I bought a D5100 about a month ago, an upgrade from a point and shoot. I don't know much about photography but wanted something that could take better pictures of my kids. When I upload my pictures to my computer, view them with picasa and then zoom in on a section, my D5100 pics aren't nearly as clear as those taken with my friend's Canon EOS Rebel XSi. Even my father-in-law's Nikon D50 pics are much clearer, regardless of who took the picture. Pictures on all 3 cameras are taken with auto settings, and JPEG settings/etc are identical. I haven't seen any printed photos yet (I pick up some tomorrow), but don't understand why the D5100 pics aren't anywhere near as clear/crisp as those from the D50 and especially the Canon (both my friend and FIL took pics with the D5100 with similar results). The whole experience makes me want to return the camera, but reviews are all great. Could this be a setting issue? Any other suggestions?

Without posting a pic with the EXIF settings i.e.; Shutter speed, f stop, ISO focus mode we can't figure out why the photos are not crisp and sharp.

There are many reasons:

If you had an auto focus lens and it was set on manual.
Shutter speeds were really slow, ISO might have been set really low....

Any Camera made today from the iPhone 4 to the Nikon D4 is capable of great photos.

Post some shots.

I can't say what's wrong with your D5100 pics, but I own both a D5100 and a D90 and I can't tell the difference between images from each camera--both are sharp. I think the D5100 is a great camera.

In fact, the only real difference between the D5100 and the D90 is the convenience of the D90's controls and the clearer view screen. But frankly, given the D5100's larger sensor and its capability of iso 100, i'm not sure why anyone would pay more for a D90 (I bought mine used and paid about the same price I paid for the D5100). I bought the D90 for the flash commander mode but found a radio control trigger works far better, and works just fine on the D5100.

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Hi Kristina,

Welcome to Nikonians!
The D5100 is very capable of excellent Image Quality even using the Auto settings.
Please upload a sample image or two with the Exif data intact to your Gallery so we can see what is going on.
Good Luck and Enjoy your Nikons!

Best Regards,
Marty

Sharpness or crispness almost never has anything to do with the quality of the camera. And the D5100 is fully capable of outperforming essentially all professional cameras of less than 15 years ago.

Even if the settings are "identical" they may not mean the same thing. Moreover, there are so many settings that it's hard to imagine how they'd be identical. For example, the D5100 has probably twice as many settings as the D50 does, just for starters. And the Canon has different terminology and some quite different types of settings - so it's hard to imagine how a XSi can be made "identical" to a D5100 in setting configuration.

I don't know the details of the D5100 (or D50 for that matter) but I know that setting sharpening to either "auto" or "default" means very different things on several of my cameras, and I'd guess that the D50 and D5100 are similarly not equivalent.

Finally, most complaints about lack of sharpness or lack of crispness are due to - frankly - operator error or misunderstanding, not poor quality. Even the least capable or least impressive modern cameras and lenses are capable of really crisp, vivid results.

So... the best thing to do is as mentioned a couple of times above: let's get a representative sample, along with basic information such as lens, focal length, aperture, shutter speed and ISO - and then we can try to figure out what went awry. (All of that information is stored in the file itself, by the way.)

_____
Brian... a bicoastal Nikonian and Team Member

My gallery is online. Comments and critique welcomed any time!

When I
>upload my pictures to my computer, view them with picasa and
>then zoom in on a section,


You're viewing both a D50 file and a D5100 file at 100%? The size difference in the files may skew your perception of sharp.

Sheri Becker

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