Nikon D5000 Review

Overview

Nikon D5000
Overview

by Shawn Barnett, Zig Weidelich, and Dave Etchells
Preview: 04/14/09
Review: 04/30/09
Full Review: 07/04/09

Nikon's already excellent digital SLR lineup gets a new member: the Nikon D5000. With the D90's 12.3-megapixel sensor, HD video capability, and a new 2.7-inch articulating LCD, the Nikon D5000 doesn't clearly displace any other cameras in the lineup, but fits between the D60 and D90 in both features and price.

Built on a smaller frame, like the D60, the Nikon D5000 takes up the top position in Nikon's consumer SLR camera space, and joins a small set of competing digital SLRs that offer HD movie recording: the Nikon D90, Canon 5D Mark II, and Canon T1i; and though not strictly an SLR, the Panasonic GH1 will also be considered by many looking for an interchangeable lens digital camera.

Nikon D5000 Features

Since the Nikon D5000's 12.3-megapixel CMOS sensor is said to be the same as the D90's, we expect it to have excellent imaging characteristics. ISO ranges from 200 to 3,200, with a Lo 1 setting of 100 and a Hi 1 setting of 6,400. Nikon's EXPEED image processing system should easily handle noise suppression and image optimization with the somewhat slow four-frame-per-second frame rate.

HD movie mode is the second major feature of the Nikon D5000, capturing 1,280 x 720 resolution movies at 24 frames per second. As with all digital SLRs so far, the Nikon D5000 is better for capturing video snapshots that you can string together in a video editor, rather than longer recordings, because the camera can't autofocus while you record. Called D-Movie clips, movie files are recorded in Motion JPEG AVI files. The major benefit of capturing video with a digital SLR like the Nikon D5000 is that you can take advantage of the wide range of SLR lenses, from extreme wide-angle to telephoto.

The Nikon D5000 will be the first video-recording digital SLR to ship with an articulating LCD. As with stills, recording video from multiple angles is easier when you can turn the LCD to face multiple directions. Though it's not the most versatile design, the Nikon D5000's LCD swivels from the bottom, allowing you to compose and capture images from above, below, left, right, and the front of the camera.

Live View mode features four autofocus modes, all of them contrast-detect. The Nikon D5000's Subject-tracking Autofocus locks onto a moving subject, and remembers the subject if it leaves and comes back into the frame. Face-priority Autofocus can pick out five faces, focusing on the closest. Wide-area AF covers a broad area, and Normal-area AF features a single focus point that you can move around the screen.

For optical viewfinder shooting, which tests considerably faster than Live View, the Nikon D5000 uses the company's diamond-shaped 11-point AF array, whose results are complemented with data from the camera's 420-point exposure system. Also known as the Multi-CAM 1000, the autofocus system in the Nikon D5000 is the same as the D90's, which means it includes 3D Color Matrix Metering II for instant scene evaluation, even in extreme conditions. The Nikon D5000 also has the Integrated Dust Reduction System, with a four-frequency ultrasonic motor to shake dust from the sensor, as well as the Airflow Control System, which works to move dust away from the sensor with shutter release.

Other features from the D90 make it into the Nikon D5000, including Auto Active D-Lighting, In-camera retouching, and Picture Control. The Nikon D5000's shutter is expected to last 100,000 cycles, and a new Quiet Release Mode reduces shutter noise for use in very quiet situations.

GPS geo-tagging is now easier as well, thanks to the accessory port built into the Nikon D5000, designed to work with the optional GP-1 GPS Unit, which automatically records time and position data with each photograph.

Nikon D5000 Pricing and Availability

Available as a kit with the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR lens, the Nikon D5000 starts shipping in late April 2009 for $849.95. Body-only, the Nikon D5000 is expected to retail for $729.95.

Nikon D5000 User Report

by Shawn Barnett

Nikon brings most of what's great about the popular and capable D90 to a better price point with the Nikon D5000. Last year's big SLR news was Live View and Movie mode, and the D5000 adds an articulating screen to the mix, making both modes that much more valuable. Other SLR makers, notably Olympus, Sony, and Panasonic have included articulating screens, but usually for more money, and without Movie mode.

Look and feel. The Nikon D5000 looks like none of the other cameras in the line, and though it has more in common with the D60 than the D90, it shares several elements with both. It feels a little larger than the D60, is a little taller, and has a bigger grip. Body-only, but with card and battery, the D5000 weighs 1.29 pounds or 20.7 ounces (588g). With the lens added the total goes up to 1.96 pounds, or 31.3 ounces (889.8g).

Controls. Like the D60, the Nikon D5000's Mode dial is behind the shutter button, while on the D90, the mode dial is on the opposite shoulder to make room for a monochrome status display. The Nikon D5000 instead has only the rear LCD to use as a status display. The power switch surrounds the shutter release button, but note the lack of a Sub-command dial in front of that, typically used on the D90 to adjust aperture, among other things. Just beneath the red accent is the infrared receiver, made for the optional Nikon ML-L3 remote control. Like its sub-$1,000 siblings, the Nikon D5000 has no depth-of-field preview button. Just above the D5000 logo are three holes for the camera's monaural microphone.

Also like the D60, the Nikon D5000 does not have the mechanical AF connection between the lens and body, so older screw-type autofocus lenses won't autofocus with the Nikon D5000; only the more modern electronically coupled lenses will work.

From the top we get a better look at the AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm kit lens, which features Nikon's Vibration Reduction technology. The Nikon D5000's mode dial is packed, featuring one extra position for SCENE mode, which opens up 13 additional Scene modes. The Information/Reset button has changed from the D60, which used to toggle Active D-Lighting. From here you can also see the two raised tabs for pulling the articulating screen out from the body. Note also how much the screen sticks out from the back of the Nikon D5000 near the top, making it easier to grasp from the sides.

The articulating LCD's body is hinged at the bottom, which leaves room for the usual set of buttons down the left side of the Nikon D5000. The general arrangement of the buttons follows that of the Nikon D90, and the Live view button is also in a similar spot; but Nikon maintained the idea of simplicity on the back of this consumer-oriented digital SLR camera, as it lacks the many silkscreened icons and words that clutter the back of other maker's cameras. Nine holes form the Nikon D5000's speaker grille, used during D-Movie playback. Nikon continues to include thoughtful touches in its digital SLR designs, including the gentle cant to the Main Command dial, making it easier for the human thumb to turn without strain.

LCD. The Nikon D5000's LCD screen appears to have a roughly 4:3 dimension, but the frame is built larger, to hold a wider and slightly taller screen, suggesting that we may see this same assembly on future Nikon digital SLRs, perhaps with a 3:2 screen. Unlike other recent digital SLRs from Nikon, though, the Nikon D5000 has a more standard-resolution, 230,000 dot display, rather than the 920K-dot displays included on the D90 and other recent Nikon pro digital SLR cameras.

The Nikon D5000's new hinged LCD design offers a lot of versatility, but hinging the screen at the bottom also presents some problems that left-hinge designs avoid. Overhead and low shooting is easy with this design, just tilt the LCD down for overhead horizontal shots, or swing it around 180 degrees for horizontal ground-level shots. However, you end up with a strange dilemma when shooting vertically, either overhead or down low, because when you turn the Nikon D5000's LCD to the left or right, the orientation of the screen doesn't match the orientation of the sensor. Following action is thus more difficult. And while it's cool that you can face the screen forward for self-portraits, you lose your view when you mount the camera on a tripod. Depending on the tripod, that can remain true when you tilt the camera to vertical.

