D5300

Prior to buying the D5300 I was using a D3100 with my Sigma 150-500mm lens to shoot birds and wildlife. The photos with the D3100 were a little soft but very usable with the aperture set at f8. When I switched to the D5300 I noticed an immediate improvement in my photos. Not only did it have much greater resolution (24 mp v 14 mp) so that I could crop the photos a lot more but the photos were also much sharper at the same settings. I also like the faster burst mode that lets me take twice as many photos of a bird in flight than the D3100. It is a little awkward to adjust some of the settings using the menu on the camera, but most of the time I'm shooting in the Aperture Priority (A) mode so this isn't a problem. I like the compact form factor and low weight of the camera (similar to the D3100). Lugging around the Sigma telephoto lens is bad enough, so anything I can do to eliminate extra weight is good.
The build quality of the camera seems excellent. The articulated view screen is large, bright and handy. I like the fact that I can reverse the screen so that the glass faces inward which protects the glass from cracks and scratches. I also like the fact that the batteries for the D5300 and D3100 are interchangeable! Finally!
The internal GPS is slow acquiring the satellite signals which means you don't always get the coordinates entered into the EXIF. To ensure that you do, you have to disable the auto-standby feature and leave the camera on all the time. This of course burns through your battery a lot faster than normal. Hence, I rarely use the GPS.
The camera also has built-in WiFi capability. You need to download a mobile app to use this feature with your iPhone/Android smart phone. With the app you can download photos from the camera and take photos remotely using the phone. I haven't found this particularly useful so far, but the remote control aspect has me intrigued. Most of the time it looks to me to be a gimmick that also burns through the battery.
Considering the quality of photos I'm getting at a cost considerably less than the D7100, I am very pleased with the camera. More photos that I've take with the D5300/Sigma 150-500 combination can be viewed here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/18276798@N07/