dedicated Drive button is the most significant change, and once you've become accustomed to this, you'll have the advantage of an extra dedicated control to help stave off the menu system.

Shooting with the Nikon D5200

by David Schloss

I can't get over the fact that the Nikon D5200 is geared for the "advanced beginner." Based on my experiences testing the camera in the real world, it's clear to me that with such a sophisticated feature set, budding photographers now have access to more advanced and easy-to-use shooting tools than ever before. For less than $800, you get a DSLR that can be used almost like a point-and-shoot (on steroids) in full Auto mode, but can also be tweaked and adjusted with almost as much versatility as a pro system. Indeed, when I started exploring the D5200 and its features, I was able to quickly configure it to mimic my own D3s test body in most key aspects.

Evolutionary design, inside and out. The D5200 appears to be a nearly identical twin -- at least physically -- to the D5100. However, Nikon has given the camera a significant upgrade internally, where it counts most, while making small tweaks to the exterior to accommodate additional features. At the core of the D5200 is a brand new 24.1-megapixel, DX-sized (a 1.5x crop factor) CMOS sensor that was designed to perform better at higher ISOs than the similarly sized sensor in the entry-level Nikon D3200 DSLR. (Standard ISO runs from 100 to 6400 but the camera has expanded shooting up to ISO 25,600.) The D5200 also upgrades its AF to a wide-area system with 39 points of focusing and 9 cross-type sensors, and supports 3D subject tracking.

Meanwhile, to accommodate the greater demand for HD video -- which the camera captures at Full 1080p -- Nikon has added a stereo mic to the top of the chassis. And the back of the camera houses an articulated 921,000-dot, 3-inch TFT LCD screen that provides a 170-degree viewing angle.

The resulting package is both relatively compact and definitely powerful, and I found the D5200 functions with the performance and quality expected from a mid-level Nikon DSLR, albeit with advanced features not normally associated with an $800 price point.

Controls and operation. Anyone familiar with a Nikon DSLR should be able to pick up the Nikon D5200 and start shooting with it immediately, although professionals and enthusiasts used to systems with an array of dedicated settings buttons will need to adjust to the D5200's menu-based system.

Shooting menus. The D5200 presents a lot of information on the back LCD, but it's sometimes tedious to dig through menus to change settings.

That, generally speaking, is the basis for my one major criticism of the D5200. The D5200 not only lacks a touchscreen display, but also doesn't efficiently use its rear Control Pad. That makes changing settings more complicated than it has to be, often requiring you to dive fairly deep into the menu system to get the right setting.

When bringing up the rear display during shooting, the camera shows all current settings on the top part of the LCD display -- with a scrollable menu below that dives into each setting's options. In theory it should be easy to quickly change the WB or ISO via the menu, but instead there are always several steps needed to get to the desired selection. For example, changing the White Balance is accomplished by first pressing the Info button above the display, next to the AE-L/AF-L button, and then using the Control Pad to move through selections to get to White Balance. Then the shooter presses OK, and then again uses the control pad to move over to the desired setting and then presses OK again to select the White Balance.

If the camera screen goes to sleep before a selection is made, the menu defaults back to the main display. In other words, if I navigate down to WB and put the camera down for a few seconds before making and confirming a choice I'm thrown back to the main display, at which point I have to navigate back to WB and start again. That, of course, is quite a frustrating experience. (Editor's note: The short default menu timeout appears to be a bug. The D5200 has selectable timeout values for Playback/menus, Image review, Live view and Standby. The default "Normal" timeout for menus should be about one minute, not a few seconds. The good news is that you can select "Long" to extend menu timeouts to about one minute.)

By contrast, I've found that systems with a touchscreen LCD display usually allow the shooter to simply touch WB and then pick a WB setting. Cameras that use the Control Pad more efficiently would simply use the left and right buttons to move to a setting and then the up and down buttons to toggle between settings, with no confirmation necessary to make a change.

The result is that many competing cameras in this class often have a more direct approach to changing settings. This is something that could easily be addressed in firmware, so I'm hoping that eventually Nikon streamlines this process.

Nikon did add a button on the top deck to jump between shutter drive modes, and the front programmable Function button can be assigned to more than a dozen shooting parameters including WB or ISO. The AE-L/AF-L buttons can also be assigned to various exposure and focus lock settings, and within a few seconds of picking up the D5200, I had programmed it to function in AF-C with the AE-L/AF-L button set to activate the autofocus -- a customization tweak I picked up after years of shooting sports. All this means that I could seamlessly move between my D3s and the D5200 when testing the camera and expect to find functions in a similar position.

Features. The Nikon D5200 inherits a lot of features from its predecessor. For example, the camera has a built-in Intervalometer (a timer to take photos at specific intervals, usually used for time-lapse shots). It also doesn't have Depth of Field Preview. Some nice touches on the D5200 have to do with attention to detail and user interaction. For the wireless shooter there are both front and rear infrared receivers for the wireless IR shutter release, something you don't really realize is important until you're trying to trigger a time lapse photo from behind the camera.

Intervalometer. A feature that's great for time-lapse or even manual HDR photography.

The camera's Quiet Shutter mode purportedly dampens the noise made by the D5200 when it's capturing images. However, in my tests it was nearly every bit as loud as the normal shutter release -- though it takes longer for the procession of noises to occur. It delays lowering of the mirror until the shutter button is released, separating the noise of this operation from that of the mirror being raised and the shutter fired. This allows you to decide when the mirror return click occurs. This mode also silences the autofocus confirmation beep, though that can be disabled separately.

Owning to the advanced beginner focus, the camera features the various popular Scene modes on the top mounted dial where they're easy to find and use. Putting the camera in Scene provides access to a dozen more pre-programmed shooting modes. The camera's fully Auto mode allows the D5200 to make up its own mind as to what shooting modes to use for a given situation or shot, and it's where many beginners will likely start.

The Nikon D5200 also features a series of Special Effects settings, which performs in-camera processing much like a mini Photoshop. Many cameras have these settings buried in menus, but Nikon put them on the top dial for the D5200. There are just seven effects, including High Key and Low Key (which really aren't effects), and they're not terribly impressive (see the table below). With a dedicated space on the Mode dial, I'd have hoped for a greater range of creative expression. However, you can access the Retouch menu to alter photographs already taken and stored in camera on the memory card. Options range from Photoshop-like tools such as Trim (cropping), Distortion Control (nice!) and Color balance to more Instagram-esque filters such as Monochrome, Miniature effect and Selective color, among others.

The D5200 sports a built-in pop-up flash as is common on DSLRs in this category, which is welcome. Personally I think all DSLR cameras should have a pop-up flash, and for many years I carried a D700 in my bag as my backup body mostly because it had an integrated flash. The light from these small strobes is often just enough to provide great fill, radically changing the exposure of a scene.

The flash on the Nikon D5200 activates with the press of a side-mounted button, and that button doubles as a flash exposure compensation dial as well, which is a nice touch. (For fill, it's best to set the flash exposure a bit lower than full-power, and having an external button to set the flash power helps dial this in.)

Unfortunately, the built-in flash still cannot control the Nikon Wireless Speedlight system. However, you can purchase the optional SU-800 Commander unit (not a flash itself) or any one of a number of Wireless Speedlight flashes (SB-910, SB-900, SB-800 or SB-700) if you want to take advantage of Nikon's powerful and easy-to-use off-camera flash system. It's yet another way the D5200 opens up a world of sophisticated photographic capabilities to advanced beginners.

The optical viewfinder on the Nikon D5200 feels tiny and cramped, something that's the case with many DSLR bodies looking for a small form factor. However, the OVF did provide about 96% viewing coverage in IR's test, which is a bit better than most DSLRs in its class.

LCD and Live View. The Nikon D5200 boasts an articulating LCD screen that can be pivoted to just about any angle, and can be folded flat against the camera with the screen against the body and a protective plastic back facing out. This is actually a fantastic argument for articulating LCD screens as it can prevent the bumps and scratches that come with life in and out of a camera bag.

The screen is incredibly bright and vibrant, and is visible in just about any light condition and angle. For the "selfie" photographer the screen can be rotated so that the subject can see themselves in the display -- something my 2-year old son likes quite a bit. (Of course since he's 2, I have a lot of photos with him looking just off camera at the LCD display.)

The small size of the D5200 makes it convenient to carry around with you, and the articulated LCD makes it easy to get shots in difficult locations or angles -- or to occupy your child's attention while you're trying to take his picture!

As I mentioned earlier, the lack of a touchscreen interface makes the LCD screen less useful than some competing cameras in this class. I'd personally love to see this added in a future revision -- though I realize that plenty of photographers think touchscreens are overkill, at best.

Please note that while the D5200 can focus in Live View (something not possible with first generation LiveView cameras), the focus and operation isn't as fast as when using the viewfinder, naturally.

One unfortunate flaw we found with the Nikon D5200's Live View was that using magnified view for manual focusing isn't very accurate. The IR Lab had to reshoot its Still Life test shots because the first batch turned out just slightly out of focus, even though they looked sharp in magnified Live View.

Nikon Wireless Transmitter. The D5200 works with the WR-R10 and WR-T10 transmitters and receivers for camera triggering and remote operation. Unlike Nikon's Wireless Speedlight system, the WR series uses radio frequency to control camera operations much like third-party systems such as PocketWizard.

That's great for such an inexpensive camera because it allows for a level of remote operation not available with infrared-based remote controls. It also means that the mid-level D5200 could be used as a remote camera by pros using the WR-R10 and WR-T10 trigger systems with more expensive cameras and not worry so much about the cost of damage to equipment if something goes wrong.

User interface and menu system. Nikon has always had a good user interface, and the D5200's is no exception; its UI is clean, logically laid out and doesn't get in the way of shooting. During normal camera operation the rear panel LCD screen displays current camera settings such as shutter speed, aperture, ISO, focus area and more. There are several themes available to control the display of the information, my favorite being an analog-style dial. It is a bright and beautiful display.

D5200 settings display. Current exposure settings are displayed prominently on top so you can check them at a glance, while the bottom section shows the status of fine-control settings.

Below the camera status displays are controls for every conceivable camera function. I addressed some of the challenges with the D5200's rear-panel LCD screen's functionality above, but to again summarize here -- to change a camera setting that's not assigned to a button, it's necessary to press the Info button on the rear of the camera, then navigate to the desired function with the control pad. Once on the correct function (white balance, ISO, etc.) the user has to press the OK button to enter the settings for that function, use the control pad to make the selection and then press the OK button again. That's a lot of button presses just to change the ISO.

Separate from the control settings is the camera's Menu, which looks similar to the Menus from every other Nikon camera, making it easy to transition to or from any other Nikon camera with relative ease. Many amateurs will likely avoid the Custom Settings Menu, but will likely need a trip to the menus nonetheless.

