Nikon D5100 - Amazing!

I recently got a Nikon D5100 and am just blown away by the amount of shadow detail it is able to recover. What you might think is solid black on the camera screen and unrecoverable, even after pulling into Lightroom, is actually a whole lot of detail just waiting to be yanked out of the shadows. The two images below are one and the same; the one on the left being the unedited image straight from the camera and the one on the right after careful editing in Lightroom 3.

Straight from the camera

Same image after editing in Lightroom 3

It seems unreal, but these REALLY are the same photograph. Here is a 100% crop of a deep shadow area so you can see up close what is hiding in the shadows....



Crazy isn't it? The reviews about this camera do not lie; it has incredible shadow detail retention. This image was shot with the following settings: Nikon D5100, 0.4 sec, f11, ISO 100, RAW, 18mm (Lens: 18-55 f3.5-5.6).