Indeed, certain tripod heads with quick release levers on the back will prevent you from opening and twisting the LCD at all, including most Manfrotto designs. Instead, you have to remove the camera and replace it -- not too difficult thanks to the quick release, but still a nuisance.

The one final inconvenience to the Nikon D5000's articulating LCD design is that you have to remember to fold the screen up at least partway to set the camera down on a flat surface, or risk damaging the LCD and hinge assembly. Still, articulated displays are very useful for getting unusual shots, and sometimes they're the only way to get a shot at all. The Nikon D5000's design isn't perfect, but it does meet an important need for those who want to get more creative.

Sensor and processor. The Nikon D5000's sensor is said to be identical to the Nikon D90's: a 12.9-megapixel CMOS sensor measuring 23.6 x 15.8mm, with an effective resolution of 4,288 x 2,848, or 12.3 megapixels. Nikon doesn't say much about which processors are used in each camera, except to give them a name: the Expeed Image Processing System. After looking at the D5000's images, especially the high ISO ones, it's clear that whatever Expeed consists of in the Nikon D5000, it works quite well.

Scene Recognition System. The Nikon D5000 takes on the same AF and metering arrangement as the D90, which includes Nikon's Scene Recognition System. Scene recognition is something that Nikon has been working on for years, and these last few models have seen incremental improvements to the system. Now, along with the Nikon D90, the D5000 includes Face recognition.

Nikon's 3D Color Matrix Metering system employs a 420-pixel RGB light meter that covers most of the Nikon D5000's image area (the D300 and higher models use a 1,005-pixel RGB sensor). As in past models, the Color Matrix Metering system compares what it sees in the image to a database of 30,000 photos to make its metering decisions for each scene. They've added more to properly gauge factors like white balance and subject motion, and now they're tracking faces with SRS.

The autofocus sensors are another piece of the Nikon D5000's SRS puzzle, each aspect informing and tuning the other. Finding and focusing on eyes rather than foreground objects, or even foreheads and noses, is one particular benefit of the overall integration. Another is improved 3D tracking of objects as they move across the image area. The RGB sensor may not be able to help focus on an object, but it can add a set of data for the Nikon D5000 to use while tracking a subject with the autofocus system. For example, if a red object is traversing the frame from left to right, and growing in size as it does so, the Nikon D5000's SRS would add this information to the AF-sensor data to help it tune the focus more quickly.

Live view shooting. 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 Nikon D5000, however, has a dedicated Live view button on the back, just right of the LCD, within easy reach of the thumb. With a single press of the Lv button, the mirror flips up and Live-view framing begins. The difference with the Nikon D5000 is that you can only focus in Contrast-detect mode, whereas the Nikon D300 and D700 allowed a choice between Handheld (Phase-detect) and Tripod mode (Contrast-detect mode).

Phase-detect AF in a Live View SLR is always a noisy affair, as it generally involves dropping and raising the mirror twice (once to focus and once to take the shot), but it's generally faster than contrast-detect focusing, particularly as implemented on the Nikon D5000. There's a good reason why Nikon refers to the contrast-detect AF mode as "Tripod mode," as it takes a long time for the camera to focus when using it; easily several seconds in some circumstances, and never less than about 2.3 seconds in our laboratory testing. Still, it works very well if you're not in a hurry, and by its very nature, is never subject to the front- or back-focusing that can plague phase-detect AF systems if they're even a tiny bit out of adjustment.

If face detection is activated, the Nikon D5000 quickly begins tracking faces, placing a yellow box around each one, up to five at a time. Once focus is achieved, the box turns green.

D-Movie mode. Like the D90, recording movies on the Nikon D5000 is easy: While in Live view mode, just press the OK button to start recording. You have to set focus before you start shooting your movie, but you can still manual focus while you're shooting (hint: turn off AF on the lens barrel), as well as zoom. The movie may record the noise of the zoom ring to an extent, depending on which lens you're using and how fast you zoom, but it's still pretty impressive. (If you leave VR on, you'll see a much more stable image in your videos, too.) A whole new generation, now of non-professionals, will learn what it means to "pull focus" as the moment of interest turns from one subject to another. In movie studios, pulling focus is a cinematic technique usually performed by someone other than the camera operator, who is too busy framing the image to attend to focus as well. But millions of Nikon D5000 owners will be able to use a technique that few camcorder owners can.

The Nikon D5000's D-Movie resolutions include 1280x720 (16:9), 640x424 (3:2), and 320x216 (3:2). The frame rate is 24 frames per second, and audio is monaural, not stereo. Approximate maximum file sizes for two of the modes are 588MB for the 1,280x720-size movies, and up to 2GB for the 640x424 movies.

Viewfinder. Pull the battery on the Nikon D5000 and the optical viewfinder suddenly goes murky and dim. That's because one of the mirrors is actually an LCD, and when you remove its power source, it loses much of its reflectivity. 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.

Active D-Lighting. In addition to the Auto Active D-Lighting mode added with the D700, the Nikon D5000 gets the D90's Extra High setting to add even more punch to shadow detail. Note that JPEG files modified as they are captured with Active D-Lighting, so there's no unaltered "original" to refer back to: Consider whether you want top shoot RAW + JPEG to back up those files, or even use D-Lighting after capture if you think an image would benefit from the help.

Another alternative is to use the ADL bracketing feature, which alternates between no D-Lighting and Auto D-Lighting. You have to remember to hit the shutter release twice to get both of your shots -- it doesn't save two files for each shot -- but it's a helpful feature if you're unsure of your lighting.

Viewing images. Playback mode's abilities include a calendar display and a 4, 9, and 72-image thumbnail display. These features are also available on an HDTV when connected via the HDMI port on the Nikon D5000.

At left you can see the Nikon D5000's three ports, two of them new: The Accessory terminal on top is for the GP-1 GPS unit or an MC-DC2 wired remote; below that is the USB/AV connector port; and the Mini-HDMI port. No Mini-HDMI cable is included with the Nikon D5000.

Perspective correction. When you can't afford an expensive tilt/shift lens, you can simulate one with the Nikon D5000's Perspective control feature.

In-camera editing. New in-camera editing features in the Nikon D5000 include Perspective control, to help correct perspective distortions in buildings; Soft-filter effect smooths faces and other details in an image, and Color outline, which creates a monochrome image, eliminating all color and converting transition areas into a kind of pencil sketch appearance. These new features join already interesting editing tools like Distortion control, Fisheye effect, Color filters, and In-camera image-resizing.

Storage and battery. The Nikon D5000 ships with an updated version of the battery used by the Nikon D40 and D60, the EN-EL9a, a 7.2V 1080mAh lithium-ion battery pack. The D5000 is also backward-compatible with the older 1000mAh EN-EL9 battery. The Nikon D5000 is rated for 510 shots with the new battery, using the CIPA standard. The camera also comes with an MH-23 Nikon Quick Charger and a power cord.

Like the D40 and D60, it does not appear that the Nikon D5000 is intended to accommodate a vertical grip, and the hinge on the Nikon D5000 would make it a little more difficult to operate the articulating LCD (though certainly not impossible).