Help system. Though it's not extensive enough for our tastes, the help system quickly displays short descriptions for a variety of modes and settings that should help beginners somewhat.

Nikon has included its Help system on the D5200, and a button on the rear of the camera (also used to zoom out of images) brings up an on-screen description of a setting's function when pressed. (Not all functions and features have help; a question mark is illuminated on the display when help is available.) I found that, too often, the help isn't extensive enough. For example, the entire description available for D-Lighting is "Bring out details in poorly-lit subjects." I'm not sure that's enough to really assist a photographer looking to use this dynamic-range boosting feature.

The Nikon D5200 also will let photographers know why a photograph isn't likely to come out properly by flashing the settings and displaying help text such as "Subject is too dark" and pressing the help button brings up a bit more info such as "Subject too dark; Cannot adjust exposure. Use the flash."

Nikon also included a Recent Settings menu on the D5200 where any recent changes to the setup of the camera can be found. This is very helpful when you want to jump back to something you've done (focus mode for example) and change it back without digging through menus.

If you prefer to select which settings appear in a custom menu, you can opt for the "My Menu" feature, which lets you choose up to 20 options from the the Playback, Shooting, Custom Settings and Setup menus. Unfortunately it's not immediately clear how to activate the My Menu feature since it's hidden beneath the Recent Settings tab. You have to select Choose Tab and then select My Menu to place it on the top navigation bar on the left.

And finally, the Custom Settings menus are color coded so that related functions (control, exposure, flash) are grouped together and easy to find.

Nikon has placed a Live View switch on the top deck of the D5200 -- pulling back on the spring-loaded switch toggles Live View on and off. There's also a dedicated Movie Record button on the top of the camera to toggle video recording. For shooters who used earlier Nikon cameras where video recording required several button presses, this is a welcome improvement. Personally I wish the record button did dual duty, with a first press turning on Live View in video mode and a second press activating recording. Why? Because I often find that a moment suitable for video is fleeting, and toggling a switch and then pushing a button left me missing the start of a few moments I wanted to record.

Performance. Speaking of recording: One quick note about Live View -- in my testing I found that when used with an inexpensive (read "slow") SD card, the D5200 would produce an error message when trying to switch to Live View while the buffer was full of images. A super-fast SD card reduced this, but it's still not possible to jump to Live View while the D5200 has a buffer full of images. With a generic SD card it could take upwards of 10 seconds after the last photo in a burst before the Live View mode could be activated. With a high-end card only, this took only one or two seconds.

Since viewfinder use and storage card speed aren't directly connected, it appears the Nikon D5200 doesn't have enough processing power to churn through images and also perform live focusing and exposure calculations. That's not an issue -- the D5200 isn't designed to be a pro level camera, but it does point out how storage cards can be an integral part in the performance of a camera.

Just how fast is the Nikon D5200? Find out by clicking here to see our full battery
of rigorous, objective speed and operation tests conducted in the IR Lab.

Generally speaking, the Nikon D5200 is fairly peppy. Some modes are faster -- and some slower -- than other DSLRs in its class. When shooting JPEG-only Normal mode it's possible to just keep taking pictures continually (I got tired of holding down the button around 100 frames) at about 2 frames per second, but the camera also features a burst mode that lets you shoot about 5 frames per second in JPEG, RAW and RAW+JPEG. Shooting RAW-only (with a fast card) the camera can capture a burst of up to seven images and then, beyond that limit, continues to capture photos at about 2.3 fps. With RAW+Fine, this dropped to a burst of five shots and then it slowed to about 1.5 fps. Since most photographers using the D5200 will likely shoot JPEG, that's a great level of performance.

In terms of autofocus speed, I found the camera's 39-point AF system to be only average for its class. The D5200's AF proved to be reasonably responsive and accurate, though it struggled a bit to lock onto focus in low lighting situations.

Image quality and the kit lens. When I write camera reviews I don't always comment on the kit lens, but in this case I feel there are a few important things to keep in mind with the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S DX VR NIKKOR Zoom lens. The first is that many users of the D5200 are likely to want a faster, brighter optic than the f/3.5 to f/5.6 maximum apertures the kit lens is limited to -- because the camera really is so good. For a photographer on the upper end of the amateur scale but trying to save some money, it might be better to buy the body and then get a lens with a larger max aperture.

How well did the Nikon 18-55mm kit lens perform in the lab?
Find out by clicking here to see our optical test results.

But that's not to say the kit lens is awful. The images I captured with it were bright and clean (if a little soft), and didn't suffer from much visible distortion. Since it comes at just a $100 premium over the D5200 body, it's not a bad investment since the lens itself costs $200 when purchased separately. However, I do feel most shooters will quickly outgrow the 18-55mm and want a more long-range zoom for everyday use, plus a few primes to captures portraits and landscapes, as well as a longer telephoto zoom.

As for overall image quality, consider me quite impressed with the Nikon D5200. When I asked some friends and colleagues to pick which images were taken with my Nikon D3s or the D5200, they had a difficult time differentiating the two. (I did not shoot wide open on my D3s to avoid identification based on lens blur). Both cameras produce vivid and accurate images, and I would have expected nothing less from a Nikon DSLR.

As far as sensitivity versus noise goes, I found that images taken up to around ISO 6400 from the D5200 were quite acceptable for my tastes, a fact that emphasizes how far entry-level DSLR cameras have come. And even up to extended range ISO 12,800, the camera's images were usable at small sizes, including 4 x 6 prints.

You can view the IR Lab's in-depth Nikon D5200 image quality test results by clicking here,
or read further on for side-by-side comparisons against the D5200's top competitors.

Video. I didn't spend too much time recording movies with the Nikon D5200, but I did find that it produces quite good looking HD video (1080p30) for most consumer purposes. Additionally, the camera packs in some video features I wouldn't normally expect at this price point. In addition to the stereo microphone built into the pentamirror housing, the camera also features an external microphone jack, something that should really be on any camera capable of recording Full HD video. Nikon has also included Mic Sensitivity controls and a Flicker Reduction feature for shooting under sodium or fluorescent lights. Of note, there's a 4GB limit per video clip, but that won't be an issue for most users.

Summary. Overall, Nikon delivers what it promised with the D5200 -- a DSLR that's suitable for beginners and capable of producing beautiful, detailed images with very little effort. But at the same time it provides them with enough features and shooting modes to grow into, and rewards those willing to take the effort to push the camera's photographic limits.

Nikon D5200 Additional Shooting Modes and Video

by William Brawley

To demonstrate more of what the Nikon D5200 has to offer, we shot additional images using a variety of the camera's built-in creative effects and recorded a Full HD 1080p movie to illustrate its video chops.

Effects: The D5200 features both an Effects mode and various exposure modification settings for enhanced creative looks. The Effects mode offers a variety of filter effects, some of which are shown in the first table below, that can really alter your photos to fit your creative style. Not pictured is a special night mode effect called "Night Vision" for use in night or dark scenes. The Effects modes keep most exposure settings on automatic, but users have the option of adjusting ISO. For the Selective Color effect, users must choose the color(s) they wish to filter out before taking a photo.

Nikon D5200 Effects filter modes
Color Sketch	Miniature Effect
Selective Color	Silhouette
High Key	Low Key
The D5200's Effects mode offers a fairly limited range of creative effects that provide an opportunity to expand your creative vision.

It should be noted that RAW capture is not supported for most Effects modes as well as HDR mode. If RAW or RAW+JPEG mode is selected, Night Vision, Color Sketch, Miniature Effect and Selective Color modes will only capture JPEG images, and the HDR option is disabled. Active D-Lighting is still available in RAW mode, however depending on the post-processing software you use, the effect of the ADL processing might be ignored. To ensure that RAW images with Active D-Lighting are processed properly, we recommend you use Nikon's included ViewNX 2 software, or the more advanced but optional Capture NX 2 package.

Nikon D5200 HDR Effect
Off	Auto
Low	Norm
High	Extra High
The D5200's HDR Mode appears to have little effect on this scene, unless you use High or Extra High mode. Even then, there appears to be little resulting boost to shadow details as one would expect in an HDR photo. The only difference is that in the higher-strength HDR modes, the highlight levels are lowered, and with the Extra High mode, the highlights in the sky are reduced to the point of producing an artificial-looking halo-effect around the trees. Scenes with greater tonal range would likely fare better.

Nikon D5200 Active D-Lighting
Off	Auto
Low	Normal
High	Extra High
The D5200's Active D-Lighting Mode is designed to help balance the shadow and highlights in high-contrast scenes. Compared to the "Off" photo, the "Extra High" photo's contrast is noticeably reduced. Again, scenes with greater tonal range would likely show more dramatic improvement.

Scene modes are similar to what's available on many other digital cameras, and includes standard presets such as a Landscape, Portrait, Night and Macro modes. The D5200 also features other Scene modes such as Pet Portrait to capture images of active pets or other moving objects, Candlelight for warm-toned scenes shot by candlelight and Blossom for fields of flowers or trees in bloom.

Video: The D5200 provides a fairly robust set of video recording capabilities including full-time autofocus, support for Aperture-priority and Manual exposure modes, built-in stereo mics and an external mic jack. There's also a wide selection of resolutions and frame rates. 1,920 x 1,080 resolution can be captured at 60i, 50i, 30p, 25p, or 24p, and 1280 x 720 can be 60p or 50p. A VGA mode at 30p or 25p is also offered.

I took the D5200 out by a local pond to shoot a few short videos, particularly to see how the full-time AF behaved. While the AF worked, I felt it was a bit slow to lock focus, and racking from near to far subjects took longer than I expected. Also, I could hear the AF motor working quite loudly while autofocusing. Not surprisingly, this noise was picked up in the recordings by the built-in mics. This could vary depending on the lens you use, but when using the included 18-55mm kit lens, it was definitely noticeable.

Despite a few limitations, the D5200 captures great movies at Full HD 1080p30, and marks a noticeable step up from its predecessor's capabilities.

See our detailed Nikon D5200 video analysis page, with insight on how the camera handles a variety of recording situations, ranging from night-time shooting to rolling shutter tests.

Nikon D5200 Technical Info

by Mike Tomkins

Sensor. The Nikon D5200 digital SLR is based around a newly-developed APS-C sized CMOS image sensor. (That's DX-format in Nikon parlance.) Effective resolution is 24.1 megapixels, similar -- but not identical -- to that of the chip used in the D3200.

Processor. Output from the new image sensor is handled by Nikon's proprietary EXPEED 3 image processor, also seen previously in the D3200. In the Nikon D5200, this combination provides five frames-per-second burst shooting. That's one frame more each second than either the D5100 or D3200 can provide.

