Nikon D5600

Nikon D5600: the review by our expert

Nikon D5600 is a DX format APS-C camera of the “advanced entry level” segment, perfect for photography lovers with pre-professional ambitions but who – for reasons of space or technical choice – haven’t begun the full frame adventure yet.

Nikon D5600 is halfway between Nikon D3400 and D3500, for “beginners”, and the most evolved Nikon of the 7000 series (7200 e 7500), which are basically semi-professional cameras.

The weight of the Nikon D5600 camera body is 465 grams, including memory card and battery, that weigh approximately 50 grams together. Its size is easy to handle: 124 x 97 x 70 millimeters.

Such weight might seem considerable, but I can assure you that it is not for reflex cameras. In fact, Nikon D5600 is perfect for street photography, also thanks to its completely jointed display, of which we’ll talk in a few moments.

Nikon D5600 has a single-piece structure and is quite solid, even if – compared to the more advanced – it is not tropicalized. The grip is rather deep.

The big plus of Nikon D5600: the jointed LCD display

I’d like that to be noted because it’s really one of the reasons, if not the only reason, to prefer this camera to cheaper ones, like D3400.

It is really convenient and, above all, it keeps you from contorting yourself when you shoot from below with the tripod.

To make room for it, the control buttons on the back have been moved to the right.

The joints work perfectly, not too soft nor too hard, and the stroke is remarkable on all levels.

Of course, if you are not interested in having a jointed display, Nikon D5600 remains an excellent camera but it loses part of its appeal.

Nikon D5600: technical features

In its dedicated section you can find the characteristics of Nikon D5600; however, in this review I’d like to make a short list of the most significant ones:

• Sensor: 24.2 megapixel (APS-C) CMOS DX
• Image processor: Expeed 4, top-of-the-line for years until Expeed 5, used in the new D7500
• ISO range: between 100 and 25,600, expandable up to 102,400
• Autofocus: 39 AF points, of which 9 cross-centered; it works in liveview mode as well (on the LCD display)
• Shooting top speed: 1/4000 sec.
• Burst mode: 5 fps
• Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth and NFC
• Battery: approx. 970 shots

Photo and video quality of D5600

The 24.2 megapixels sensor without low-pass filter, together with the Expeed 4 processor, provides high quality and, even increasing the ISO, Nikon D5600 works perfectly. The digital noise becomes evident only above ISO 800.

As far as the panoramic format is concerned, Nikon D5600 is a little disappointing compared to its older sister, D5500: it doesn’t have the wide mode.

Also no 4K for videos in Nikon D5600: it’s Full Hd up to 50/60p. However, unlike D5500, the autofocus is faster during the shooting: the detection phase is far quicker, thus producing clearer videos.

Taking pictures with Nikon D5600

It turns on fast, the controls are intuitive, the amount of direct drives on the camera body is not bad, even if you’ll often have to use the main settings on the display.

Thinking about its use, Nikon D5600 is an actual all-round camera, meaning it’s good in all kinds of photographic scenes:

• For street photography, it’s small and light, with jointed display.
• For landscapes, it has good quality image and appropriate color range.
• For portraits, still life, food photography, etc, the 24 megapixels APS-C sensor gives great sharpness.
• For action photography, it has good shooting speed, good burst mode and good buffering.

Finally, thanks to the 39 points autofocus, also moving subjects are captured with precision: there’s been a marked improvement in comparison with D3400.

Using liveview mode, the autofocus shows some limits when the subjects are particularly dynamic and lights are low. The quality remains ok but some Canon with similar price do a better job in this kind of situations.

For the lovers of automatic mode, “scenes” and special effects, Nikon D5600 has a wide range of choice:

• Portrait, night portrait, close up, animal portrait
• Landscape, night landscape, beach/snow, sunset, sunrise/twilight
• Children, sports, parties/interiors
• Candlelight, autumn colors, flowers, food
• Special effects (Night view, pop, toy camera, super vivid, photo drawing, miniature, color selection, high key, low key, silhouette)

My Opinion on Nikon D5600

Nikon D5600 is perfect if you don’t want to enter this world starting with a professional camera, but you already have good budget.

It does a bit of everything, and it does it well. The main reason for its price, higher than “basic” entry level models such as Nikon D3400 or Canon 2000D, is the presence of the jointed LCD display. If you really like it and you need it, it is absolutely worthy of more money. Otherwise, you can have similar performance (therefore excellent) with an APS-C reflex camera of lower category.