Nikon D5000 Digital SLR Camera - Body Only

Product Information

It's like pianos: a 9-foot Bösendorfer may be better piano than the upright at the local bar, but if you can't play the piano, you won't get good music out of any of them. We've been using a full production version of this 120 fps sports camera, to see what you gain (and, perhaps, lose). In Exposure Delay Mode, the mirror is flipped up when you tip the shutter release button, but the shutter itself only opens a second later, when the vibration caused by the mirror has more or less subsided.

As with the D90, each uninterrupted movie shot at 720p is limited to 5 minutes duration and 20 minutes for all other resolutions (the D7000 can do 20 min movies).

Activating Live view on other Nikon SLRs has included turning the Drive Mode dial to Lv and then pressing the shutter button to lock the mirror up; hardly intuitive. The recent boom in DSLR sales has seen all the major manufacturers adding bulked-up or stripped-down entry level models, repositioning their offerings to make sure that anyone willing to put up with the size and weight of a DSLR will look at one of their models. Finding and focusing on eyes rather than foreground objects, or even foreheads and noses, is one particular benefit of the overall integration. These new features join already interesting editing tools like Distortion control, Fisheye effect, Color filters, and In-camera image-resizing. The file numbering sequence incorrectly defaults to OFF, meaning you'll often be shooting files named DSC_0001.

Adding D-Movie mode and an articulating LCD gives the Nikon D5000 two more excellent selling points that can actually serve consumer and enthusiast photographers well. That enables onscreen effects that you generally only find on higher-end Nikon SLRs, like the hairline grid that you can activate, the low-battery indicator, the "No memory card" warning, or the LCD/LED illuminated AF points that you see at right. Its grip seems to have less depth, so it's harder to get a good purchase with your fingers, but once you rest the weight into your palm and oppose it with your thumb, your hold improves.The sound is from one crummy mono microphone, and the video images are compressed to fit the SD memory card, just like any point-and-shoot. After you take a picture and an image pops on the screen, if you spin the dial to get to other images as you can do on other Nikons, instead of changing to the other pictures, the D5000 accidentally interprets that input as thinking you want to change your exposure settings.