Sensitivity. Despite the increased resolution, the D5200's sensitivity ranges from ISO 100 to 6400 equivalents, and the upper end of the range is expandable to ISO 25,600 equivalent. That's exactly the same range offered by the earlier camera.

Lens Mount. Like its predecessor, the Nikon D5200 accepts Nikon F-mount lenses, but its AF-S lens mount lacks the in-body screw-drive motor needed to provide autofocus on older Nikkor lenses that lack the AF-S or AF-I designation. (You can still use older lenses; you'll just have to focus manually. Some lens types will also have a few limitations with regard to availability of individual focus, metering, and exposure modes.)

Viewfinder. You have two ways of framing images on the Nikon D5200. Of course, there's a pentamirror viewfinder with a built-in diopter adjustment; alternatively you can frame on the LCD panel in live view mode.

LCD. The panel looks to be unchanged from that in the D5100, with the same three-inch diagonal and 921,000 dot resolution. (That equates to roughly a VGA array of 640 x 480 pixels, with each pixel comprised of separate red, green, and blue dots.)

The LCD's articulation mechanism -- branded by Nikon as Vari-angle -- is also unchanged. The side-mounted swivel allows viewing from most angles, and you can close it with the LCD facing inwards for a modicum of extra protection from bumps and knocks.

Autofocus. The Nikon D5200 inherits its 39-point, wide-area Multi-CAM 4800DX phase detection autofocus system from the enthusiast-friendly Nikon D7000 digital SLR. Nine autofocus points feature cross-type sensors, which are sensitive to both horizontal and vertical detail. Seven of these points at the center of the frame work all the way down to f/8, allowing use with teleconverters and longer lenses. When using live view mode, full-time contrast detection autofocus is used for both still and video imaging. By way of contrast, the D5100 had just 11 autofocus points, of which there was only one cross-type point.

Exposure Modes. Exposure modes are unchanged since the Nikon D5100. You have a choice of Program, Aperture-priority, Shutter-priority, and Manual exposure modes in which experienced shooters will spend much of their time, plus consumer-friendly Auto and Scene modes. There's also a Flash Off Auto mode, an Effects mode, a Scene position, and five Scene modes that merit their own separate Mode dial positions. The Nikon D5200's Effects-mode options are the same as those offered by the D5100: Selective Color, Miniature, High and Low Key, Silhouette, Color Sketch and Night Vision.

Drive Modes. Beneath the Mode dial is the Live View lever, while to its right is the new Drive mode button, used to select between single frame, burst shooting (5fps or 3fps), self timer, remote control modes (delayed or quick) and Quiet shutter release mode. There's also an Interval Timer mode as well as Multiple Exposure support.

Metering. The Nikon D5200 also inherits the D7000's 3D color matrix metering II exposure metering system, which is based around a dedicated 2,016 pixel RGB sensor. The system has a working range of 0 to 20 EV, and it ties into Nikon's Scene Recognition System. This compares the metered scene to a built-in database of over 30,000 different images, and uses this information while determining suitable settings for exposure, autofocus, and white balance. The D5100 had the same system, but it had to make do with much coarser-grained information from a 420 pixel metering sensor. For every one metering pixel on the D5100, there are almost five pixels on the D5200's metering sensor.

Flash. Like its predecessor, the D5200 includes both a pop-up flash, and a hot shoe for external strobes. The D5200 supports Nikon's Creative Lighting System, but unlike higher models the built-in flash does not support commander mode. You'll have to use a mounted SB-910, SB-900, SB-800 or SB-700 flash, or an SU-800 Speedlight commander for that.

Movie mode. The Nikon D5200 also retains Full HD (1080p) high-def video capture, with full-time tracking autofocus, but with a couple of important changes. It's now possible to record interlaced video at up to 60i / 50i frame rates, as well as match the progressive-scan 30p maximum of the D5100. Importantly, this comes from a matching sensor data rate, unlike some cameras that merely span a single sensor data frame across two interlaced frames. That should translate to smoother videos with a better perception of motion. Also, where the D5100 had a monaural microphone on the front deck, the newer model has a stereo mic on its top deck, snuggled in between the popup flash strobe and hot shoe.

Connectivity. The Nikon D5200 can be connected to a computer or printer using a USB (2.0 High Speed) cable with a Mini-B plug connection on the camera side. This is a combined USB/AV port used for both data transfer and standard-def composite video/stereo audio output. There's also a Mini HDMI (Type C) port for high-def output with CEC support.

The D5200 includes an accessory terminal for use with an MC-DC2 cable remote, WR-R10 wireless remote transceiver, or GP-1 GPS unit (all available separately). A 3.5mm stereo microphone jack for attaching external microphones for video recording is also provided.

WU-1a Wireless Mobile Adapter. Control and share photos online wirelessly with your iOS or Android smartphone or tablet.

Other connectivity features not shown here are the dedicated hot shoe for attaching a Nikon Speedlight (or third-party) accessory flash unit, and the dual infrared receiver ports (front and back) for use with an optional ML-L3 IR remote control. The WR-R10 transceiver / WR-T10 transmitter allow remote control of multiple cameras at one time on one of three different radio channels.

The D5200 does not feature built-in Wi-Fi connectivity, but the optional WU-1a Wireless Mobile Adapter allows Wi-Fi remote control of the camera (including a low-res live view stream) from Android and iOS devices.

Power. The Nikon D5200 is powered by a rechargeable 7.4v 1030mAh Lithium-ion battery pack (EN-EL14) and comes with a dedicated charger (MH-24 Quick Charger). The battery is CIPA-rated for 500 shots on a single charge. An optional AC adapter kit (EH-5b AC Adapter) is available separately, but requires an additional EP-5A Power Connector.

Storage. The camera uses SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, and both UHS-1 and Eye-Fi cards are supported. Still images can be recorded and stored as JPEG, 14-bit RAW (.NEF) and RAW+JPEG files. Videos are recorded and stored as H.264/MPEG-4 AVC MOV files.

Nikon D5200 Image Quality Comparisons

The crops below compare the Nikon D5200 to the Nikon D5100, Canon T5i, Nikon D7100, Pentax K-30 and Sony A58.

Note that these images are best quality JPEGs straight out of the camera, at default settings including noise reduction. Each camera was shot with one of our very sharp reference prime lenses.

Nikon D5200 versus Nikon D5100 at Base ISO

Nikon D5200 at ISO 100	Nikon D5100 at ISO 100
The D5200 compares closely against its 16-megapixel predecessor. Other than the increased resolution of the D5200, image detail is similar in the first two crops. However the D5200 does better with the fabric swatches, and noticeably so on the pink fabric.

Nikon D5200 versus Canon T5i at Base ISO

Nikon D5200 at ISO 100	Canon T5i at ISO 100
The Nikon matches closely with the Canon in the first two images, but does better with the red fabric swatch in fine detail. Even at a lower resolution, the 18-megapixel T5i resolves fine detail slightly better in the mosaic image. And other than slight color tone differences, the detail in the pink fabric swatch is fairly close between the two.

Nikon D5200 versus Nikon D7100 at Base ISO

Nikon D5200 at ISO 100	Nikon D7100 at ISO 100
We've included the D7100 in our comparison for those of you wondering if its image quality is noticeably better. With both cameras housing a similar (if not identical) 24-megapixel DX sensor, it's no surprise that their images are so close in quality. All three image crops are nearly identical, although the D7100 appears to capture a bit more detail across the board, likely thanks to its lack of a low pass filter.

Nikon D5200 versus Pentax K-30 at Base ISO

Nikon D5200 at ISO 100	Pentax K-30 at ISO 100
In all areas but the pink fabric swatch (with which Pentax cameras seem to have saturation and hue issues), the 16-megapixel Pentax bests the Nikon. The K-30's higher default sharpening and contrast produce much crisper detail in the mosaic and a more natural (if a bit soft) rendering of the red fabric swatch.

Nikon D5200 versus Sony A58 at Base ISO

Nikon D5200 at ISO 100	Sony A58 at ISO 100
The 20-megapixel Sony A58 does really well here against the D5200, and it actually appears to beat the Nikon in all crops, most noticeably in the mosaic. However the D5200 yields a touch more detail in the red fabric swatch, although the A58 does significantly better at resolving fine detail in the pink fabric swatch.

Most digital SLRs and CSCs will produce an excellent ISO 100 shot, so we like to push them and see what they can do compared to other cameras at ISO 1600, 3200, and 6400. Recent advances in sensor technology have made ISO 1600 look a lot more like ISO 100, but there are still cameras whose quality starts to fall apart at this setting. We also choose 1600 because we like to be able to shoot at least at this level when indoors and at night.

Nikon D5200 versus Nikon D5100 at ISO 1600

Nikon D5200 at ISO 1600	Nikon D5100 at ISO 1600
Detail-wise all images look fairly similar between these two cameras, other than the obvious difference in resolution.

Nikon D5200 versus Canon T5i at ISO 1600

Nikon D5200 at ISO 1600	Canon T5i at ISO 1600
There's not an easy winner in this comparison. There is more fine-grained noise in the bottle crop from the D5200, and the T5i does better with fine details in the mosaic crop. In the fabric swatch, the Nikon does much better with the red fabric, while the Canon produces a slightly better pattern in the pink fabric. Call it a toss up.

Nikon D5200 versus Nikon D7100 at ISO 1600

Nikon D5200 at ISO 1600	Nikon D7100 at ISO 1600
Much like the previous comparison at base ISO, the images are very close. However, the D7100 (with no low pass filter) exhibits just a bit more fine detail and better noise-versus-detail optimization.

Nikon D5200 versus Pentax K-30 at ISO 1600

Nikon D5200 at ISO 1600	Pentax K-30 at ISO 1600
Here, the Nikon does much better with the fabric, while the Pentax does better with the mosaic in terms of fine detail. Interestingly, the Pentax produces crisper text in the bottle image compared to the Nikon, while the shadows and bottle surface suffer from what appears to be heavy noise reduction.

Nikon D5200 versus Sony A58 at ISO 1600

Nikon D5200 at ISO 1600	Sony A58 at ISO 1600
At ISO 1600, the Sony fares favorably compared to the Nikon, handling noise well in the first comparison while still producing sharp text on the bottle's label. The mosaic crop is also much more detailed from the Sony camera, as is the pink fabric, whereas the Nikon does better with detail in the red fabric area.

Today's ISO 3200 is yesterday's ISO 1600 (well, almost), so below are the same crops at ISO 3200.

Nikon D5200 versus Nikon D5100 at ISO 3200

Nikon D5200 at ISO 3200	Nikon D5100 at ISO 3200
At ISO 3200, both Nikons here look very similar, particularly in the first two comparisons. The D5100, however, appears to produce a more realistic leaf pattern in the red fabric swatch.

