The Nikon D5100 is a solid camera with excellent photo and video quality, but relatively sluggish performance tarnishes its allure for me. Nikon fixes that in the D5200 with the same new autofocus and metering systems that debuted in the D600, plus an updated higher-end viewfinder, and the result is a noticeably better shooting experience that makes it an excellent choice for all-around family and vacation photography.
Editors' note, March 28, 2013: Canon recently discontinued the T4i and has replaced it with the nearly identical EOS Rebel T5i. People who use Live View with autofocus for stills or video are the biggest winners with this generation of the top model in Canon's EOS Rebel series.
No, your eyes aren't deceiving you: the only significant differences between the now-discontinued Canon EOS Rebel T4i and its replacement, the T5i, are the price and the kit lens options. There are some small enhancements, including a new finish and grip; 360-degree rotation mode dial; and real-time shooting with creative filters with Live View preview.
If you didn't think the 60D was overpriced when it shipped, you will now. The Canon EOS Rebel T3i (aka the EOS 600D), the 60D's younger and cheaper sibling, offers the same basic camera with some corners cut--most notably a slightly less well-constructed body and a (purposely?) stunted burst shooting speed.
Instead of replacing its tired, old XS and XSi models to compete with younger, sprier sub-$700 models from Nikon, Sony, and Pentax in that extremely popular price segment, Canon chose to release an update to its more expensive T1i in the less competitive $800-$1,000 range.
We're used to Canon and Nikon leapfrogging each other in terms of product announcement timing and technology updates, but this year they're finally going head-to-head in the budget dSLR market. Nikon's D5100, a replacement for the 2-year-old D5000, directly takes on the Canon EOS Rebel T3i as an evenly matched competitor.
Until I sat down to actually write this review, it hadn't struck me how confusing the market placement of the Nikon D3100 is. It's priced the same as the still-available D5000, which is in many ways a better camera. And with the exception of video, which many users don't care about anyway, it's very similar to the much cheaper D3000.
Compact interchangeable-lens cameras are cute, but sometimes you want the heft of a dSLR-style body, full mode dial, electronic viewfinder, and a lot of direct-access controls. The Sony Alpha SLT-A37, the latest entry-level model in Sony's line of dSLR-style cameras with phase-detection autofocus systems but fixed mirrors, fits in that niche, along with dSLRs like the Nikon D3200 Canon EOS Rebel T2i.
The Nikon D3200 has a lot of the same or similar components to the D3100, including the same autofocus system (bolstered by Nikon's newer scene-recognition technology) and viewfinder, it's got a newer, higher resolution sensor coupled with Nikon's updated Expeed 3 imaging engine, a higher-resolution LCD, and 1080/30p video with a supporting microphone jack and HDMI connector.
D7000 Meet the new Nikon D7000, a camera ready to go wherever your photography or cinematography takes you. Experience stunning images with sharp resolution and smooth tonal gradation, thanks to the 16-megapixel DX-format CMOS image sensor and a powerful EXPEED 2 image processing engine.
