Nikon D5100

Taking photos with the Nikon D5100 as easily as possible - that's what this guide is all about. The most important camera settings for beginners and those who want to deal as little as possible with the technical side.

The essentials for controlling the Nikon D5100 as an advanced photographer – that's what this guide is all about. A tour through the manageable number of manual settings that really matter, are most important for the look of your photos.

This guide takes you through all settings of the Nikon D5100, divided into clear topics of manageable size. It is designed for advanced users who are looking for ideas on what else their D5100 can do and for anyone looking for more detail on individual topics.

All the basic settings of the D5100 summarised and clearly explained. They cover what is helpful or necessary before you start shooting.

All the D5100 settings and functions for taking pictures on one page. One press with the index finger = one photo: No, it's not that simple anymore. Read here about the different ways to play with what the shutter release button can do.

All D5100 autofocus settings listed and explained on one page. In the end, they serve only one simple objective: to focus the lens at the moment of shutter release to the distance your subject needs. But there are remarkably many ways to achieve this.

All D5100 settings around exposure, i.e. everything that leads to a combination of aperture, exposure time and ISO and thus controls the image brightness, collected here on one page.

All D5100 settings concerning the built-in flash described together in clear language – whether it will light up or not, if so, how bright and when exactly...

All D5100 settings related to the creation of JPG and RAW files explained. They control what can happen to the image data on its way from the sensor to a finished JPG and/or RAW file.

All the settings and subtleties of the D5100 around image and film playback. There's much more to it than just pressing the playback button and flicking back and forth.

The complete D5100 settings for live view and video recording. Live view is the display of an image preview on the monitor instead of in the viewfinder; the D5100 then behaves differently and movie recording is only possible in live view.

All D5100 settings for menus and shooting information. The menus have a few tricks of the trade to make best use of them; Shooting information lets you view selected camera settings on the monitor and change them without going through menus.

All of the D5100's settings to customise operation to your personal preferences.

On this page: the remaining D5100 settings that you can use to customise the behaviour of your D5100 and that are not already mentioned in other chapters.

On this page: Image editing in the D5100. How to access the in-camera post-processing of photos and what you can do with your photos there.

...and here are the remaining settings and functions that do not fit under one of the other headings, especially from the setup menu.