My Sony A6000 with the 18-200mm lens was stolen, and I couldn't justify sticking with Sony after that. Basically Sony is just too expensive for what you. After the theft, I still had my HVLF 43mm flash, 35mm Sony prime lens, Sony hotshoe microphone and after selling all those things I was almost able to pay for this camera and an additional 35mm Nikon prime lens. A lot of this review will compare it to the Sony A6000 which I previously had. I am an amateur photographer who doesn't have much to play around with Manual settings. Bottom line is for $1000 total (including the 35mm prime lens), I got a camera that was at least equivalent to the Sony A6000.
The flash of this is much better than the built in flash on the A6000 which was so weak that I needed to get the external flash. The Nikon D5500 flash is built in and is way better than the Sony A6000 flash, due to it's further range and better resulting picture quality. If you have a bright background and need to use the flash for a portrait picture, then this works great. This was not the case with Sony's teeny A6000 flash.
LCD. It's a touch screen, and allows you to touch the screen and focus on an object. The A6000 didn't let me do this. The A6500 does, but at a cost of 2.5X times this. It also fully swivels and turns and can be turned to face inwards when you're not using this, which is a great feature. The Sony A6000 sometimes missed the focus point which for me taking pictures of my kids was/is important. With the A6000 and my kids on the move, I didn't have time to move the cursor to track someone's face, which it also lost. With the D5500, you can either touch the part of the scene/screen that you want the camera to track and focus, or you can set it to automatically take the picture when you touch the part of screen/scene that you want the camera to focus on and then take your finger off the screen.
Manual control is definitely not as good as the A6000. You cannot manually the ISO, shutter speed and aperture at the same time.
Automatic mode and SCNs result in better pictures than the modes on the A6000.
Overall picture quality is good enough for me which is mostly family and kid pictures with the odd landscape.
Size is definitely bigger than the A6000 but with the A6000, I was using the 18-200mm lens and once you put on a big lens than the size of the body doesn't matter as much.
Viewfinder is optical instead of digital. The A6000 wins here. Digital viewfinder shows what your picture is going to look like. Optical viewfinider does not. I definitely miss this feature.
Lastly, as other reviewers have said, the wireless features of the Nikon D5500 don't work that well, which wasn't important to me. They also didn't work well with the Sony A6000 unless you had that touch NFC thing on your mobile or tablet. This was not important to me, but I still think Nikon could/should sort this out.
In short, if you plan to get an A6000 and just use the kit 16-50mm lens and the 55-210mm lens, and you don't really care about a touchscreen and a good flash, then I would suggest you go with the Sony A6000 over this. If you plan on buying other lenses and care about having a good flash, and a touchscreen then I would go with the Nikon D5500. For $1000 total, I got the Nikon D5500, the 18-140mm lens, the 35mm prime lens, plus extra batteries, charger, camera case, shoulder strap and wrist strap. For me, this was the best camera in this price range which had all the features I wanted except one (digital viewfinder).
Nikon D5500 DX-format Digital SLR w/ 18-55mm VR II Kit (Red)
4.5 | 683 ratings
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Last update: 01-08-2025
About this item
24.2 MP DX-format CMOS sensor with no optical low-pass filter (OLPF)
39-point Autofocus (AF) system
5 frames per second continuous shooting
ISO 100 - 25,600
High resolution, vari-angle LCD with familiar, smartphone-like touchscreen for easy use
1080/60p HD video capabilities allow for capture of fast-moving subjects or creating slow motion effects
Built-in Wi-Fi and smartphone compatibility for instant sharing
39-point Autofocus (AF) system
5 frames per second continuous shooting
ISO 100 - 25,600
High resolution, vari-angle LCD with familiar, smartphone-like touchscreen for easy use
1080/60p HD video capabilities allow for capture of fast-moving subjects or creating slow motion effects
Built-in Wi-Fi and smartphone compatibility for instant sharing
Product information
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Nikon D5500 DX-format Digital SLR w/ 18-55mm VR II Kit (Red)
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Top reviews from the United States
N FreemanAt least equivalent to the Sony A6000 at a cheaper price if you include good lenses.
Waikiki