
Since there doesn't seem to be a lot of recoverable highlight detail it probably makes sense to underexpose, but if it bothers you it's easily fixed with exposure compensation or switching metering schemes. The bigger issue is the matrix metering, which, as with the D5200, tends underexpose. Nikon's default settings deliver a very good balance between accuracy and pop, with saturation and contrast boosted slightly but not enough to produce wholesale hue shifts or egregious clipping in shadow or highlight areas. Its images are noticeably better than the D5200's at every ISO sensitivity, though it looks like that's simply because they're sharper, not less noisy. Though it doesn't have the broadest tonal range I've seen, it generally produces sharp photos with excellent color reproduction and really good JPEG images in low light it's as good as the Fujifilm X-M1 and arguably better because the higher resolution gives it more detail to work with. The D5300 delivers excellent photo quality for its price class.

In addition, the camera ships with a new kit lens, the 18-140mm f3.5-5.6, which provides more flexibility than the 18-105mm f3.5-5.6 that initially accompanied the D5200. It uses a new version of Nikon's Expeed image processor, which allows for the addition of 1080/60p video, an extra stop of ISO sensitivity, better battery life (the D5300 also takes a new battery), and a couple of new in-camera effects, toy camera and HDR painting. It sports an improved body design with a slightly larger viewfinder and a bigger, higher-resolution LCD than its predecessor, bakes in Wi-Fi and GPS capabilities, and incorporates a stereo microphone. As the least expensive camera yet to use a sensor without an optical low-pass filter (OLPF), the Nikon D5300 delivers sharper images than most cameras in its class.
