Nikon D5500 Review – Performance
The Nikon D5500 can cope well with tricky scenes
Metering
Like the D5300, the D5500 features a 2016-pixel metering sensor with settings for matrix, centreweighted and spot metering. These do a good job of calculating a good exposure across the vast majority of scenes. I found that in high-contrast scenes, the first areas to become clipped are the highlights. This is simply fixed by dialling down the exposure compensation and, thanks to the good dynamic range of the D5500’s sensor, there’s plentiful room to lighten the shadow areas in-camera or in post-production. It would have been quite an advantage to have seen the highlight protection metering from the D810 and D750 handed down to the D5500, but I guess this is a feature reserved for premium models.
White balance and colour
Using the same hardware as the D5300, the D5500 has excellent colour rendition. Even though a large portion of my shooting with the camera was carried out on cold winter days in England, the D5500 still delivered tonally rich images. Bark of trees, green grass and the odd flecks of coloured flowers were all well saturated and punchy. Among entry-level cameras, the D5500 really does deliver on colour rendition.