Nikon D5000 images are stored on SD cards, which offer up to 32GB capacity at this point. Current SD cards provide plenty of storage, and modern SD cards are quite fast, if not quite up to the level of the latest UDMA CompactFlash cards. SD cards are also somewhat more robust, less prone to bent contact fingers in the camera or card reader jamming the card connector while also rendering the camera useless.

Nikon D5000 compared to Canon Rebel T1i

Different shapes: The Nikon D5000 is a little taller than the Canon T1i, and a little narrower side-to-side. The overall length of the D5000 is greater, both thanks to the articulating LCD and the longer lens. And for the first time, the Canon grip offers a little better hold than the Nikon D5000, whose finger-grip is a little small. Of course, the Nikon D5000 has the advantage of an articulating screen for better off-angle shots, while the T1i has a higher resolution LCD in its favor.

Shooting with the Nikon D5000

This class of SLR only gets better, as Nikon and other companies do extensive usability research before designing the next model. I enjoy shooting with consumer SLRs like the Nikon D5000 because as a father of three, I have plenty of opportunities to test how a camera will work for the average snapshooter.

The Nikon D5000 has a good, solid feel to it. 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 camera's bottom on the right side has a good curve, too, which is more pleasant to palm. The left side also has a relief for the palm, making it easier to cradle the camera while extending your fingers to turn the zoom and focus rings.

The Command and Mode dials are easy to operate with your right thumb, and the power switch and shutter fall naturally under the influence of your index finger.

Autofocus. Though the Nikon D5000's phase-detect autofocus speed tested very well in our lab tests, turning in 0.27 single-point and 0.35 auto-area AF shutter lag numbers at wide angle, I noticed considerable AF lag while shooting indoors in low light situations, especially in Wide-area AF mode. At first we considered whether it was the kit lens's f/3.5 maximum aperture, but the AF-S 35mm f/1.8G gave us the same trouble, sometimes taking a second or more to make a decision. It's nice that the Nikon D5000 has an AF-assist lamp, but it really doesn't speed things up much. The Canon XTi I have at my desk is considerably faster in both modes, though it too is slower in auto-area AF, just not as slow.

In Live View mode, which uses contrast-detect autofocus, it gets worse. In the lab, we averaged 2.3 seconds to focus. That's not great. It's exacerbated by camera movement, so attaching a VR lens does have some positive effect, but not much. Live view on the Nikon D5000 is best used on a tripod, where you can move the AF point around and let the camera do its work slow and steady. Consumers should know up front that the Nikon D5000 focuses much slower in Live view than the all-in-one digicam that they're used to. Adjust your expectations accordingly, and you'll be happy.

Stuck. Many tripod quick release mechanisms will block the Nikon D5000's LCD from rotating at all, let alone tilting down to face forward or backward. Instead, you'll have to release, rotate, and reattach.

Using the LCD. Swinging down and flipping the LCD is counter-intuitive to me, because it turns the wrong way for easy left-hand operation. Holding the grip with your right hand, you lower the LCD with a left-hand fingertip. This orients your left hand palm down, so you naturally want to turn the LCD to the left, since that's the way your forearm's radius and ulna like to twist. Unfortunately, with the LCD facing out, it only rotates to the right. Instead, you should hold the Nikon D5000 by the lens with your left hand, then lower the LCD and turn it to the right. That's another step, and is going to slow you down, unfortunately. This is exactly how Panasonic does it on their bottom-hinged articulating swivel screens, though, so plenty of folks are already used to this method. Remember also the trouble with quick-release mechanisms on most tripods, which gets in the way of the swivel screen, requiring you to flip the screen before locking it down to the tripod.

Movie mode. Shooting in D-Movie mode is another time I'd have preferred to shoot on a tripod with the Nikon D5000. Focusing and zooming without introducing significant camera twist and shake was difficult when using the kit lens. My skin actually squeaked against the rubber as I turned the zoom barrel while trying to hold the camera as still as possible, which the mic pics up. I had to change my grip to only use my fingertips to make it work well enough.

Autofocusing is not possible while you're recording a movie with the Nikon D5000, unlike the Canon T1i. It's not a big loss, though, because you have to edit out the T1i's focusing efforts, which often include significant changes to the exposure as well as focus when autofocusing; I'd prefer not to have to cut them out later in the editing program. If you turn off the AF switch on the lens, it's easy enough to focus manually. The onscreen image is also sharp enough that you can usually see the plane of focus as you make your adjustments, so long as your subject has sufficient detail.

Flash. It's important for enthusiasts to know that the Nikon D5000's pop-up flash doesn't serve as commander flash for external SB-600, SB-800, and SB-900 flashes as does the D90. You have to mount an SB-800 to control other flashes. This is also true with the Nikon D40, D40x, and D60.

HDMI out. I was pleased to see that you can use the Mini-HDMI out port to see a Live view image on an HDTV. You can also operate the menu from there, as well as playback stills and movies. Video playback looks good, sharper than I've seen from other, smaller digital cameras, but I'm not sure it's "broadcast quality." It's certainly good enough for home movies, though.

If the Nikon D5000 can be said to suffer from anything, it's feature-creep. It's unavoidable in a camera that's designed to appeal to both snapshooters and enthusiasts, but it does make the Nikon D5000 more difficult to use for the former than the latter. While I praise the continued lack of silkscreened icons and words on the back of the Nikon D5000, the drawback is that you have to go into either the Info menu on the Status LCD or into the rather exhaustive menu system to change something simple like ISO, while other cameras often let you do that with a single button on the back. The Info menu is good, but there are so many items to choose among that it can take a long time to navigate to each control. Several other Status display designs from Canon, Olympus, and Sony have a grid of features that helps shorten the time it takes to get to each item on the menu, usually taking only four or five steps. It takes a total of 13 steps on the Nikon D5000 to get from one end to the other, something Luke, our Lab Tech mentioned as a nuisance.

Another item Luke disliked was that the Nikon D5000's 10-second self-timer would turn off after each shot, reverting back to Single-shot mode. Fortunately there's a new setting in the Custom Setting Menu called Exposure delay mode, which is great for minimizing camera vibration while on a tripod. First the mirror is raised, followed by a delay of one second, then the shutter trips. It can be quite annoying to get the camera back from the lab with this mode enabled, but at least it doesn't reset itself after each shot. The invaluable Recent Settings Menu usually lets me find the item quickly so I can disable it and resume shooting. It certainly beats using a 2- or 10-second self-timer to stabilize shots, because most often every second counts.

Like the Nikon D40, you can change the AF point by pressing the Multi-selector on the back, which is nice, but it's too easy to do accidentally. When there were only three AF points to choose, it wasn't a big deal, but with 11 it can be frustrating.

One major benefit of the menu system on the Nikon D5000 is that all the menu items are long text descriptions, rather than icons or obscure phrases. One major drawback, though, is that all the menu items are long text descriptions, which can get dizzying after awhile.

Otherwise, the Nikon D5000 is a Nikon: It's well-built, has a nice soft shutter sound, and works like a champ.

