Nikon D5000 Digital SLR Camera (18-55 mm VR Lens Kit)

With a holiday to southern Ireland coming up that'll probably be the last family holiday before my eldest wants to start going away with friends instead, I wanted to be sure I come back with some great photos. My 8 year old Nikon Coolpix & much older still F601 just don't cut it anymore and I've fancied getting back into photography with a decent digital SLR for some time now.

Many evenings of trawling through reviews, spec sheets and sample photos, and I settled on the D5000. I chose it over the D60 because of some significantly better features (such as the 11 area Auto Focus and more flexible D-Lighting), and in preference to the D90 because I wanted some spare cash for accessories like a graduated ND filter kit. Other makes such as the Canon 500D just didn't match the Nikon for picture quality and that's the prime criteria for me.

I'm absolutely over the moon with my choice. Although the almost absurd array of features and settings was daunting when I first switched it on, after reading the manual (all 200 pages of it, I made a rare exception in this instance and it proved to be time well worth spending) I very soon found the D5000 to be surprisingly quick and easy to use. Changing any setting such as the ISO, metering, exposure compensation or AF area etc takes a split second. All of the key settings are displayed on the LCD during normal operation and a quick press of the "i" button lets you tab through them and make adjustments (it even remembers the last one you accessed which is really handy if, say, you want to change to spot metering for 1 photo then back to centre weighted afterwards) so it's rarely necessary to go into the menu itself.

I've always found Nikons to be solidly built, my Coolpix was dropped onto a solid floor on a couple of occasions with not even the barest hint of a scratch let alone significant damage, and the D5000 feels equally robust (not that I'm intending on doing a drop-test on it !)

Power up is instantaneous and there's no noticeable shutter lag, it's just as quick as my old non-digital F601 when it comes to grabbing it off the table and taking a quick snap (in fact the AF is vastly quicker and more reliable on the D5000 with the 18-55 VR lens than my old F601 was), and with a SanDisk 20MB/s SDHC memory card it rattles off continuous RAW shots at a rate faster than I'll probably ever need it to

Picture quality is fantastic, razor sharp detail and bright vivid colours. I just wish computer monitors came in 4288 x 2848 native resolutions because the camera produces way more detail than even my 27" 1920 x 1200 monitor can display and I have to zoom out to 44% to fit a whole photo on screen !

At it's default setting exposure was a tad dark for my liking, but a quick adjustment to the exposure compensation sorted that, in fact there's more than enough scope to tweak just about anything to suit your own individual taste. After going through all of the menus to familiarise myself with what was available I was staggered at the range of features crammed in to this camera. To give just 1 example - I used to have an 8 point star filter for an old camera, you don't need one for the D5000, it's available as one of the in-built filter effects called "cross screen", not only that but you can choose from 4,6 or 8 points, 3 different filtering amounts, 3 different angle settings, and 3 different point lengths. It produces a very effective result too.

Only very slight downside I have found is a bit of blooming creeping in to shots that are fairly over-exposed, but I doubt it would have been noticeable printed at A4 size and I'm sure a bit more care with exposures would eliminate that.

I've read that pictures are even sharper and more detailed still with the Nikon 50mm F1.4 prime lens, that's something I just have to see so it's been added to my future shopping list

I can't comment on its video capability because I haven't tried it and don't intend to (it doesn't auto focus in video mode for starters which makes it pretty much pointless in my view). That's my only real gripe actually - I have a Camcorder that takes excellent HD video with the added ability to take photos that are ok but not fantastic (so I don't take photos with it), and now a camera that takes excellent photos with limited video facilities bolted on. I really wish manufacturers would leave these pointless gimics off because no doubt we're paying extra for it. Please just concentrate on the specific area that the thing's designed for !!

All in all, I'd recommend the D5000 to anyone looking for a decent dSLR for under a grand, if it proves as reliable as my Coolpix has been then I'll be getting plenty of enjoyment out of it for many years to come.

I bought this camera to replace my D40. I've taken 1300 pictures in the first two weeks (I was on holiday!) and I am absolutely delighted with the results. The camera is very easy to get used to; it's very similar to the D40 but with some added features. It is noticeably faster than the D40; you can take a picture within a fraction of a second from switch on. I sold on the 18-55mm lens that it came with and used my existing 18-105mm VR lens. However the standard lens also has VR (Vibration Reduction). I've no idea how one is supposed to tell if VR is making a difference and while it can be switched off I can't see any point in that so I keep it on all the time. The Auto Focus is very quick and I find the 11 point system easier to target than the 3 point system on the D40. Live view also has it's uses in a tight spot. I very much like the moveable LCD screen on the back, it's big and one can face it in any direction as required or close it up completely for protection. The automatic settings are good; I also like the Scenes feature which I found very good for some of those difficult situations like sun rise, sun set, and party shots in the evening darkness. I use a Speedlight SB-600 flash and it works perfectly with the camera; it's easy to adjust to situations and get good pics out of difficult lighting conditions

A 4GB card holds just over 1300 pics. That should be enough for anyone!

