Nikon D5300 + AF-S DX 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR review: specs and price

Flip-out screens are useful for doing tricky shots.

With 100% coverage you can compose the image correctly when you capture the photo. With less than full coverage you may have to crop your photos afterwards to get them looking perfect.

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An optical viewfinder (or OVF) allows the photographer to compose a shot while seeing exactly what the lens sees. There is no time lag and they require no power - as opposed to electronic viewfinders which can drain battery life. They are also better in low light situations.

Lenses with built-in focus motor focus faster and more quietly than lenses without a focus motor which rely on the camera's body focus motor.

A system camera has lots of changeable parts such as lenses, flashes and other accessories. They offer greater flexibility than compact cameras.

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The more focus points the more flexibility in picking which part of the scene to focus on. They also give the image sensor a better probability in identifying the right area of the scene to focus on in more automatic modes.

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The larger the sensor the more light the sensor captures yielding in better image quality.

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With a wider aperture the sensor can capture more light, helping to avoid blur by enabling a faster shutter speed. It also provides a shallow depth of field, allowing you to blur the background to focus attention on the subject.

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With AF tracking, once you choose the subject and press the shutter release part way down, as the subject moves, the autofocus will follow it. No more out of focus shots.

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With a higher light sensitivity (ISO level), the sensor absorbs more light. This can be used to capture moving objects using a fast shutter speed, or to take images in low light without using a flash.

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The maximum resolution available for videos shot with the main camera. Although it may be possible to choose among other frame rates, those recordings usually have lower resolutions.

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A timelapse shows a long passage of time sped up. A series of photographs taken from the same position over a long period is joined together to create a short video. It is great way to capture things like the setting sun, or clouds moving across the sky.

When recording movies they stay focussed and sharp.

A stereo microphone allows to record audio files or movies in stereo without an external microphone.

CIPA is an independent, standard measurement that determines how many shots a camera can take before the battery dies.

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The battery is removable and can be replaced by the user if broken.

The battery can be recharged and used over again.

An indicator shows you when the device has low battery.

The maximum ISO at which the device still captures excellent quality images. Source: DxOMark.

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A device's overall image quality score considers: color depth, dynamic range and low light performance. Source: DxOMark.

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The better a device's color depth the more color nuances it can distinguish. Source: DxOMark.

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The better the dynamic range the system captures a wider number of values from dark to light leading to more details in low and highlights. Source: DxOMark.

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The device can connect to WiFi.

The device has a standard memory slot (such as an SD or micro SD card slot) so that you can either extend the internal storage with affordable memory modules or you can retrieve data, such as photographs, easily from a memory card.

At the shorter end of the lens you get the widest angle of view. This allows you to fit more of the scene into the photograph (based on APS-C format).

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This is the closest distance that the lens can focus. A shorter minimum focus distance allows you to get closer to your subject, and is particularly important when doing macro photography.

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Lenses with a built-in focus motor can autofocus even if the camera does not have its own focus motor.

DxOMark is a set of tests to measure the performance and quality of lenses and cameras. The DxOMark score is the overall score given to the lens. Tested with Nikon D7000 or Canon 7D. Source: DxOMark.

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The front element doesn’t rotate. This is important if you use filters, as some such as polarising or gradient filters have to be orientated a certain way.

The vignetting result from the DxOMark set of metrics. Vignetting refers to when the brightness of an image changes from the center towards the edges, resulting in darkened corners. A result of 0 is perfect and the image will have no vignetting. Tested with Nikon D7000 or Canon 7D. Source: DxOMark.

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