Image Quality. With most of the necessary usability comments now out of the way, we can get on to what I regard as the good news: The Nikon D5000 is an excellent image maker. As usually happens when resolution rises, limitations are revealed in the kit lenses that we once admired. The lab shots show some flaws, but I'm pretty satisfied with most of my daylight gallery shots made with the AF-S 18-55mm f/3.5. Autofocus speed and accuracy also weren't issues outdoors, also good news.

Oddly, however, the Nikon D5000 with the kit lens really chokes on our Sunlight test, dramatically underexposing the shot, requiring a +2.0 EV adjustment to expose the image properly. When we tested the same sequence with the 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G, we got a better result -- +1.3 EV, which is still extreme, but more closely resembling the Nikon D90's requirement of +1.0 EV adjustment.

Nikon D5000 ISO 1,600 comparisons

Nikon D5000	Nikon D90
Though there is some difference in exposure between these two shots, it's clear that both the Nikon D5000 and D90 maintain good detail and have minimal noise in the shadows even at ISO 1,600. There is slight chroma noise detectable in the shadows, but it's not significant.

Nikon D5000	Canon Rebel T1i Beta (prototype)
The Nikon D5000 has lower resolution than the Canon T1i, but it handles the scene quite well nonetheless. Naturally a higher resolution sensor will capture more detail, so long as the camera's noise suppression software doesn't obliterate it. There is some evidence of lost data in the Rebel T1i, especially in the curls of the letter A in the Mas Portel bottle above. Also, some of the lines in the mosaic are more blurry than the D5000's shot. For ISO 1,600, though, either camera is performing well above par.

Analysis. Nikon continues to push the edges of digital SLR camera design, not only adding features, but consistently improving image quality. Though the Nikon D5000 doesn't come with an increase in resolution (which on its own doesn't necessarily equal an increase in image quality), it does for the first time bring the Nikon D90's excellent 12.3-megapixel image sensor within range of those with less than $900 to spend. 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. As I cautioned with the Canon T1i, which also has a movie mode, you can't expect the Nikon D5000 to replace your camcorder, because it doesn't autofocus as you shoot video; but if you can learn to think of video as capturing moving snapshots that you'll string together later with a video editor, you'll start to enjoy the Nikon D5000's movie mode.

The articulating LCD does have a few limitations, including difficulty while on some tripods, but it also serves to improve the usefulness of the Nikon D5000's Live view mode. It's also important to remember that the autofocus method employed in Live view mode is significantly slower than what most users will be used to, both from SLRs and digicams. And the Nikon D5000's multi-point autofocus performance degrades in low light.

Still image quality from the Nikon D5000 reveals one awesome image maker, whose high-ISO settings are mind-blowing. Even ISO 3,200 looks usable at 8x10, and downright decent at 5x7. And that, far more than the latest gee-whiz feature, the kind of advancement we like to see in a digital camera: better image quality in low light. The Nikon D5000 is a very impressive digital SLR camera.

In the box

The Nikon D5000 kit ships with the following items in the box:

• Nikon D5000 body
• AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR lens
• Body cap
• Front lens cap
• Camera strap
• Rechargeable lithium-ion battery EN-EL9a
• Quick charger MH-23
• USB cable UC-E6
• Audio/video cable EG-CP14
• Eyepiece cap DK-5
• Rubber eyecup DK-24
• Accessory shoe cover BS-1
• Software CD-ROM
• Quick start guide
• User's manual
• Warranty and registration card
  
  

Nikon D5000: Recommended Accessories

• Large capacity SD/SDHC memory card. These days, a 4GB or 8GB card is inexpensive enough, and you'll want a large card if you plan on recording many HD movies. Good to buy a higher-speed card also, able to record fast enough to not limit movie duration simply due to card speed.
• Camera case for protection
• Accessory lenses
• Accessory flash: SB-400, SB-600, SB-800, SB-900

Nikon D5000 Conclusion

Conclusion. Though it stands out as an oddity in naming terms when compared to the other Nikon digital SLRs in the line, the Nikon D5000 is best described as a lower-cost D90 in a D60 body, with a smaller set of available autofocus lenses. There are a few usability issues related to the articulating LCD and autofocus in Live view mode, and the D-Movie mode won't serve to replace the basic consumer camcorder, but as I've said of the Canon T1i, these things don't make or break the Nikon D5000. What clearly makes the Nikon D5000 great is its excellent overall performance as a still camera, and its excellent image quality.

Printed results tell an amazing story about the Nikon D5000's low-light capability. You can make big images from the D5000, starting at 20x30 inches, and even ISO 1,600 shots print well at 11x14. ISO 3,200 shots make decent 8x10's, again impressive.

I was a little disappointed with the speed of the Nikon D5000's multi-point autofocus indoors, but I usually use single-point AF indoors or out, so it wouldn't be a big deal for me. There are three major points that consumers looking at the new high points for the D5000 need to consider: Live view mode autofocus is slower than anyone would expect, averaging 2.3 seconds in controlled, optimized conditions. D-Movie mode is good, but it doesn't autofocus as you shoot, so following action will be more difficult; and you also have no manual exposure control to influence either aperture (for better depth of field control) or shutter speed (for use in sports situations) in D-Movie mode. The feature set of the Nikon D5000 is more complicated than the D60 or D40, so be prepared to dig deeper and read the manual to more thoroughly enjoy the Nikon D5000.

Though I'm not crazy about the Nikon D5000's swivel screen design, it's still nice to have on an SLR, and works pretty well in handheld shooting situations, for both video and stills. In a pinch, I'll take it and be happy.

What's certain is the Nikon D5000's ability to make superb still images. Its optical viewfinder is a pleasure to use, and you'll get more straight horizon lines thanks to the built-in grid. The shutter sound is quiet, and single-point AF speeds are fast. 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.

Design

Nikon D5000 Design

Roll-over the various controls and features with your mouse for a brief description. Note: Rollovers are best viewed with the latest versions Firefox, Safari, or Opera browsers, or Internet Explorer 6 or earlier.

Front View. Most of the Nikon D5000 controls at the front are the same as the D60. The main difference here besides subtle reshaping of various items is the addition of the microphone. Three holes show its position just upper left from the Nikon D5000 logo. The Nikon D5000 is also 10mm taller than the D60, perhaps to accommodate the articulating LCD. Note also the lack of a "screw-drive" mechanism.

Left View. The left of the Nikon D5000 reveals some new ports compared to the D60, including an accessory port, an HDMI-out port, and in place of the Video-out port is a combined USB/Audio/Video port. The Nikon D5000's accessory port can be used for wired remote controls and also serves as a GPS-in port. Note that the Flash pop-up button also serves as a Flash exposure compensation button.

Right View. The Nikon D5000's SD card door is located on the right side. The SD card door opens with a pull to the rear, and then you press the SD card down to release it.

Top View. All of the functions and controls are the same on the Nikon D5000's top deck, except for the Info button, which has replaced the Active D-Lighting button on the D60, and the added Scene modes on the Mode dial. It's a great layout that allows for quick changes to commonly used settings.

Back View. The back has the most changes from the D60. The LCD is a larger 2.7-inch model that swings down and twists. The Nikon D5000's Lv button is new, for switching into Live view mode. The Delete button has has been moved to the top left to make room for a speaker grill. There is now a dedicated information edit ("i") button, which launches the onscreen menu system, and activates the small icons around the Status display.

Bottom View. No changes here, other than the hinge for the LCD mechanism.

