From here you can also see the two raised tabs for pulling the articulating screen out from the body. High ISO (up to 6400) is usable with minimal noise, plus the quiet shutter release mode means that I was able to use it at an awards ceremony where one of my daughters received a certificate without drawing attention to myself. Like the D90, recording movies on the Nikon D5000 is easy: While in Live view mode, just press the OK button to start recording.

The D40, D40X and D60 removed the autofocus motor, making them smaller and less expensive but limiting the choice of lenses that could be autofocused. Curiously, matrix metering proved somewhat less accurate than with the D90, prompting us to use exposure compensation much more often - despite the fact that the two cameras use essentially the same metering system. The built-in speedlight caused only a minor red-eye effect in this test, which could be fully eliminated by setting the flash to red-eye reduction mode.This is not quite the same thing as the mirror lock-up feature of the higher-specified Nikons - as you cannot set the time between raising the mirror and actually taking the shot -, but it's still quite an effective tool for maximising sharpness when shooting from a tripod. You can also change the in-camera sharpening level to suit your tastes by changing the Picture Styles. For the consumer shooter wanting to move up in terms of functionality and image quality, and still have the familiar interface of the D40/D60 range, the Nikon D5000 is an excellent choice, and a definite Dave's Pick. These new features join already interesting editing tools like Distortion control, Fisheye effect, Color filters, and In-camera image-resizing. The D5000 could easily be seen as a D60 with a tilting screen added, and most of a D90 stuffed into it.

A 4fps burst shooting mode, 11-point autofocus system with 3D Focus Tracking, 100,000-cycle shutter unit, quiet shooting mode, Active D-Lighting and 19 Scene Modes complete the Nikon D5000's headline specs. Please do not feel any sense of urgency based on our data, we exist only to help you save money in a calm and well-thought out manner. With practice, performing adjustments via this screen becomes fairly quick and easy, but it's still not as efficient as the D90's dedicated controls.Metering Range 1) 0 to 20 EV (Matrix or center-weighted metering); 2) 2 to 20 EV (Spot metering) (ISO 100 equivalent, f/1. Nikon's EXPEED image processing system should easily handle noise suppression and image optimization with the somewhat slow four-frame-per-second frame rate. Some newer models are even capable of 1080p 24 frame/s video, such as the Nikon D3100, Nikon D5100 and the Nikon D7000. The Nikon D5000 follows conventional DSLR design in having a shooting mode dial on the top of the camera, which allows you to select either one of the advanced modes like Manual, Aperture- or Shutter-priority, or a number of scene modes.