Nikon D5200 versus Canon T5i at ISO 3200

Nikon D5200 at ISO 3200	Canon T5i at ISO 3200
The Nikon easily wins in the red fabric area compared to the Canon, however both cameras look similar in terms of noise and detail in the first two comparisons.

Nikon D5200 versus Nikon D7100 at ISO 3200

Nikon D5200 at ISO 3200	Nikon D7100 at ISO 3200
Here at ISO 3200, again, both cameras produce similar results, with the D7100 getting the slight nod in terms of fine detail and how it handles noise.

Nikon D5200 versus Pentax K-30 at ISO 3200

Nikon D5200 at ISO 3200	Pentax K-30 at ISO 3200
This is a strange comparison. The Pentax produces crisper text on the bottle's label compared to the Nikon, but the rest of the crop has a heavy amount of noise reduction. The mosaic image looks much better from the Pentax, but at the same time the K-30 struggles to produce any kind of leaf pattern in the red fabric swatch.

Nikon D5200 versus Sony A58 at ISO 3200

Nikon D5200 at ISO 3200	Sony A58 at ISO 3200
The Sony does better in producing finer details in the mosaic crop and sharper text on the label in the first image, while the Nikon handles the red fabric swatch much better.

Detail: Nikon D5200 vs. Nikon D5100, Canon T5i, Pentax K-30, Nikon D7100 and Sony A58

	Nikon D5200 ISO 100 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Nikon D5100 ISO 100 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Canon T5i ISO 100 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Nikon D7100 ISO 100 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Pentax K-30 ISO 100 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Sony A58 ISO 100 ISO 3200 ISO 6400
Detail comparison. At ISO 100, all cameras do pretty well, with the Pentax being the standout winner. Compared to its predecessor, the D5200 does much better in terms of fine detail. As ISO increases, the overall sharpness decreases, but the D5200 does reasonably well. At both ISO 3200 and 6400, the Pentax K-30 and the Sony A58 cameras appear to do better than the D5200, producing sharper detail in the lettering (although the Pentax does have some issues with the small red lettering). Compared against the higher-priced yet similarly sensored D7100, these two camera produce images that are very close in terms of detail and noise handling, with the D7100 getting the slight nod likely because it lacks a low pass filter.

Nikon D5200 Print Quality Analysis

Very nice 30 x 40 inch prints at ISO 100; makes a good 16 x 20 inch print at ISO 800 and a usable 4 x 6 at ISO 12,800.

ISO 100 images are very detailed with bright, accurate colors up to 30 x 40 inches. 36 x 48 inch prints are quite suitable for wall display.

ISO 200 prints are very similar to ISO 100, but just a bit lower in fine detail and showing a minor amount of noise, thus making great prints at 24 x 36 inches. 30 x 40 inch prints here are great for wall display.

ISO 400 images start to show some noise in the shadows. Prints look great up to 20 x 30 inches, while 24 x 36 inch prints are suitable for wall display.

ISO 800 images look good at 16 x 20 inches. There is some noise, but you only really see it in the shadow areas, and even then, the grain is reminiscent of film grain and not present over the entire image.

ISO 1600 makes a pretty good 11 x 14 inch print. At 13 x 19, the image is a little too soft in finely detailed areas. Noise levels in the the highlights and midrange areas are excellent, but it's quite noticeable in the shadows (although still appearing more like film grain). If the image was of a brightly-lit scene, noise would be virtually unnoticeable.

ISO 3200 prints start to show a fair amount of noise, but it still produces a nice 8 x 10 inch print. As before, shadow noise is apparent, but otherwise the image looks great.

ISO 6400 makes a decent 5 x 7, but noise and a reduction in fine detail is taking its toll on the image quality, preventing us from calling anything larger acceptable.

ISO 12,800 images are fairly heavy on noise at larger sizes, but can still produce a decent 4 x 6 inch print. Colors still look good, but fine detail, such as in the red fabric and mosaic area, is almost nonexistent.

ISO 25,600 does not produce good prints at 4 x 6, and is best avoided if possible.

The Nikon D5200's 24-megapixel APS-C sensor produces excellent results for very large prints at low ISO levels. Additionally, this camera is capable of images that retain fantastic color and fine details even as the ISO rises. In fact, this was a somewhat difficult camera to grade because its results in some areas exceeded expectations. At the higher ISO levels between 1600 and 12,800, we were on the fence many times for which way to go in calling an acceptable size. The D5200 retained a great amount of fine detail at high ISOs, but we saw noticeable noise in the shadow areas. Even still, the noise on these high ISO prints reminded us of film grain, and users might like the way noise looks on higher ISO prints for certain purposes. Overall, this DSLR packs a ton of pixels in a consumer-grade camera and produces stellar low-ISO prints at very large sizes, while still doing a fantastic job with prints at higher ISO levels.

In the Box

The Nikon D3200 ships with the following items in the box:

• Nikon D5200 body
• AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens (if purchased as a kit)
• AN-DC3 Strap (color matches the body)
• BF-1B Body Cap
• BS-1 Accessory Shoe Cover
• DK-20 Rubber Eyecup
• DK-5 Eyepiece Cap
• EG-CP16 Audio Video Cable
• EN-EL14 Rechargeable Li-ion Battery
• MH-24 Quick Charger
• ViewNX 2 Software CD-ROM

Recommended Accessories

• Extra battery pack (EN-EL14) for extended outings
• Large capacity SDHC/SDXC memory card. These days, 16GB is a good tradeoff between cost and capacity for a consumer DSLR, but if you plan to capture HD movie clips or shoot in RAW format, look for larger cards with Class 6 or faster ratings.
• Additional DX lenses, including a longer zoom for more telephoto reach and fast primes for landscapes and portraits
• SB-910, SB-700 or SB-400 Speedlight accessory flash
• Wireless Remote ML-L3 infrared remote
• Wireless Remote Controller WR-R10/WRT10
• Wireless Mobile Adapter WU-1a for connecting the D5200 to smart devices and sharing images wirelessly
• EP-5A Power Supply Connector and EH-5b AC Adapter for studio shooting
• GPS unit GP-1 for geotagging
• Stereo microphone ME-1 to improve audio capture during video recording
• Camera case

Nikon D5200 Conclusion

The Nikon D5200 is a lot of camera for the money, and though it's aimed at advanced beginners in terms of image quality and capabilities, it's not too far removed from DSLRs geared for more serious photographers. Thanks to its 24.1-megapixel CMOS sensor and EXPEED 3 processor -- which seems to be the same sensor-processor combo packed into the bigger, better, newer D7100 -- the D5200 offers more resolution in a mid-level camera than Nikon's ever offered before.

The camera's clean, highly detailed images rivals those of direct competitors such as the Canon T5i, as well as full-blown enthusiast models such as its big brother, the D7100. (In fact, the only thing that appears to differentiate the image quality between the Nikon D5200 and the D7100 is the latter's lack of a low pass filter, a move that earns it some better fidelity at the risk of incurring moiré.) The D5200 also produces great images at high ISOs; you can even make an acceptable 4 x 6 print at ISO 12,800.

Design wise, the D5200 looks and feels very much like its predecessor, the D5100, though a few tweaks have been made to the body -- most notably a beveled crease that runs around the front of the camera, and a new, dedicated Drive mode button on top. But it's what's inside that truly differentiates the new model from the old. In addition to the increase in megapixels, the Nikon D5200 upgraded to a sophisticated 2,016-pixel metering and 39-point autofocus system (with 9 cross-type sensors) that it inherited from the D7000. The DSLR also gained improved burst speed up to nearly 5 frames per second (in JPEG, RAW and RAW+JPEG!), expanded video recording options with a built-in stereo mic, and wireless-compatible functionality via Nikon's optional WU-1a adapter.

Some of the camera's new features feel a bit tacked on and incomplete. The Special Effects mode, which is accessible straight from the Mode dial, doesn't really warrant such placement. It features just seven effects, and none of them are particularly impressive. (There's more creative control available in Retouch mode, available for photos already captured.) Meanwhile, the D5200's built-in two-shot HDR mode didn't work well in our tests. More troublesome is the camera's less than swift AF system, which can struggle a bit in low light. Finally, though the Nikon D5200 boasts a simple, almost elegant UI and menu system, you still have to deep dive sometimes to change the most basic settings.

The Nikon D5200 marks a significant upgrade in the company's entry-level offerings, packing a ton of advanced photographic capabilities into a DSLR that beginners will find easy to use right out of the box, and perfect to grow with as they build their skills. The D5200 is on our short list of the best consumer-oriented DSLRs on the market today, and a bona fide Dave's Pick!

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Optics

Kit Lens Test Results

Zoom
Fair performance with the 18-55mm VR kit lens.

The Nikon D5200 comes bundled with the same Nikkor AF-S DX 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR (Vibration Reduction) kit lens the D5100 did. This 3.1x zoom lens has a 35mm equivalent focal length of about 27-83mm because of the D5200's 1.5x "crop factor." Sharpness and contrast were fairly good across much of the frame at full wide-angle and f/8, though images were a touch soft overall. There's minor coma distortion and softening in the corners, though chromatic aberration wasn't an issue because it was suppressed by the D5200's image processor (see below). Results at full telephoto were also fairly good at f/8, with decent sharpness across most of the frame. Overall, not a bad performance for an inexpensive kit lens, but you'll likely want to invest in premium glass to get the most out of the D5200's 24-megapixel sensor.

Macro
An average-sized macro area with the kit lens, with good detail. Flash throttles down well.

The Nikon D5200 captured an average-sized macro area with the standard 18-55mm kit lens, measuring 2.46 x 1.64 inches (63 x 42 millimeters). Detail is actually pretty good, just a touch soft, and there is some minor additional softening in the corners despite being stopped down to f/8. (Most lenses have some softening in the corners at macro distances.) The Nikon D5200's flash throttled down well at minimum distance, resulting in a well exposed image with fairly even coverage.

Geometric Distortion
High barrel distortion at wide angle with the 18-55mm kit lens, though hardly any distortion at telephoto.

Barrel distortion is 1.2 percent at 18mm

Almost no pincushion distortion at 55mm

The Nikon D5200's 18-55mm kit lens produced about 1.2 percent barrel distortion at wide angle, which is higher than average and noticeable in its images. At the telephoto end, distortion was negligible with only one or two pixels worth of pincushion. This is the tendency for the lens to bend straight lines outward (like a barrel -- usually at wide-angle) or inward (like a pincushion -- usually at telephoto).

Auto Distortion Control
Low geometric distortion when Auto Distortion Control is enabled.