Operation

Nikon D5000 Operation

Aimed at the beginner or casual shooter (rather than a professional or hard-core SLR enthusiast), the Nikon D5000 is fairly simple to use, with an interface that is as clean, uncluttered, and approachable as possible. To achieve this, Nikon has reduced the number of buttons compared to the D90, and consolidated the top-panel data readout functions into a very attractive and logically laid-out display on the large, rear-panel LCD screen. They also put the mode dial closer at hand when you're holding the grip, and added a new SCENE mode to access 13 preset scene options for those who would rather not worry about technical details such as aperture, shutter speed, and sensitivity. Experienced shooters may miss the terse convenience of a top-panel data readout, but we think most Nikon D5000 users will appreciate the size and clarity of the shooting display on the main LCD screen.

Nikon D5000 Shooting Mode

Like other more recent Nikon digital SLRs (starting with the D40), the Nikon D5000 displays shooting info and settings on the main LCD when the Info button is pressed in record mode. There are two shooting display styles: the new Graphic display that helps the user visualize what's happening with shutter speed and lens aperture, and the more conventional looking Classic format (see right), which displays the same basic settings information, but uses larger fonts and icons. I personally like the Graphic format a lot, but can see a time coming when my eyes will prefer the larger type of the Classic display. Interestingly, you can choose different display formats for different camera operating modes: An option on the Setup menu lets you choose different formats for the Digital Vari-Program (Scene) modes than for the PASM (programmed, aperture-priority, shutter-priority, or manual) exposure modes. This is a nice feature, because you can set up the camera with the Graphic display option for a novice user, but have it automatically operate in Classic mode when the more advanced user was shooting using one of the PASM modes. You can also change the color of the displays, with choices of green, black, or brown for the Graphic display, and blue, black, or orange for the Classic mode (blue shown). The Nikon D5000 will also rotate the display 90 or 270 degrees when shooting in a vertical orientation.

The illustration below (Courtesy of Nikon USA) shows the meaning of the various icons and readouts in the Graphic display mode.

There's a lot of information shown there, but a logical layout and large/sharp LCD screen makes it easy to tell what you're looking at. The column of data down the right side of the screen and the row across the bottom of the screen represent settings you can adjust directly from this screen.

As mentioned above, settings can be adjusted right in the shooting display by pressing the "i" button. The cursor keys can then be used to navigate to the setting you wish to change. The OK button is used to select the setting, and a new value or option is selected using the Up/Down cursor keys. For features that have a dedicated button (such as exposure compensation, shutter speed, etc.), the button is pressed and/or the command dial is used to change the value or option. The animation on the right shows the Flash mode menu being activated after scrolling through all the available options. As part of the Nikon D5000's designed-in user-friendliness, most options on the shooting menu include "assist" images, to help you understand the types of shots or conditions that each setting is most appropriate for.

Nikon D5000 Playback Mode

Playback mode is entered by pressing the playback button. The Nikon D5000's Playback mode provides a great deal of information about your pictures after you've shot them. You can cycle through a variety of playback displays using the up/down arrows on the multi-selector, including image with file information with optional highlight warning and focus point display, RGB histogram, three screens with overlaid shooting and image parameter information (an additional GPS info screen is available when a GPS device was used when the image was captured), and an overview display with basic shooting data and a luminance histogram.

The Nikon D5000 also offers a RGB histogram display mode. Histogram displays are common on professional digital cameras (and many amateur models now), regarded as almost mandatory by many pros for evaluating exposure levels. A histogram is simply a graph of how many pixels there are in the image at each brightness level. The brightness is the horizontal axis, running from black at the left to white at the right. The height of the graph shows the relative number of pixels having each brightness level. This sort of display is very handy for determining under- or overexposure. Ideally, the histogram would stretch across the entire width of the display, using the full range of brightness values available. An underexposed image will have a histogram with all the data lumped on the left-hand side, with nothing reaching all the way to the right. Likewise, an overexposed image will have all the data lumped on the right side.

Of course the Nikon D5000 also lets you zoom out to quickly find and select images, or magnify them for closer inspection on its 2.7-inch articulating LCD. There is a calendar view as well as the normal 4-, 9-, or 72-image thumbnail displays available by pressing the thumbnail/zoom-out button, and you can magnify them up to approximately 27x for large, 20x for medium, and 13x for small images, using the zoom-in button. Once magnified, you can scroll around the image using the multi-selector to examine critical detail and framing, and you can view other images at the same zoom ratio using the command dial. The Nikon D5000 can detect up to 10 faces while in Playback mode. The camera highlights them with a white frame, and you can cycle through them at the current zoom ratio by pressing the "i" button while turning the command dial. This makes focus verification of faces faster and more convenient.

To return the Nikon D5000 to shooting mode, simply press the playback button again, or half-press the shutter button.

Optics

Nikon D5000 Optics

Kit Lens

The Nikon D5000 ships in kit form with the same Nikkor AF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G DX VR lens that comes with the D60 kit. To better compete with models from brands such as Olympus, Pentax and Sony that have built-in image-stabilization, this kit lens comes with Nikon's excellent Vibration Reduction (VR) technology to help compensate for camera shake. We tested a sample of the Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S DX VR on SLRgear.com. Optical performance is so-so wide open, but the lens is capable of very good sharpness if stopped down one or two f-stops, and the added image stabilization should come in handy in low-light situations. While sharpness wide-open is only average, this newer kit lens performs better overall than the original, non-VR 18-55mm, and is enormously better when it comes to flare: The previous version was subject to rather extreme veiling flare when shooting high-contrast subjects under bright conditions.

Kit lenses work well enough for most consumers, and serve their purpose, getting you started without breaking the bank; but a big part of the attraction with SLRs is that you can easily trade up to a better lens when your finances improve, and extend your reach to wider angle, telephoto, or macro photography just by adding to your lens collection. The 18-55mm VR lens that comes with the Nikon D5000 will do a fine job until such time as budget and desire lead you to start building a lens collection.

Lens Compatibility

Like the Nikon D40, D40x and D60 before it, the Nikon D5000 drops autofocus support for the older AF lenses whose focus mechanisms were driven from the camera. These lenses have what looks like a little screwdriver slot on their mounting flange that couples with a protruding, screwdriver-looking shaft on the camera body. A motor in the camera body thus drives the lens mechanics to adjust focus.

More recent Nikkor lenses have motors built into the lens body, which tend to be both faster and quieter than the old-style drive system, as well as allowing the camera body to be lighter, smaller and cheaper. These newer lenses carry an AF-S or AF-I designation in their name, and are the only types of lenses the D5000 can autofocus with. CPU-equipped lenses lacking built-in focus motors can be used in manual focus mode, and type G or D lens types will also support full 3D color matrix metering for more accurate exposures, particularly when flash is being used. (You can tell CPU-equipped lenses by the set of five electrical contacts arrayed on the side of the lens flange.)

The tables below (courtesy Nikon Inc.) tell the full story of lens compatibility for the Nikon D5000.