The only problem I have identified is the way Nikon manage the picture folders and numbering. Once there are 1,000 pictures in the folder the camera opens a new folder and re-starts numbering from 0001. This is a nuisance for me because I like to number my pictures continuously (when they go on the PC I upgrade the numbers to 5 digits). This resulted in me having to rename nearly 300 pics to get them back in line. This has only been a problem because I took so many pics in one session. Normally one would copy off far fewer pics and empty the folder, in which case continuous numbering works fine. All this begs the question - when are camera makers going to provide a five digit number range? That would allow 99,999 unique picture files without the need to renumber any. At the rate I'm taking pics that would keep me busy for about 20 years!

Best likes: Picture quality, auto focus, VR, Live view, Scenes, ease of use.
Dislikes: Folder and number management, with the bigger lens (and often a flash gun on top) it's pretty heavy!

I bought David Busch's Nikon D5000 guide to Digital SLR Photography which makes up for the rather poor user guide that comes with the camera. Nikon's guide tells you what the camera has on it; David Busch also tells you how to use it - much more useful.

First some background on how I came to buy this kit. I found buying a Digital SLR a very confusing process given the huge numbers of very similar models available. It becomes clear pretty early on however that the choice is essentially down to Canon Vs Nikon. I was tempted, for example, by the Pentax K7 which is a semi-professional camera with a very high specification. But the Pentax has a limited range of lenses available compared to Canon or Nikon. I then started on a model by model comparison of Canon and Nikon, beginning at the higher end of their ranges with models like the Canon EOS5, which is also a semi-professional camera. However, these kinds of semi-pro models weigh a lot (900gms) and I concluded that I would be reluctant to take them out with me. That left me looking at the top end of the consumer ranges of each manufacturer, comparing the Nikon D90 with the Canon EOS 50D. To be quite honest there is nothing to choose between these cameras and it comes down to personal taste and how you like the handling. My preference was for the Nikon. At this point my camera dealer suggested I look also at the cheaper Nikon D5000. This has 90% of the features of the D90 and has the advantage (to my mind) that the LCD screen on the back of the camera swivels round so that it doesn't get scratched. My dealer told me that he hardly sells any D90s now that the D5000 is around.

I bought the body only and paired it with the Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S G VR II DX Nikkor Lens. This is a fabulous combination. Not too heavy, physically compact and covers nearly every focal length you could reasonably want so that it is only necessary to carry one lens around. This lens costs the same as the camera but in my view is worth every penny. The standard lens that comes with the camera is its weakest link and you will significantly improve the quality of your photographs by upgrading it.

This is a very fine camera indeed. It sits nicely in the hand and the controls are pretty intuitive. Unlike the D90 one control covers both shutter speed and aperture and switching between them requires a button to be pressed simultaneously. I thought this would be horrible but in practice does not impede the ergonomics. Access to advanced functions through the LCD screen is pretty straightforward - certainly much simpler compared to my Canon S90 compact. So I haven't found myself standing over the camera wondering how to change settings such as ISO, exposure compensation, bracketing, flash functions etc. The viewfinder is nice and clear but if I'm honest not as good as my old Olympus OM1 - unless my memory is playing tricks. The information display on the LCD screen is first class with a choice of how information is displayed so that you can have visual symbols and/or numbers for shutter speed and aperture.

Start up is not always instant because sometimes the camera has a short cleaning routine for the image sensor. I tend to leave the camera on all day when I am using it and it goes into sleep mode from which it wakes up instantly. Shooting speed is terrific. It saves very quickly to the memory card (make sure you buy very high quality data cards to get maximum speed, these cost a lot more ). Burst shooting is also very quick at 3.5 to 4 frames per second. The semi-pro cameras are twice as fast as this but that seems like overkill for my needs. Auto focusing is quick and accurate in all normal circumstances and the exposure system gets it right 90% of the time. It can be fooled by subjects where there is a big range of light and dark (for example a sunset where the ground is dark and the sky is light) but these subjects don't have a 'right' exposure and the only answer is bracketing, which it can do automatically. There is a huge range of exposure options - manual, shutter speed priority, aperture priority, Programme, fully auto and various scene modes. The one that's missing is ISO priority but I think only Pentax offers that. On the subject of ISO the slowest on offer is 100, which, as someone used to Kodachrome 64 and 25, I think is a bit fast because sometimes I want to shoot blurred movement in daylight and need a very slow film speed. There is a compensation adjustment that slows the ISO down below 100 but it's a bit clumsy to access.

Not strictly relevant to the product featured here is my choice of the 18-200mm Nikon lens. This is just the most fantastic bit of kit. It handles superbly, balances on the camera delightfully and enables perfect framing of the photograph. The maximum aperture is f3.5 - 5.6, which is excellent for a lens of this type.

It almost goes without saying that the quality of the pictures is top notch, but that would have been true with the Canon or the Pentax. These cameras are all very very good and the differences are either ones of taste and fancy or visible at extreme magnifications, very fast ISO speeds or in test conditions. I haven't experienced any issues of consistent under or over exposure or colour casting.

Some software comes with the camera for editing and viewing pictures but I use iPhoto so have not tried the Nikon package. Nor have I tried movie mode on the camera as that is not what I bought it for (but it requires manual focussing so is not like a video camera). I dropped the camera onto a concrete floor about an hour after buying it. It seems to have survived without any problem, although I nearly had a heart attack.

Overall then I'm very happy with my purchase but I think that has as much to do with my choice of lens as the camera itself. I'm certainly pleased I didn't buy the more expensive and very heavy semi-pro models.