Barrel distortion at 18mm is 0.3 percent

Barrel distortion at 55mm is 0.1 percent

The Nikon D5200 offers an Auto Distortion Control feature to reduce geometric distortion automatically with most recent Nikkor lenses. As you can see it worked quite well with the 18-55mm lens, reducing barrel distortion at wide angle significantly, though some of the image was cropped away in the process. At the telephoto end, distortion was actually a bit higher than the uncorrected image, but still quite low. Since this option is database driven, it's only available for Nikkor D and G-type lenses with certain optics such as Fisheye and Perspective Control lenses excepted. Auto Distortion Control is Off by default.

You can also apply Auto or Manual Distortion Control to JPEGs after the fact, in the Retouch menu. Manual mode works with images from any lens.

Chromatic Aberration and Corner Sharpness
Low to moderately low C.A. in JPEGs, much higher in uncorrected RAW files at wide angle. Corners are soft at wide angle and telephoto with the kit lens.

Maximum Aperture
Wide, f/3.5: Upper left C.A.: Moderately low Softness: Soft	Wide, f/3.5: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Fairly sharp
Tele, f/5.6: Upper right C.A.: Low Softness: Soft	Tele, f/5.6: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Soft

Chromatic Aberration. Chromatic aberration was moderately low at the full wide angle setting of the Nikon D5200's 18-55mm VR kit lens, suppressed by the D5200's image processor. (See below for crops from uncorrected RAW files.) At telephoto, chromatic aberration was even lower and hardly detectable. (This distortion is visible as a slight colored fringe around the objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target.)

Corner Sharpness. The Nikon D5200's 18-55mm VR kit lens produced soft corners at full wide angle. All four corners were moderately soft at wide angle, with some of the softness likely stemming from C.A. suppression. Softness didn't extend very far in the frames, though, and the center was fairly sharp. At full telephoto, all four corners were also soft, with the upper right being the softest, but the lens is softer overall at telephoto than at wide angle.

Corner Shading. There's some moderate corner shading ("vignetting") at both ends of the zoom when wide-open, as indicated by the darker corner crops.

f/8 Aperture
Wide, f/8: Upper left C.A.: Moderately low Softness: Minor blurring	Wide, f/8: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Fairly sharp
Tele, f/8: Upper right C.A.: Low Softness: Soft	Tele, f/8: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Soft

f/8. Stopped-down to an aperture of f/8, corner performance did improve markedly at wide angle, and sharpness in the center improved just slightly. Corners were still soft at telephoto, however, as was the center. Vignetting was negligible.

Uncorrected RAW
Higher levels of C.A. at wide angle and telephoto from uncorrected RAW files.

In-camera JPEG	Uncorrected RAW
Wide: Upper left C.A.: Low	Wide: Upper left C.A.: High
Tele: Upper left C.A.: Low	Tele: Upper left C.A.: Fairly low

As you can see from the crops above comparing camera JPEGs to uncorrected RAW files (taken at f/8), levels of lateral chromatic aberration are much higher in uncorrected RAW files, particularly at wide angle.

Nikon D5200 Viewfinder

Viewfinder Test Results

Coverage
Slightly better than average coverage from the optical viewfinder. Fairly good accuracy from the LCD in Live View mode.

The Nikon D5200's optical viewfinder showed about 96 percent coverage with our reference Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 macro lens. This is a bit better than average for a consumer DSLR and exceeds Nikon's specification of 95% for the D5200, however the viewfinder image is slightly shifted horizontally compared to the imaging sensor, which unfortunately is not that uncommon in consumer models. In Live View mode, the Nikon D5200's LCD showed just over 98% coverage which is fairly good, though we often see 100% coverage in Live View mode.

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Nikon D5200 Photo Gallery .

Exposure

Color

Saturation & Hue Accuracy
Good saturation levels and average hue accuracy.

ISO Sensitivity
100	200	400
800	1600	3200
6400	12800	25600
In the diagram above, the squares show the original color, and the circles show the color that the camera captured. More saturated colors are located toward the periphery of the graph. Hue changes as you travel around the center. Thus, hue-accurate, highly saturated colors appear as lines radiating from the center. Mouse over the links to compare ISOs and click for larger versions.

Saturation. The Nikon D5200 pushes dark greens and blues by a moderate amount, but slightly undersaturates bright yellow, light green, and some cyans. Reds are also pushed a bit, but not as much as by most cameras. Overall saturation levels are good and remain fairly stable, climbing slightly as ISO increases. Mean saturation is 107.9% at base ISO, or 7.9% oversaturated. The average for consumer DSLRs is about 10% oversaturated, but 7.9% is closer to accurate, and it's easy to customize saturation to match your personal preference. Most consumer digital cameras produce color that's more highly saturated (more intense) than found in the original subjects. This is simply because most people like their color a bit brighter than life.

Skin tones. The Nikon D5200's Caucasian skin tones looked just about right when using manual white balance in simulated daylight. A very good job here. Where oversaturation is most problematic is on Caucasian skin tones, as it's very easy for these "memory colors" to be seen as too bright, too pink, too yellow, etc.

Hue. The Nikon D5200 did shift cyan toward blue, red toward orange, and light green toward yellow, but shifts were relatively minor. (The cyan to blue shift is very common among the digital cameras we test; we think it's a deliberate choice by camera engineers to produce better-looking sky colors.) With an average "delta-C" color error at base ISO of 5.2 after correction for saturation, overall hue accuracy was about average. Hue is "what color" the color is.

Saturation Adjustment
The Nikon D5200 has a total of seven saturation levels available, three above and three below the default saturation, plus an Auto setting. This covers a pretty wide range of saturation levels, about as wide a range as you're likely to find photographically relevant, apart from special effects that are arguably better achieved in software. The fine steps between settings mean it's easy to program the camera to just the level of saturation you prefer. Saturation also doesn't impact contrast, which is ideal but not always the case.

Saturation Adjustment Examples
-3	-1	0	+1	+3

The table above shows results with several saturation settings, see the Thumbnails index page for more (look for the files named D5200OUTBSATx.JPG). Click on any thumbnail above to see the full-sized image.

Sensor

Exposure and White Balance

Indoors, incandescent lighting
Good color with the Manual white balance setting, but overly-warm results with Auto and Incandescent. About average positive exposure compensation required.

Indoors, under normal incandescent lighting, color balance was very warm and reddish with the Auto white balance setting. (We'd say unacceptably so, though unfortunately this is common.) The Incandescent setting was also too warm, this time with a yellowish cast. The Manual setting by far produced the most accurate results, if just a touch cool. The Nikon D5200 required an average amount of positive exposure compensation here, at +0.3 EV. Our test lighting for this shot is a mixture of 60 and 100 watt household incandescent bulbs, a pretty yellow light source, but a very common one in typical home settings here in the U.S.

Outdoors, daylight
Excellent results under harsh lighting, with very good handling of color and contrast, but the D5200 severely underexposed our "Sunlit" Portrait shots.

Outdoors, the Nikon D5200 performed well in terms of color and contrast, but it underexposed our "Sunlit" Portrait a lot more than most cameras do. The D5200 required +1.3 EV of exposure compensation to keep the mannequin's face fairly bright, while most cameras need about +0.7 EV. That's significantly below average performance. On the plus side, the camera did a very good job of holding onto detail in the highlights and deep shadows. We preferred skintones from the Manual white balance setting as they were a touch pinker than Auto, but both were pretty good. The Nikon D5200 slightly underexposed our far-field scene but in doing so avoided blowing almost all highlights, though it produced some dark shadows. Color outdoors was quite pleasing.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Resolution
Very high resolution, about 2,600 to 2,700 lines of strong detail from JPEGs, about 2,700 from ACR processed RAW files.

Our laboratory resolution chart revealed sharp, distinct line patterns down to about 2,600 lines per picture height in the horizontal direction, and to about 2,700 lines in the vertical direction. Extinction of the pattern didn't occur until around 3,400 to 3,500 lines in both directions. We were able to do a bit better with NEF files processed through Adobe Camera Raw, with the horizontal direction showing about 2,700 lines, the vertical about 2,700 lines, while complete extinction of the pattern was extended up to the 4,000 line limit of our chart. As usual, color moire was much more evident in the converted RAW files. Use these numbers to compare with other cameras of similar resolution, or use them to see just what higher resolution can mean in terms of potential detail.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Sharpness & Detail
Slightly soft images but with very good detail. Minor edge-enhancement artifacts visible on high-contrast subjects. Moderate noise suppression visible at base ISO.

Sharpness. The Nikon D5200 produced very good detail overall when coupled with a sharp lens such as the Nikon 35mm f/1.8G prime used in the above left crop, though images are still slightly soft overall. Some very minor edge enhancement artifacts are visible on high-contrast subjects such as the halos around the branches in the crop above left, but overall results are quite good. Edge enhancement creates the illusion of sharpness by enhancing colors and tones right at the edge of a rapid transition in color or tone.

Detail. The crop above right shows some mild to moderate noise suppression, as the darker and lower-contrast areas of the model's hair show significant smudging where individual strands of hair merge. Still, a pretty good performance here considering the resolution and target market. Noise-suppression systems in digital cameras tend to flatten-out detail in areas of subtle contrast. The effects can often be seen in shots of human hair, where the individual strands are lost and an almost "watercolor" look appears.

Raw vs In-Camera JPEGs
As noted above, the Nikon D5200 delivers very detailed JPEGs that are a little soft overall even with a sharp prime lens. Better detail can often be obtained from carefully processing RAW files, without additional sharpening artifacts. Take a look below, to see what we mean:

Camera JPEG (Fine)	RAW via Nikon ViewNX 2	RAW via ACR

In the table above, mousing over a link at the bottom will load the corresponding crop in the area above. Examples include in-camera Fine JPEG, and a raw file processed through Nikon's ViewNX 2 software using default settings, and the same raw file processed with Adobe Camera Raw 6.7, then sharpened in Photoshop. We found that sharpening with 300% unsharp mask and a radius of 0.3 pixels worked well for the Nikon D5200's NEF files.

As you can see, results from a raw file converted with Nikon's ViewNX 2 software are very similar to the in-camera JPEG, and the software wasn't really able to extract more detail. Adobe Camera Raw was able to extract quite a bit more fine detail in the pine needles, but as expected, it also shows slightly higher noise levels as well as some chromatic aberration that the camera suppresses in its JPEGs. Bottom line: When coupled with a good raw converter, the Nikon D5200 rewards raw shooters with amazing detail, especially considering the price.

ISO & Noise Performance
Good detail versus noise handling up to ISO 1,600.

High ISO Noise Reduction = Normal (Default)
ISO 100	ISO 200	ISO 400
ISO 800	ISO 1,600	ISO 3,200
ISO 6,400	ISO 12,800	ISO 25,600

Noise levels are fairly low at ISOs 100 through 800, though some detail is lost to noise reduction and an increase in a very fine noise "grain" can be seen as ISO increases. Some minor chroma noise is also visible in the darker shadows, even at base ISO, though it's not objectionable. At ISO 1,600 noise levels increase with a touch more blurring in the fine details and more visible grain, but detail is still pretty good. ISO 3,200 shows a larger step in both luma and chroma noise and shadows begin to take on a yellow tint with noticeable color blotching. As you'd expect, image quality continues to degrade as ISO increases, to the point were very little find detail is left with strong luma and chroma at ISO 25,600. Overall color balance shifts toward green as well.

