50 24 August 2019 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113
Testbench SECOND-HAND BARGAINS
Sport & action
£443
Nikon D5300 with AF-S DX Nikkor
55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR
IF YOU’RE just starting out in photography, or
maybe feel your current camera isn’t the best
equipped for shooting sports and action, there
are so many options on the second-hand
market you’ll find you’re rather spoilt for
choice. Over the years we’ve seen many
fine-performing DSLRs drop substantially in
price – the original Canon EOS 7D being one
example. When it was launched 10 years ago it
would set you back £1,699 for the body alone.
Today it can be picked up for as little as £289
through second-hand specialists like MPB.com
in ‘like new’ condition with a shutter count of
only 6,000 shots. While it’s relatively easy to
find great used cameras or suitable second-
hand lenses for action and sports photography
under £500, buying both on this budget
requires you to search a bit harder. Provided
you’re willing to compromise a little on speed,
you will be able to find an excellent example of
a DSLR and a telephoto lens that gets you right
to the heart of the action, just as we did with
the Nikon D5300 (£279 in excellent
condition) and AF-S DX Nikkor 55-300mm
f/4.5-5.6G ED VR (£164 in excellent
condition).
The Nikon D5300 isn’t best known for its
high-speed shooting, but provides more than
sufficient resolution from its 24.2-million-pixel
APS-C CMOS sensor and can rattle out a
continuous burst at 4fps when shooting 14-bit
raw files and 5fps when shooting JPEGs or
12-bit raw files. This might sound a bit
pedestrian compared to many of today’s
DSLRs and mirrorless cameras that can shootat lightning speeds of 20fps and faster;
however if you’ve got a good shooting
technique and have more than one
opportunity to get a perfectly timed shot,
there’s nothing to stop you getting great results
with it. Buffer depth and autofocus speed are
hugely important when you want to shoot
fast-moving or erratic subjects. In the case of
the D5300 it manages to shoot 13 continuous
raw images (12-bit) at 5fps before it requires a
breather. This, like its burst speed, shows the
D5300’s age, but if you switch from shooting
in raw to Fine JPEG you can capture up to 100
frames at 5fps without interruption. There are
plenty of cameras capable of shooting faster
for longer duration, but you’ll find these require
a premium to be paid for their faster internal
memory, which allows more image data to be
written in a shorter time.
So what about autofocus? The D5300 uses
Nikon’s Multi-Cam 4800DX autofocus module
that provides 39 selectable focus points, nine
of which are the faster and more reliable
cross-type. You get an excellent selection of
AF-area modes too, including single-point AF;
9-, 21- or 39-point dynamic-area AF; and
3D-tracking. Its focus speed isn’t a match for
newer and high-end DX-format Nikon DSLRs
like the D500, but you’ll find that it takes just a
fraction of a second to lock on, even in fading
light. As for the performance of the lens, it
doesn’t have the same immediacy as tele-
zooms that cost thousands of pounds when
asked to focus from near to far or vice versa.
But with the crop factor considered, itseffective 82.5-450mm focal length lets you fill
the frame with distant subjects, thus reducing
the amount of cropping required in post-
processing and maximising high levels of detail.Handling
While its predecessor had a polycarbonate
exoskeleton that was based around a metal
chassis, the D5300 body is a ‘monocoque’
design. This involves using a single shell made
of carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic without the
metal chassis, which cuts down on weight while
maintaining durability. As a result, the D5300
weighs just 480g, which combined with
the 55-300mm lens (580g), makes it a
lightweight combination for sports and
action photography.
The handgrip isn’t huge. Those who have big
hands may find their little finger falls off the
bottom, but for those with small or average-
sized hands it offers a good depth to wrap your
palm around it to get a solid hold. Your thumb
easily finds the button marked ‘i’, which loads
the shooting menu from where many
important settings can be changed. With
no front dial, users are forced to hold the
exposure compensation button and tweak the
rear dial to adjust aperture in manual mode.Should I buy it?
It might be an advanced entry-level DSLR
that’s getting on for being six years old, but the
Nikon D5300 remains a very good camera
with the potential to produce fantastically
ALL PRICES WERE TAKEN FROM W W W.MPB.COM AT THE TIME OF WRITING detailed images from its sensor, which excludes
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