Focusing Options

The D5000 inherits the same Multi-CAM 1000 AF sensor module used in the D90, so many of its basic specs mirror those of the D90 quite closely. As we noted in the review section covering the viewfinder, the D5000 has a total of 11 autofocus regions, arranged with 9 in an almost square matrix in the central area of the frame, with two additional ones positioned to the right and left of the central array. The central point of the array is a selectable normal/wide point, optionally able to look across a wider area in determining focus. Each of the 11 focus areas can be used individually, the center sensor can be switched to wide-frame operation for broader coverage, and an Auto-area AF mode measures all 11 focus areas, automatically determines which of them are on the primary subject and activates only those areas. As with the D90, only the center sensor is cross-type, able to respond to subject detail oriented either horizontally or vertically.

The D5000 lets you choose either auto or manual focus, but it doesn't have the small AF mode dial on the front of the camera as found on the D90. Instead, the switch on the lens must be used. Setting the switch to "M" puts the lens into manual focus mode, "A" places it in autofocus mode. Single AF (AF-S), Continuous AF (AF-C), Auto-switching AF (AF-A) and Manual focus (MF) options can be selected via the menu system. (The D90 has a dedicated AF mode button to switch modes.) Single AF simply means that the camera sets focus only once, when the Shutter button is first pressed halfway, and is best for stationary objects. Continuous AF means that the camera continuously adjusts the focus, as long as the Shutter button is halfway pressed, and is best for moving objects. In AF Auto mode, the camera begins focus operations in single-focus mode, but switches to Continuous Dynamic AF if it detects motion within the active AF area.

There's an important difference between Single and Continuous Servo modes: In Single Servo mode, the shutter won't release unless the lens is focused, or the lens itself is set to manual focus. (Focus Priority) In Continuous Servo mode however, the camera will fire regardless of the state of focus. (Release Priority) If you want to be sure that the camera is focused when you snap the picture, use Single Servo mode. Use Continuous Servo for moving subjects, and/or times when the instant of shutter release is more important to you than sharp focus.

Note: while the D5000 manual says that the camera is Release Priority in AF-C and AF-A modes, we found this to only be the case in AF-A mode on our D5000, and furthermore only when in Single-shot Servo mode versus Continuous shooting. We've contacted Nikon to let them know of the discrepancy.

The AF Area Mode option (a1) on the Custom Settings Menu or in the Shooting Menu (see right) lets you select between Single Area, Dynamic Area, and Auto AF modes, and includes the new 3D Tracking mode, brought over from Nikon's recent pro-level SLRs. Single Area AF simply means that the camera judges focus based on one part of the subject, and the user can manually select the AF point by pressing the arrow keys. Dynamic Area AF employs all of the autofocus points, though you can still manually select the main point. When Dynamic Area focusing is enabled, the camera first focuses on the subject in the primary focus area. When the subject moves to a different AF area, the camera shifts the focus to "follow" the subject. This is great for irregularly moving subjects. (Sports and kids come to mind.) The Auto-area AF option means that the camera first focuses on the subject in whatever single AF area is selected, but will switch to Dynamic Area AF if it detects subject motion. The new 3D Tracking mode uses the 420-element RGB exposure/white balance sensor to aid in subject tracking.

In any of the AF modes other than Auto Area, you can select the focus area by using the up, down, right, or left arrow directions on the control rocker. You cannot lock the focus area selection as on the D90, as the Nikon D5000 does not have a focus area lock switch. Another difference from the D90 is its center focus area could be set to either a normal or wide zone, through Custom Settings Menu option a2. The wider zone could be better for initially acquiring a moving subject, particularly when combined with the Dynamic Focus option. The Nikon D5000 does not have this option.

There are two methods by which you can lock focus on the Nikon D5000. The first is to half-press the Shutter button to lock the focus, placing your subject in the selected focus area, halfway pressing the Shutter button, then realigning the composition and firing the shutter. (This is the default behavior of the Shutter button, but if the AE-L/AF-L button is set to AF Lock, it will override the shutter button as long as it's held down.) Alternatively, when using Single Servo AF, you can press the AF-L/AE-L button to lock focus (and exposure, unless that button is set for focus only in Custom Settings menu f2). Keeping this button pressed will lock focus and/or exposure, even if the Shutter button is released. This lets you recompose the photograph without keeping your finger on the Shutter button, but on the AE-L/AF-L button instead. (Reducing the chance that you'll accidentally trip the shutter when you don't intend to.)

There are several options available for the AE-L/AF-L button, which can be set via Custom Settings Menu f2. You can program it to lock either focus or exposure separately, or both together (the default). You can also change its operation so a single press locks and holds the exposure setting. (No need to keep the button pressed down.) Finally, you can set the AE/AF lock button so it alone controls the autofocus system, meaning the autofocus won't actuate when the shutter button is half-pressed, only when the AE/AF lock button is pressed instead.

AF Assist

Like past Nikon DSLRs with built-in flashes, the D5000's AF-assist light is a bright incandescent bulb that emits from the body near the handgrip. We thought to call particular attention to it, because some DSLRs use the flash as an AF-assist light. This would be fine, but some models also require that the flash be used in the exposure, so there's no way to have AF assist for available-light shots. The D5000 doesn't have this limitation.

Anti-Dust Technology

The Nikon D5000 includes a two-pronged approach to fighting dust. The dust reduction system previously seen on the D60 digital SLR has been adopted for the D5000, where the optical low pass filter over the sensor is vibrated to shake off dust. In addition, Nikon has coupled this with what it is calling the "Airflow Control System". In essence, the camera's internals have been designed so as to control the flow of air - along with the dust the air is carrying - when the shutter is triggered, channelling dust particles away from the sensor.

The Nikon D5000 lets you choose when the sensor is ultrasonically cleaned. Selections available in the Setup Menu are Clean at Startup, Clean at Shutdown, Clean at Startup & Shutdown, or Cleaning Off. You can also lock-up the mirror for manual cleaning (see below).

Despite the new dust cleaning features, we haven't seen an automatic system yet that's capable of removing all dust. So while this is a nice feature to have, don't be fooled into thinking that you won't have to either learn how to clean your sensor or send the camera in for cleaning.

Everyone understands that lenses sometimes get dust on them and need to be cleaned, and there are a lot of lens-cleaning cloths, solutions and other accessories on the market that work well. BUT, what do you do when your sensor gets dusty? Dust specks on the sensor tend to show up when shooting at very small apertures, appearing as dark blobs on your images. They're distracting at best, a terrible nuisance at worst, if you end up having to retouch every image to rid of them.

Most of us are naturally leery about the idea of poking around inside the delicate innards of our DSLRs to wrestle with recalcitrant dust specks. Gently blowing the sensor surface (actually, the surface of the anti-aliasing filter) with compressed air gets rid of some dust, but there's invariably a lot that just stays stuck, no matter what. So what do you do?

If you've got dust specks on your sensor (and sooner or later you will), you're going to need to clean it. There are a lot of products out there intended to address this need, but a distressing number of them work poorly (if at all), and many are grossly overpriced. Advertising hype is rampant, with bogus pseudo-scientific jargon and absurd product claims run rampant. And prices - Did I mention prices? How about $100 for a simple synthetic-bristle brush?

So how do you know what product to use?

We don't pretend to have used everything currently on the market, but can tell you about one solution that worked very well for us. The "Copper Hill" cleaning method is straightforward and safe, and in our routine usage here at Imaging Resource, highly effective. Better yet, the products sold by Copper Hill Imaging are very reasonably priced. Best of all, Nicholas R (proprietor of Copper Hill) has put together an amazingly detailed tutorial on sensor cleaning, free for all.