Still, very good noise performance considering the 24-megapixel resolution, but it's no surprise that noise is higher at the pixel level than its 16-megapixel siblings. See our Print Quality analysis section below for recommended print sizes at each ISO.

A note about focus for this shot: We shoot this image at f/4, usually using one of three very sharp reference lenses (70mm Sigma f/2.8 macro for most cameras, 60mm f/2.8 Nikkor macro for Nikon bodies without a drive motor, and Olympus Zuiko 50mm f/2.0 for Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds bodies). To insure that the hair detail we use for making critical judgements about camera noise processing and detail rendering is in sharp focus at the relatively wide aperture we're shooting at, the focus target at the center of the scene is on a movable stand. This lets us compensate for front- or back-focus by different camera bodies, even those that lack micro-focus adjustments. This does mean, though, that the focus target itself may appear soft or slightly out of focus for bodies that front- or back-focused with the reference lens. We know this; if you click to view the full-size image for one of these shots and notice that the focus target is fuzzy, you don't need to email and tell us. :-) The focus target position will have been adjusted to insure that the rest of the scene is focused properly.

Extremes: Sunlit, dynamic range, and low light tests
Very good detail in both highlights and shadows, very high resolution. Good low-light performance, capable of capturing bright images in near darkness.

Sunlight:
Apart from the underexposure issue, the Nikon D5200 handled the deliberately harsh lighting in the test above very well. Though contrast is a little high, shadow and highlight detail are both very good. The +1.3 EV exposure was best here, producing a bright face without blowing out many highlights. Despite the bright appearance, there are actually very few clipped highlights in the mannequins's white shirt. Some shadows are pretty dark, but remained fairly clean except for a yellow cast in very deep tones. The camera's contrast adjustment also did a good job of decreasing overall contrast without also affecting color saturation. (See below.) Still, be sure to use fill flash in situations like the one shown above; it's better to shoot in the shade when possible.

Because digital cameras are more like slide film than negative film (in that they tend to have a more limited tonal range), we test them in the harshest situations to see how they handle scenes with bright highlights and dark shadows, as well as what kind of sensitivity they have in low light. The shot above is designed to mimic the very harsh, contrasty effect of direct noonday sunlight, a very tough challenge for most digital cameras. (You can read details of this test here.)

Dynamic Range Analysis
A key parameter in a digital camera is its Dynamic Range, the range of brightness that can be faithfully recorded. At the upper end of the tonal scale, dynamic range is dictated by the point at which the RGB data "saturates" at values of 255, 255, 255. At the lower end of the tonal scale, dynamic range is determined by the point at which there ceases to be any useful difference between adjacent tonal steps. Note the use of the qualifier "useful" in there: While it's tempting to evaluate dynamic range as the maximum number of tonal steps that can be discerned at all, that measure of dynamic range has very little relevance to real-world photography. What we care about as photographers is how much detail we can pull out of the shadows before image noise becomes too objectionable. This, of course, is a very subjective matter, and will vary with the application and even the subject matter in question. (Noise will be much more visible in subjects with large areas of flat tints and subtle shading than it would in subjects with strong, highly contrasting surface texture.)

What makes most sense then, is to specify useful dynamic range in terms of the point at which image noise reaches some agreed-upon threshold. To this end, Imatest computes a number of different dynamic range measurements, based on a variety of image noise thresholds. The noise thresholds are specified in terms of f-stops of equivalent luminance variation in the final image file, and dynamic range is computed for noise thresholds of 1.0 (low image quality), 0.5 (medium image quality), 0.25 (medium-high image quality) and 0.1 (high image quality). For most photographers and most applications, the noise thresholds of 0.5 and 0.25 f-stops are probably the most relevant to the production of acceptable-quality finished images, but many noise-sensitive shooters will insist on the 0.1 f-stop limit for their most critical work.

JPEG. The graph at right (click for a larger version) was generated using Imatest's dynamic range analysis for an in-camera Nikon D5200 JPEG file with a nominally-exposed density step target (Stouffer 4110). At the base ISO of 100 (the optimal ISO), with Active D-Lighting set to Off and default Contrast setting, the graph shows 12.9 f-stops of total dynamic range, with 8.51 f-stops at the "High" Quality level. These are very good results for an APS-C model, especially a high-resolution model like the 24-megapixel D5200, with its smaller photosites. For example, the 16-megapixel D5100 scored 7.74 at the highest quality level, while the D7000 scored 7.97 f-stops. Note though that this measurement has a margin of error of about 1/3 f-stop, so differences of less than 0.33 can be ignored.

RAW. The graph at right is from the same Stouffer 4110 stepchart image captured as a raw (.NEF) file, processed with Adobe Camera Raw using the Auto setting and tweaking from there. As can be seen, the score at the highest quality level increased 2.19 f-stops from 8.51 to 10.7 f-stops, while total dynamic range remained the same at 12.9 f-stops. Again, these results are remarkable, beating the D5100's 10 f-stops at the highest quality level, as well as the D7000's 10.1 f-stops. It's worth noting here is that ACR's default noise reduction settings reduced overall noise somewhat (see the plot in the lower left-hand corner) relative to the levels in the in-camera JPEG, which would tend to boost the dynamic range numbers for the higher quality thresholds.

Contrast Adjustment
We really like it when a camera gives us the ability to adjust contrast and saturation to our liking. It's even better when those adjustments cover a useful range, in steps small enough to allow for precise tweaks. Just as with its saturation adjustment, the Nikon D5200's contrast setting offers seven levels, plus an Auto setting.

Minimum Contrast
Contrast set to lowest, +1.3 EV	Contrast set to lowest, 0 EV

At its lowest contrast setting, the D5200 did a very good job of preserving highlight detail and bringing out shadow detail. Highlight retention was improved, but the contrast setting had a larger impact on opening up the shadows, though the yellow push we've seen in the shadows of these shot is more apparent. The lower contrast setting opened-up shadows in our far-field shot as well, without making the image too flat looking. Overall, very good results here.

Contrast Adjustment Examples
-3	-1	0	+1	+3

The series of shots above shows results with several different contrast adjustment settings, showing the minimum step size around the default, as well as both extremes. While you can see the extremes, it's hard to really evaluate contrast on small thumbnails like these, click on any thumbnail to go to the full-size image.

Nikon's contrast adjustment is that it has very little effect on saturation. Contrast and saturation are actually fairly closely coupled, it's a good trick to be able to vary one with out the other changing as well. As usual, Nikon did a very good job here.

Active D-Lighting
Active D-Lighting attempts to preserve detail in both highlights and shadows in high-contrast situations, while maintaining moderate levels of contrast. The series of shots below show the effect of the various Active D-Lighting settings available on the Nikon D5200 on our high-contrast "Sunlit" Portrait scene. Note that Active D-Lighting is different from the touch-up menu's D-Lighting, as it is performed during image capture instead of after. (It does affect only JPEG images though, Nikon very properly doesn't apply tonal adjustments like this to RAW file data. NEF files, however, are tagged so that Nikon software can automatically apply the effect when converted.)

"Sunlit" Portrait Active D-Lighting (0 EV)
	ADL Settings: Auto (Default) Off Low Normal High Extra High

Mouse over the links to see how the various levels of Active D-Lighting affects our "Sunlit" Portrait shot at default exposure. Click on a link to get to the full-res image. (Active D-Lighting's effect can be a little subtle in shots like those above, so we decided to use a mouse-over to better show how each setting compares to Off.)

When Active D-Lighting is enabled (Auto is the default), the camera usually exposes for the highlights in an attempt to preserve them, then adjusts the tone curve to bring the midtones and shadows back up to produce an image that doesn't look underexposed. In this case, the default exposure without Active D-Lighting didn't have any blown highlights to preserve, so this is not the best example. To see how Active D-Lighting works without underexposure in this shot, see the examples from our Nikon D7000 review.

See below for how Active D-Lighting worked on our Far-field shot.

Far-field Active D-Lighting (0 EV)
Off	Auto	Low
Normal	High	Extra High

Here are the results with our Far-field shot. The D5200's Active D-Lighting worked better here, as the default exposure wasn't underexposed like it was for its "Sunlit" Portrait scene. As you can see, Active D-Lighting brought up shadow detail while holding on to more of the highlights. The Auto setting did a pretty good job here.

HDR Mode
The D5200 is only the second Nikon DSLR offering an in-camera high-dynamic-range imaging function (the D5100 was the first), something we've seen in several DSLRs from competing manufacturers. When enabled, the D5200 captures two images with one push of the shutter button, one underexposed and one overexposed and combines them in-camera to produce a high-dynamic-range JPEG. (RAW format is not supported). We don't believe the Nikon D5200 performs any micro-alignment of the two images even though the user manual warns of possible cropping. If it is, it can only correct for very small amounts of camera movement between shots, and so Nikon recommends the use of a tripod. Obviously moving subjects should also be avoided.

"Sunlit" Portrait HDR (0 EV)
	HDR Settings: Off (Default) Low Normal High Extra High Auto

Unlike the Nikon D5100 which allowed you to set the exposure differential between the two images from 1, 2 or 3 EV, and also adjust the amount of "smoothing" that is applied to the boundaries between the two images with selections of Low, Medium and High, the D5200 takes a simpler approach offering just four strengths in addition to Auto. Mouse over the links above to see how various levels of HDR affects our "Sunlit" Portrait shot and click on a link to get to the full-res image. Again, because of the underexposure issue, these aren't very good examples, but you can still see higher levels make quite a difference to the overall exposure by opening up shadow detail but they can lead to artificial looking shadows around bright objects or halos and glowing around dark ones. Colors can also be adversely affected in HDR mode, such as a drop in saturation. Still, it's a useful feature for capturing static scenes with dynamic range that exceeds the sensor for those not willing to use manual HDR techniques (bracketing exposure and then combining images while post-processing).

Far-field HDR (0 EV)
Off	Low	Normal
High	Extra High	Auto

Here are the same HDR settings with our Far-field shot. Again, some settings do a good job of taming hot highlights while bringing up some of the shadows and deeper midtones. You can also see ghosting in the tree branches and leaves from movement between the exposures caused by wind, as well the uneven and artificial-looking exposure when using higher settings.

