Nikon D5300 – Video Review – best DSLR video quality on APS-C

by Johnnie BehiriFebruary 14^th, 2014

Well, the title says it all. In terms of video quality Nikon just brought the best APS-C sensor VDSLR to the market.
The video is sharp out of the box, yet it has a very nice organic look. Well done Nikon!

Now, before you all run to buy this camera, you must know that it is one of the most frustrating devices to work with. Where should I start….

• Aperture:
If you are working with electronic lenses, there is no easy way to change aperture. You must change to photo mode in order to do so. True, it just takes the “click of a single button” yet it is very frustrating!!
(especially when the LCD screen turns blank leaving you without feedback). One possible workaround is to use manual focus lenses from Nikkor or third party companies.

• Audio:
This is one of the worst cameras I’ve ever tested when it comes to audio quality and audio functions.
The hiss is unbearable, there is manual control for audio levels but not while you are recording and worst of all there is no headphone jack for audio monitoring. Very frustrating!

• Focusing:
When pressing the “magnify” button you get some kind of a disturbing electronic magnification that results in a strobing screen. It is almost impossible to correctly focus on even slightly moving objects this way.

• Low light capability:
ISO 3200 proved to be too much for this camera, but at ISO 1000, which the video was mostly shot on, the quality is lovely.

Other then that all is good…. There’s no moire, no aliasing, just pure organic video with the capability to output a clean feed to an external recording device. One more plus point to note, this is Nikon’s first camera that can shoot 1080/50, 60p if wanted.

Camera settings for this review:
• 1080/25p
• Picture profile: NL
• No colour correction or sharpness was added during editing
• Audio was recorded externally. I’ve included 2 original audio files from the camera strongly relying on noise reduction. Wonder if you can spot them….
• All was shot on available light but the interviews. For that, one Cineroid L2C was used.

A big thank you to Maria and the wonderful people who agreed to participate in this video.
More info about Maria’s “Jodlerin2go” project can be found here.