Nikon D5500 gets a touchscreen

Editors' note, February 19, 2015: Updated with international pricing.

LAS VEGAS -- Nikon's replacement for its prosumer D5300 dSLR boasts modest enhancements. Really modest. With a body-only price of $900 (£640, AU$1,000), it's got some stiff competition, not just from other companies but from Nikon's own dSLR offerings. Scheduled to ship in February, it won't initially come in a kit with the new collapsible 55-200mm f4.5-5.6 lens, but you can probably expect to see bundles with it in the future.

Nikon D5500 displays modest updates

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What's new

• Touchscreen LCD. And with that, the camera gains operations in Live View like touch autofocus and touch shutter.
• A little more compact. The camera's actual dimensions aren't that much smaller than the D5300's -- only 0.2 inch less deep -- but it felt smaller when I held it, possibly because it's a little lighter.
• Design tweaks. Nikon simplified the mode dial, dropping all the individual scene program modes (they're still in the camera, though). The adjustment dial is still essentially in the same place, but it sits on top of the camera rather than embedded in it, and the info button now sits on the back rather than the top. And the control panel screen it brings up is a bit more streamlined to use. Plus the grip is slightly more comfortable to hold. The buttons also have a different feel.
• Battery life. Nikon rates the battery for about 100 more shots, but that's mostly because the D5500 accepts the higher-capacity EN-EL14a, though it's backward-compatible with the EN-EL14.
• Added features. As you'd expect from an update, there are a few more in-camera effects -- Super Vivid, Pop and Photo Illustration. Nikon also picks up some features from more recent cameras, including a Flat Picture Control (for shooting video you plan to grade/retrouch) and quarter-step increments for editing Picture Control settings. The brightness range now goes up to 11 1.5.
• Nikon brands its connectivity. Now it's called Snapbridge, in the attempt to make it seem friendlier and easier to use. Nothing much has really changed, though.

My take

As far as I can tell, there are no signficant performance enhancements and possibly only minor improvements in photo quality, making the only potential reason to buy this over the cheaper D5300 the touchscreen. Given all the updates Sony made for the admittedly bigger and heavier Alpha A77 II, which has been discounted almost since the moment it shipped, the D5500 looks a little disappointing in comparison, at least for US buyers.

Furthermore, the faster, better-built D7100 has been around long enough that it costs roughly the same. It lacks the up-to-date video capabilities and Wi-Fi of the D5500, but for still photographers it might be a more compelling option. And if Nikon decides to announce a D7200 in the near future -- the D7100 will be 2 years old in March -- its price could drop even further.

Comparative specs