Sensor cleaning is one of the last things people think about when buying a d-SLR, but it's vital to capturing the best possible images. Take our advice and order a cleaning kit from Copper Hill right along with your d-SLR, so you'll have it close at hand when you need it: You'll be glad you did!

(While they've advertised on our sister site SLRgear.com from time to time, we receive no promotional consideration from Copper Hill for this note. We just think their sensor cleaning products are among the best on the market, and like their way of doing business. - We think you will too. Check them out.)

Kit Lens Test Results

Zoom
Good performance with the 18-55mm VR (Vibration Reduction) kit lens.

The Nikon D5000 digital SLR accommodates a wide range of Nikkor lenses. Here, we tested the performance of the 18-55mm VR kit lens, which has a very typical (for an inexpensive kit lens) optical zoom range of ~3x. Stopped down to f/8, details are very good at wide-angle, with very good corner-to-corner sharpness (only slight softness in the extreme corners) and relatively low levels of coma distortion and blurring in the corners. Chromatic aberration is also quite low (see below for why). Results at full telephoto are also very good, with good sharpness across the frame and very low levels of chromatic aberration. All in all, the Nikkor 18-55mm VR, does well for a kit lens on a 12-megapixel sensor, and the added image stabilization will come in handy for low-light shooting.

Macro
A small minimum area (for an SLR kit lens), with soft detail. Flash throttles down well.

As with zoom performance, the Nikon D5000's macro performance will depend entirely on the lens in use. However, with the 18-55mm VR kit lens set to 55mm, the D5000 captured a fairly small minimum area (for a non-macro SLR lens) measuring 2.58 x 1.72 inches (66 x 44 millimeters). Resolution is high, though details are a quite soft overall, even at the center of the frame. (Most lenses have some softening in the corners at macro distances, but the Nikkor 18-55mm VR was soft throughout the frame at this distance.) The Nikon D5000's flash throttled down for the macro area pretty well, and there was no detectable shadow from the lens barrel, resulting in a good exposure with the flash.

Geometric Distortion
Moderately high barrel distortion at wide-angle, almost none at telephoto with the 18-55mm VR kit lens. Enabling Auto Distortion Control is quite effective.

Barrel distortion at 18mm is 1.0 percent, Auto Distortion Control = Off (default)

Pincushion at 55mm is less than 0.1 percent, Auto Distortion Control = Off (default)

The Nikon D5000's 18-55mm VR kit lens produced about 1.0 percent barrel distortion at wide-angle, which is higher than average among the cameras we've tested, and noticeable in some of its images. At the telephoto end, the less than 0.1 percent pincushion distortion is very low and is almost imperceptible. This is the tendency for the lens to bend straight lines outward (like a barrel -- usually at wide-angle) or inward (like a pincushion -- usually at telephoto).

Distortion Control

Barrel distortion at 18mm is 0.2 percent, Auto Distortion Control = On

Barrel at 55mm is less than 0.1 percent, Auto Distortion Control = On

The Nikon D5000 has a new Distortion Control feature which reduces geometric distortion in JPEGs. There is an Auto setting which works with Nikkor D- and G-type lenses (PC, Fisheye and certain other lenses excluded), as well as a manual mode in the Retouch menu to apply correction manually after capture for unsupported lenses. The above shots were taken with Auto mode, which reduced barrel distortion from 1.0% to 0.2% at wide-angle, and changed the tiny amount of pincushion to an even smaller amount of barrel distortion at full telephoto.

Chromatic Aberration
Very low to moderate in camera JPEGs, but higher in RAW files with the 18-55mm VR kit lens.

Chromatic aberration (CA) in the corners of camera JPEGs taken with the Nikon D5000's kit lens is moderate at wide-angle, but quite dull, and not very noticeable. CA at full telephoto is very low, almost nonexistent. These results made us wonder if the D5000 was correcting for it, even though Nikon hasn't advertised chromatic aberration correction as a feature for the D5000. (This distortion is visible as a slight colored fringe around the objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target.)

RAW Files
As we suspected, there are higher levels of CA in the corners of uncorrected, converted RAW files. So, it turns out the Nikon D5000 does indeed compensate for lateral chromatic aberration in its JPEGs, just like its more expensive siblings.

Chromatic Aberration Reduction. The anti-CA system in the D5000 seems to work identically to that of previous, more expensive models (D90, D300, D700, D3, D3X). The crops above were taken from the corners of converted RAW files with the D5000 and the 18-55mm VR kit lens. It's a pretty good kit lens for the price, but there's some moderate to strong CA in the corners at wide-angle, as can be seen clearly in RAW files, as above. (Note that the anti-CA processing is only applied to the in-camera JPEGs; the camera very rightly leaves the RAW files untouched.)

It's important to note that this CA correction isn't dependent on your using a Nikon lens: The camera figures out how much CA there is in each area of the image, and shifts the planes of red and blue pixel data to compensate for it. Note, though, that this only works for lateral CA. Longitudinal chromatic aberration isn't corrected out. (Happily, with most good quality lenses, lateral CA is much more common than longitudinal.)

Corner Sharpness
The kit lens showed moderate blurring in the corners of the frame at wide-angle, but only minor blurring at telephoto.

The Nikon D5000's 18-55mm VR kit lens produced soft corners in a few shots. At wide-angle, corners on our test targets had moderate softness compared to the center. At telephoto, corner softness was not as strong, and less than average for a kit lens. A good performance here, especially considering these shots were taken at maximum aperture (corner softness usually improves when the lens is stopped-down a few f-stops). As you can see from the brighter center crops, there is some light fall-off ("vignetting") toward the corners as well. This is quite typical and also improves when the lens is stopped-down.

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Nikon D5000 Photo Gallery .

Exposure

Nikon D5000 Exposure

Exposure Modes. The Nikon D5000 gives you all the exposure options you'd expect in a consumer SLR, and it adds more Scene modes than you'll find on any other Nikon SLR to date. Available exposure modes include Full Auto, Program AE, Manual, Aperture Priority, and Shutter Priority modes with shutter speeds from 1/4,000 to 30 seconds available in 1/3 EV steps, as well as a Bulb setting for longer exposures. Also provided are the six standard Scene modes found on most consumer Nikon SLRs (Portrait, Landscape, Child, Sports, Macro, and Night Portrait), and a Flash-Off Auto mode. New for the Nikon D5000 is a SCENE setting on the exposure mode dial, which accesses an additional 13 scenes via the control dial (see the animation above right). Refer to the Modes and Menus tab for more details on each exposure mode.

A very nice touch that's common to other Nikon DSLRs is that, while in Program AE mode, you can rotate the Command dial to select different combinations of aperture and shutter speed settings than those normally chosen by the autoexposure system. (That is, if the automatic program would have chosen 1/125 second and f/5.6, you could instead direct the camera to use 1/60 at f/8 or 1/30 at f/11, to get greater depth of field.) This is a very handy option for those times when you need some measure of increased control, but still want the camera to do most of the work for you. We personally use this capability more than Aperture- or Shutter-priority metering in our own shooting.

An interesting feature when using Manual exposure mode is the electronic analog exposure display visible in the optical viewfinder data readout. This shows the amount the camera thinks an image will be over- or underexposed, based on the settings you have selected, and helps you find the best exposure for the subject.

