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Nikon D5100 guide
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.
About this manual
What's inside | This guide takes you through the topics below, and doing so it covers all of the Nikon D5100's possible settings.
This approach makes it easy to see which of the many camera settings are related and to find what you need based on topics such as focusing, exposure etc.
Recommended reading | It is helpful if you already know the much shorter descriptions of the most important basic and advanced settings of the D5100.
A word of caution: with all its details, the D5100 is quite complex. Not as much as other Nikon models further up the line, but certainly with more than what you will need regularly.
It's best to flick through the manual, skim the headings and only read more closely where something catches your interest.
Trying to master all D5100 settings from A-Z is something for specialists. Going through the manual from beginning to end is good piece of work and you won't need it all. You can take fantastic photos with the D5100 even without knowing everything down to the last detail.
What's not in | You won't find really basic functions and those that are more or less similar on all cameras:
- Changing and charging batteries, inserting memory cards
- transferring photos to your computer
- changing lenses.
Nor do I write about lenses and the various possible accessories here.
Table of contents
A. Basics | Nikon D5100 guide
All the basic settings of the D5100 summarised and clearly explained. They cover what is helpful or necessary before you start shooting.B. Taking pictures | Nikon D5100 guide
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.C. Autofocus | Nikon D5100 guide
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.D. Exposure | Nikon D5100 guide
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.E. Flash | Nikon D5100 guide
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...F. JPG- and RAW files | Nikon D5100 guide
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.G. Image and movie playback | Nikon D5100 guide
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.H. Live view and movies | Nikon D5100 guide
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.I. Menus and shooting information | Nikon D5100 guide
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.J. Customise handling | Nikon D5100 guide
All of the D5100's settings to customise operation to your personal preferences.K. Other customisations | Nikon D5100 guide
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.L. Image editing | Nikon D5100 guide
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.M. Even more settings and functions | Nikon D5100 guide
...and here are the remaining settings and functions that do not fit under one of the other headings, especially from the setup menu.