Face Detection
Off Aperture-priority 0 EV	Portrait Auto mode 0 EV	Live View with Face-priority AF 0 EV

Here, we can see the effect of the Nikon D5200's full Auto mode which selected Portrait Scene mode, as well as face detection enabled in Live View mode. As you can see from the shots above, the Portrait Scene mode made an improvement to exposure versus Aperture-priority at f/8, reducing overall contrast and lightening shadows, though noise is a bit higher as it boosted ISO sensitivity to 360. Portrait mode also selected a wider aperture of f/5.6 for better subject isolation, and a faster shutter speed of 1/500s to avoid subject motion blur. In Live View using Aperture-priority, Face-priority AF mode made a huge difference, actually overexposing the subject slightly by using a slower shutter speed of only 1/30s. (It would have likely done better if it had more control over exposure in Program mode.)

	1 fc 11 lux	1/2 fc 5.5 lux	1/4 fc 2.7 lux	1/8 fc 1.3 lux	1/16 fc 0.67 lux	1/16fc No NR
ISO 100	2 s f2.8	4 s f2.8	8 s f2.8	15 s f2.8	30 s f2.8	30 s f2.8
ISO 200	1 s f2.8	2 s f2.8	4 s f2.8	8 s f2.8	15 s f2.8	15 s f2.8
ISO 400	0.5 s f2.8	1 s f2.8	2 s f2.8	4 s f2.8	8 s f2.8	8 s f2.8
ISO 800	1/4 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8	1 s f2.8	2 s f2.8	4 s f2.8	4 s f2.8
ISO 1600	1/8 s f2.8	1/4 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8	1 s f2.8	2 s f2.8	2 s f2.8
ISO 3200	1/15 s f2.8	1/8 s f2.8	1/4 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8	1 s f2.8	1 s f2.8
ISO 6400	1/30 s f2.8	1/15 s f2.8	1/8 s f2.8	1/4 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8
ISO 12800	1/60 s f2.8	1/30 s f2.8	1/15 s f2.8	1/8 s f2.8	1/4 s f2.8	1/4 s f2.8
ISO 25600	1/125 s f2.8	1/60 s f2.8	1/30 s f2.8	1/15 s f2.8	1/8 s f2.8	1/8 s f2.8

Low Light. The Nikon D5200 performed fairly well on the low-light test, capturing usable images at the lowest light level (1/16 foot-candle) with the lowest sensitivity setting (ISO 100). As you'd expect, noise increases as ISO goes up and light levels go down, but remains well controlled and fine-grained to ISOs as high as 3,200. We did not detect any significant issues with hot pixels other than a few of them when long exposure NR is turned off, but that's to be expected. Some minor banding could be seen at ISOs 12,800 and 25,600, as well as some heat blooming emanating from the bottom edge for longer exposures, but that's not unusual at such high ISOs.

Color balance was good with the Auto white balance setting, just slightly cool, though there's a strong shift towards magenta at lower light levels, particularly at lower ISOs.

The camera's phase-detection autofocus system was able to focus on the subject down to just above the 1/8 foot-candle light level unassisted with an f/2.8 lens. That's not quite as good as most DSLRs. The Nikon D5200 was however able to autofocus in complete darkness with the AF assist enabled. Surprisingly, in Live View mode the camera's contrast-detect autofocus did a bit better, as it was able to focus down to just below 1/8 foot-candle.

Keep in mind that the longer shutter speeds here demand the use of a tripod to prevent any blurring from camera movement. (A useful trick is to just prop the camera on a convenient surface, and use its self-timer to release the shutter. This avoids any jiggling from your finger pressing the shutter button, and can work quite well when you don't have a tripod handy.)

How bright is this? The one foot-candle light level that this test begins at roughly corresponds to the brightness of typical city street-lighting at night. Cameras performing well at that level should be able to snap good-looking photos of street-lit scenes.

NOTE: This low light test is conducted with a stationary subject, and the camera mounted on a sturdy tripod. Most digital cameras will fail miserably when faced with a moving subject in dim lighting. (For example, a child's ballet recital or a holiday pageant in a gymnasium.) Digital SLRs like the Nikon D5200 do much better than point & shoots, but you still shouldn't expect a quick autofocus lock with moving subjects.

Output Quality

Print Quality
Very nice 30 x 40 inch prints at ISO 100; makes a good 16 x 20 inch print at ISO 800 and a usable 4 x 6 at ISO 12,800.

ISO 100 images are very detailed with bright, accurate colors up to 30 x 40 inches. 36 x 48 inch prints are quite suitable for wall display.

ISO 200 prints are very similar to ISO 100, but just a bit lower in fine detail and showing a minor amount of noise, thus making great prints at 24 x 36 inches. 30 x 40 inch prints here are great for wall display.

ISO 400 images start to show some noise in the shadows. Prints look great up to 20 x 30 inches, while 24 x 36 inch prints are suitable for wall display.

ISO 800 images look good at 16 x 20 inches. There is some noise, but you only really see it in the shadow areas, and even then, the grain is reminiscent of film grain and not present over the entire image.

ISO 1600 makes a pretty good 11 x 14 inch print. At 13 x 19, the image is a little too soft in finely detailed areas. Noise levels in the the highlights and midrange areas are excellent, but it's quite noticeable in the shadows (although still appearing more like film grain). If the image was of a brightly-lit scene, noise would be virtually unnoticeable.

ISO 3200 prints start to show a fair amount of noise, but it still produces a nice 8 x 10 inch print. As before, shadow noise is apparent, but otherwise the image looks great.

ISO 6400 makes a decent 5 x 7, but noise and a reduction in fine detail is taking its toll on the image quality, preventing us from calling anything larger acceptable.

ISO 12,800 images are fairly heavy on noise at larger sizes, but can still produce a decent 4 x 6 inch print. Colors still look good, but fine detail, such as in the red fabric and mosaic area, is almost nonexistent.

ISO 25,600 does not produce good prints at 4 x 6, and is best avoided if possible.

The Nikon D5200's 24.1-megapixel APS-C sensor produces excellent results for very large prints at the low ISO levels. Additionally, this camera is capable of images that retain fantastic colors and fine details even as the ISO rises. In fact, this was a somewhat difficult camera to grade because its results in some areas exceeded expectation. At the higher ISO levels between 1600 and 12,800, we were on the fence many times for which way to go in calling an acceptable size. The D5200 retained a great amount of fine detail at high ISOs, but we saw noticeable noise in the shadow areas at higher ISOs. Even still, the noise on these high ISO prints reminded us of film grain and users might like the way noise looks on higher ISO prints for certain instances. Overall, this DSLR packs a ton of pixels in a consumer-grade camera and produces stellar low-ISO prints at very large sizes, while still doing a fantastic job with prints at higher ISO levels.

Testing hundreds of digital cameras, we've found that you can only tell just so much about a camera's image quality by viewing its images on-screen. Ultimately, there's no substitute for printing a lot of images and examining them closely. For this reason, we now routinely print sample images from the cameras we test on our Canon Pro9000 Mark II studio printer, and on the Canon Pixma MP610 here in the office. (See the Canon Pixma Pro9000 Mark II review for details on that model.)

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Nikon D5200 Photo Gallery .

Not sure which camera to buy? Let your eyes be the ultimate judge! Visit our Comparometer(tm) to compare images from the Nikon D5200 with those from other cameras you may be considering. The proof is in the pictures, so let your own eyes decide which you like best!

Performance

Video

Most DSLRs nowadays offer some form of HD video recording, and the Nikon D5200 is no exception. The Nikon D5200's video system is surprisingly capable for an entry-level camera; featuring full-time autofocus, manual exposure controls, built-in stereo microphone, manual audio recording levels as well as an external microphone jack.

Here's a quick rundown of its video capabilities, along with our usual selection of sample videos.

Nikon D5200 Basic Video Specs

• 1,920 x 1,080 (Full HD / 1080p) at 60i, 50i, 30p (29.97 fps), 25p, 24p (23.976 fps)
• 1,280 x 720 (720p) at 60p (59.94 fps), 50p
• 640 x 424 at 30p, 25p
• Choice of two compression levels; High or Normal quality
• TTL (through the lens) matrix metering using the main image sensor
• MOV file format, with H.264/MPEG-4 AVC encoding
• Linear PCM stereo audio recording with adjustable recording levels and external 3.5mm microphone jack
• Autofocus can be triggered during movie recording by pressing the shutter button, or continuous AF (AF-F) can be enabled
• Manual focus also available in movie mode
• Aperture can be controlled in Aperture-priority or Manual exposure modes, but only before recording begins*
• Shutter speed and ISO can be controlled in Manual exposure mode
• EV adjustment (exposure compensation) can be selected prior to or during recording
• Built-in stereo microphone, sensitivity adjustable
• Still image can be captured while in video recording mode, but doing so stops the recording
• Flicker-reduction mode for both 60Hz and 50Hz light sources
• Movies can be "trimmed" in-camera, selecting just the portion you want and either overwriting the current file or saving it as a new file
• Single frames can be selected from movie files and saved as separate JPEG files
• Can simultaneously display video feed on LCD monitor and output video feed via HDMI (unofficial, multiple reports suggest that the D5200 outputs uncompressed, "clean" HDMI video like the D7100)
• Video duration limited to 20 minutes maximum in High quality HD modes; 29 minutes 59 seconds at normal quality HD modes or either high or normal quality at SD resolution
• File size restricted to 4 GB maximum
• Class 6 or faster SD memory cards recommended

*Note: Due to the design of the aperture mechanism in the D5200 and other non-pro Nikon DSLR bodies, when "Manual Movie Settings" are enabled in the D5200, the aperture can only be changed while Live View is disabled.

Nikon D5200 Video: Image size, frame rate, and file format

The Nikon D5200 offers three different video resolutions, five frame rates, and two quality settings in combinations as shown below:

Most of the D5200's video modes are progressive scan, meaning that every video line is scanned, one after the other, for every frame. Compared to interlaced scanning, progressive scan video is much better for viewing videos on a computer screen. (Interlaced works fine for HD TVs, but some computer video players that de-interlace poorly will produce bad tearing of moving objects.) The D5200 does feature a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution with a 60i (or 50i for PAL) interlaced scan video format.

The D5200 expands on the video resolutions and frame rates of its predecessor, the D5100, now offering up to 60i at 1,920 x 1,080 and 60p in 1,280 x 720 mode. These formats are great for capturing smooth-looking action, but won't be as good in low-light situations, because the camera can't use a shutter speed longer than 1/60 second. The faster frame rate will help with those looking to fast action and then edit these videos for a slow-motion motion look.

Many advanced shooters welcome the inclusion of the 24p mode, which has pretty much become a standard feature for video-capable interchangeable lens cameras. This frame rate comes from the days of motion picture film cameras, as the de facto standard frame rate for cinema and as such, this is the frame rate movies have been shot in for many decades. Nowadays with video, the 24p frame rate gives videos the "film look and feel" that many filmmakers and video shooters want. It can be tricky to shoot in 24p however, as the lower frame rate can look choppy, particularly when shooting with fast shutter speeds or when panning quickly.

Note that the Nikon D5200 records video at 25p and 50i instead of 30p and 60i respectively when PAL video mode is selected.

The Nikon D5200 saves its video files in the MOV format, using MPEG-4 encoding, with two choices of bit rates. The HD formats can be recorded in a High quality level of 24 Mbps or a Normal quality level of 12 Mbps. The SD resolution video also has two bit rate options of 8 and 5 Mbps. Pretty much any computer or editing program made within the last 5 years should be able to play its files with little problem, although the full 1,920 x 1,080 resolution files may strain older systems.

Nikon D5200 Video: Image Quality

The Nikon D5200 produces high-quality HD video, with good detail, modest motion artifacts, and pleasing color. In our daytime videos, under bright sunlight, colors were accurate and the image was not overly contrasty. The shadow areas were not crushed and still maintained detail. Also moiré artifacts were very well-controlled in the 1080p resolutions videos, even in the usual problems areas of our test videos like roofing shingles, asphalt and window blinds. At 720p resolution, moiré was more noticeable in areas like roofing shingles (see our rolling shutter video below for an example).

In our night video, the D5200 also did really well, producing a nice image with a good dynamic range. Shadow detail was present and overall fine details were still visible even at ISO 6400. High ISO noise was not too pronounced, although still visible.

Below you can see our standard array of sample videos for the D5200:

Nikon D5200 Video: Focusing

AF Settings. The D5200 offers both full-time servo autofocus, but also subject tracking autofocus in video recording.

Unlike some earlier DSLRs with video recording features, the D5200 has the ability to autofocus during recording, which a lot of casual or beginner video shooters will like and expect. However, you can still manually focus, as well. Depending on the lens used, focus motor noise may get picked up by the internal stereo microphone. With the kit lens, it is very audible in the sound track, so it's probably best not to select continuous AF when using it. Other Nikon lenses with silent focus motors would likely be better.

• Single-shot or full-time servo AF (AF-F) for continuous AF during recording.
• By default, the D5200 doesn't AF during recording, but you can always trigger an AF cycle by half-pressing the shutter button.
• AF area mode options:
  • Face-priority AF
  • Wide-area AF
  • Normal-area AF
  • Subject-tracking AF (Half-press shutter button to AF before recording or use servo AF with AF-F mode, then hit OK button with subject centered in little green square. Square will follow subject around the frame, maintaining focus on it.)
• Manual focus is also available during movie recording.

Nikon D5200 Video: Exposure Control

Movie Settings Menu. Be sure to enable Manual Movie Settings for manual exposure controls for video recording.

The D5200 offers users a full range of manual exposure settings depending on the shooting mode used, as well as allowing for simple auto-exposure settings for quick point-and-shoot video recording.

• Defaults to fully automatic exposure, but exposure compensation adjustment is available.
• Auto-ISO limit in still capture mode doesn't appear to affect video recording.
• Aperture can be set in Aperture-priority or Manual exposure mode.
• Aperture setting is very confusing: You have to exit live view mode entirely to set video recording aperture, even though the rear LCD display shows the aperture changing. (The displayed aperture applies only to still captures from Live View mode.)
• Manual exposure can be enabled via Movie Settings menu, called "Manual Movie Settings."
  • In manual mode, shutter speed and ISO can be set in addition to aperture.
  • You can change shutter speed either before or during recording, but changing it during will produce very loud clicks in the audio track, as you rotate the control dial.
  • Available shutter speeds range from 1/4,000s down to 1/60s for 60p, and down to 1/30s for 30p and 24p.
  • Sensitivity can be set from ISO 100 to 25,600, however ISO can only be changed before recording starts.
• Full range of Picture Control settings apply to movie recording. (Standard, Neutral, Vivid, Monochrome, Portrait, and Landscape, and adjustments for contrast, brightness, saturation, and hue for each of the main settings.)
• Creative Effects are also available during video recording, but some severely reduce the frame rate of the video being recorded, though Miniature Effect works well.
• AE (auto-exposure) lock is supported in video mode.
• Matrix metering is always used for video recording, regardless of metering mode selected.

Nikon D5200 Video: Audio Recording

The D5200 provides much more advanced audio recording capabilities than are typically included on a camera of this price point. Users are given the ability to use a standard external stereo microphone using the built-in 3.5mm mic jack, as well as have manual audio level controls and an audio meter displayed on screen both before and during recording. The use of an external mic is highly recommended, particularly for critical audio or when using autofocus as we noticed quite a significant amount of autofocus noise being picked up in videos when using the built-in stereo mic.

• Internal stereo microphone
• Defaults to automatic level control
• Manual level control available via Movie Settings menu, with 20 levels available
• VU (audio level) meter display also available via Movie Settings
• External stereo mic input
• Audio can be turned off entirely
  

Nikon D5200 Video: Rolling Shutter Artifacts ("Jello effect")

Pretty much every DSLR on the market distorts moving objects, or the entire scene, if the camera is being panned. The technical term for this is "rolling shutter artifacts," but many users simply call it the "Jello effect," because the image can jiggle and sway like Jello as the camera is moved. This occurs because the image is captured and read out line by line, so the bottom of an object may no longer be underneath the top of it by the time the camera gets around to capturing that part of the frame.

Rolling shutter artifacts can be very annoying if they're severe, but as noted, all digital SLRs show them to one extent or another. In the case of the D5200, they're clearly present, but nowhere near as bad as we've seen with some cameras. Nevertheless, the D5200 isn't going to win any awards for its ability to control rolling shutter artifacts. Like we've seen on other cameras, when shooting in 720p resolution at 60 frames per second, rolling shutter artifacts are greatly reduced.

There are plug-ins out there to fix rolling shutter when editing your footage on the computer, but it's not a surefire solution. It's simply something you need to keep in mind when moving the camera while recording video. If you just pan slowly while filming, you're not likely to notice them much at all.

Flash

Nikon D5200 Flash

Flash Test Results

Coverage and Range
Decent flash range but narrow coverage at wide angle. Our standard shots required an average amount of exposure compensation.

Coverage and Exposure. Flash coverage was rather uneven at wide angle (18mm), with very dark corners. Coverage at telephoto (55mm) was much better, but still somewhat uneven. (Some of the corner shading is due to the lens itself, though.) For our Indoor Portrait scene test, the Nikon D5200's flash required +0.7 EV exposure compensation adjustment to get bright results in normal Auto flash mode with a 1/60 second shutter speed, which is about average for the DSLRs we've tested. The camera's Slow-Sync flash mode at 1/13 second produced bright results without any compensation, though with a stronger pinkish-orange cast from the room lighting.

Flash Range: Wide Angle
6 ft	7 ft	8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft
1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100
12 ft	13 ft	14 ft	15 ft	16 ft
1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100

Flash Range: Telephoto
6 ft	7 ft	8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft
1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100
12 ft	13 ft	14 ft	15 ft	16 ft
1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100

ISO 200 Range. With the kit lens at wide angle, the Nikon D5200's flash exposures started out bright at 6 feet, and brightness remained good out to 13 feet before dropping off rapidly. At the telephoto end, flash intensity started out a bit dim at 6 feet but got stronger at 8 feet, then dropped off from there. We'll call the range 8 feet at full telephoto.

Manufacturer-Specified Flash Range
Wide Angle	Telephoto
11.2 feet ISO 100	6.9 feet ISO 100

Manufacturer Specified Flash Test. The Nikon D5200's flash guide number is 12 meters in Auto mode at ISO 100. That translates to about 11.2 feet at f/3.5 and about 7 feet at f/5.6, the maximum apertures of the kit lens at full wide angle and telephoto respectively. In the shots above, the D5200 appears to underperform by a small amount relative to Nikon's specification, producing slightly dim exposures at the rated distances. The flash target was underexposed compared to the ideal exposure by less than 1/4 f-stop at wide angle, and about 1/3 f-stop at telephoto. Our standard test method for flash range uses a fixed setting of ISO 200, to provide a fair basis of comparison between cameras. We've now also begun shooting two shots using the manufacturer-specified camera settings, at the range the company claims for the camera, to assess the validity of the specific claims.

High ISO Noise Reduction

Nikon D5200 High ISO Noise Reduction

The Nikon D5200's four noise-reduction settings ("High, "Normal", "Low" and "Off") provide good flexibility in choosing how you want to make the trade-off between subject detail and noise levels. The Nikon D5200 user manual doesn't say when High ISO NR kicks in, so we've included crops from the base ISO in the tables below. The manual does however say that the "Off" setting still applies NR at ISO 1,600 and higher, though at a lower strength than the "Low" setting.

See for yourself how the Nikon D5200's "Normal", "Low" and "Off" High ISO NR settings compare to RAW without noise reduction under daylight-balanced lighting. (Note that these RAW images have no sharpening applied, so they look softer than camera JPEGs at low ISOs.) Click on any of the crops below to see the corresponding full-sized image.

High ISO Noise Reduction Comparison Daylight-balanced illumination
	"Normal"	"Low"	"Off"	RAW (no NR)
I S O 1 0 0
	"Normal"	"Low"	"Off"	RAW (no NR)
I S O 2 0 0
	"Normal"	"Low"	"Off"	RAW (no NR)
I S O 4 0 0
	"Normal"	"Low"	"Off"	RAW (no NR)
I S O 8 0 0
	"Normal"	"Low"	"Off"	RAW (no NR)
I S O 1 6 0 0
	"Normal"	"Low"	"Off"	RAW (no NR)
I S O 3 2 0 0
	"Normal"	"Low"	"Off"	RAW (no NR)
I S O 6 4 0 0
	"Normal"	"Low"	"Off"	RAW (no NR)
I S O 1 2 8 0 0
	"Normal"	"Low"	"Off"	RAW (no NR)
I S O 2 5 6 0 0

The Nikon D5200's "Normal" High ISO NR setting provides a good tradeoff between noise and detail at lower ISOs to our eye, but we'd probably shoot with lower settings at higher ISOs and reduce noise ourselves in post-processing (or just shoot RAW). It's interesting that the camera does such a good job with the subtle contrast in the red-leaf swatch at low ISOs that it looks much better than the ACR converted RAW file, though the pleasing rendering of that fabric has been trademark of Nikons for years. It's also interesting that the camera sometimes produces a yellow cast with certain noise reduction settings at some higher ISOs (all shots here were taken with manual white balance), while the converted RAW files are more consistent in terms of color balance.

Pricing and availability

The Nikon D5200 started shipping in the U.S. in late January 2013, priced at nearly US$900 in a kit with the AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens. The kit is now readily available at retailers for US$800; or $700 body-only. The body is available in black, red or bronze.