Exposure Metering. Nikon has one of the most sophisticated and flexible metering systems on the market today. Like most SLRs, there are three main metering modes on the Nikon D5000: Matrix, Center-Weighted, and Spot metering. Where Nikon's system differs is in the capability of these modes. Nikon's matrix metering is called 3D Color Matrix II, as it takes color as well as distance into account. (Distance requires the use of CPU-equipped lenses.) It covers a wide area of the frame with a 420-pixel RGB sensor. The Nikon D5000's Center-Weighted metering mode gives a weight of 75% to an 8mm diameter circle in center of frame. Spot meters a 4.5mm diameter circle (about 2.5% of the frame) centered on the active focus area. (Most DSLRs only meter the very center of the frame in Spot metering mode.) The 420-pixel RGB sensor also serves to ascertain automatic white-balance, and provides assistance for focus tracking when the subject leaves the AF sensor area. Metering range is specified at 0 to 20 EV in Matrix or Center-Weighted, and 2 to 20 EV in Spot metering mode.

Exposure Lock. The AE-L/AF-L button locks the exposure and/or autofocus, useful for off-center subjects in tricky lighting. It can be programmed for AE lock, AF lock, AE + AF lock, or various other functions via the custom menu. You can also program the button to toggle instead of requiring the button to be held.

Exposure Compensation. Exposure compensation on the Nikon D5000 is adjustable from -5 to +5 exposure equivalents (EV) in 1/3 or 1/2 EV step increments, and is controllable in Program, Aperture-priority, or Shutter-priority modes. Note that in Manual exposure mode, the EV button becomes a shift button that changes the function of the Command dial from controlling the shutter speed to changing the Aperture. The Auto Bracketing feature on the Nikon D5000 takes three shots of the same subject with varying exposure values. Exposure settings for bracketing can vary from -2 to +2 EV (values are added to the already chosen exposure compensation value), with step sizes of 1/3 or 1/2 EV units. Through the Custom Settings menu, you can designate whether the bracketing sequence adjusts the exposure, white balance, or Advanced D-Lighting (2 frames only).

ISO Sensitivity. ISO ranges from 200 to 3,200 and can be extended down to ISO 100 (Lo 1), and up to ISO 6,400 (Hi 2). ISO can only be adjusted in 1/3 EV steps (Lo 1, Lo 0.7, Lo 0.3, 200, 250, 320, 400, 500, 640, 800, etc.). Nikon's excellent Auto ISO feature is carried over as well, which allows you to set both the upper ISO limit (up to ISO 6400) as well as the minimum shutter speed (selectable from 1s to 1/2000s) required before ISO is increased automatically.

White Balance. The Nikon D5000 offers the usual white balance settings: Auto, six presets consisting of Incandescent, Fluorescent, Direct Sunlight, Flash, Cloudy, Shade and a manual mode where white-balance is determined from a white or grey card. The Fluorescent preset has seven sub-settings consisting of Sodium Vapor (2,700K), Warm-white (3,000K), White (3,700K), Cool (4,200K), Day White (5,000K), and High Temperature Mercury Vapor (7,200K), and the manual setting allows one custom white-balance measurements to be stored. All the presets and manual settings are tweakable via a 2D fine-tuning grid display. The Nikon D5000 also supports White Balance bracketing, where three frames can be bracketed with Blue or Amber white balance bias increments of one unit.

Active D-Lighting. D-Lighting has proven a popular post-processing feature in Nikon's consumer digital SLRs, as well as some of the company's point & shoot models. It's a quick software process that attempts to overcome underexposed images, and bring detail out of shadows. An improved version of Active D-Lighting appeared in the Nikon D3 and D300, including optimization of image contrast, helping to prevent overprocessing of shadows and flattening of overall image contrast. The Nikon D5000 inherits Active D-Lighting from the D90 in that as well as the previous On and Off settings found on the D60, the Nikon D5000 also offers Extra-High, High, Normal, and Low, or the ability to automatically choose the Active D-Lighting strength on the fly. See the Image Quality tab to see how well it performs.

Lateral Chromatic Aberration Correction. While other cameras have had lens distortion processing built-in, notably the Olympus E-1, none until Nikon's D3 and D300 did the processing based on the distortion detected in the image. Past cameras (and most distortion-correction software) simply looked at which lens was mounted and perhaps the focal length if it was a zoom lens, and then applied a pre-set amount of correction; no image analysis actually took place. Nikon's Lateral Chromatic Aberration correction offered a more sophisticated approach, thanks to the power of the camera's EXPEED processor, by actually analyzing each image after capture and fixing the chromatic aberration detected therein before saving the JPEG file. Cameras with high-resolution sensors place a greater demand on lenses, and hence Lateral Chromatic Aberration correction proves a useful feature on the Nikon D5000. There are no settings for this feature; it's always enabled for JPEGs. See the Optics tab to see how well it performs.

Auto Distortion Control. Another interesting feature is Automatic Distortion Control, a first for Nikon SLRs. Enabled via the Shooting menu, this option automatically corrects for barrel and pincushion distortion in JPEGfiles when using most Nikkor D- and G-type lenses (PC, Fisheye and certain other lenses excluded). We gave it a try with the Nikkor 18-55mm VRlens that ships with the Nikon D5000, and it worked very well. See the Optics tab for geometric distortion test results with this feature disabled and enabled. The Nikon D5000 also offers distortion correction as a post-processing function, available from the Retouch menu. There, you can create a copy of an image after applying either an automatic amount of correction, or manually adjusting the amount on a preview display.

Picture Control. Nikon has standardized its Picture Control system so that camera settings for sharpening, contrast, brightness, saturation, and hue can be finely adjusted and ported to other Nikon digital SLRs that support the system. The D3 was the first camera compatible with the option, and all Nikon SLRs since, including the D5000 follow the standard. The Nikon D5000 has six presets called Standard, Neutral, Vivid, Monochrome, Portrait, and Landscape, plus up to nine custom presets can be defined, named, saved, and copied. Sharpness can be adjusted in ten steps, along with an Auto setting; contrast, saturation, and hue can be adjusted in seven steps, while hue is adjustable in three steps. There is also a five-step "Quick Adjust" setting which exaggerates or mutes the effect without having to adjust each slider individually. When Monochrome Picture Control is selected, Hue and Saturation are replaced by Filter Effects and Toning respectively. Filter Effects offers Off, Yellow, Orange, Red, and Green settings, while Toning offers B&W, Sepia, Cyanotype, Red, Yellow, Green, Blue Green, Blue, Purple Blue and Red Purple settings. Note that Picture Controls are only active in Program, Aperture-priority or Shutter-priority and Manual exposure modes, as the Scene modes already apply preset image adjustments. Of course, the Nikon D5000 also offers sRGB and Adobe RGB settings, in a separate Color Space menu.

Noise Reduction. The Nikon D5000 offers four levels of high ISO noise reduction: Off, Low, Normal, and High. For Low, Normal, and High settings, noise reduction is performed at ISO 800 and higher. When set to Off, minimal noise reduction is performed at ISOs above 3200. No high ISO noise reduction is performed on RAW files (other than the embedded JPEG thumbnail). The Nikon D5000 also offers long-exposure noise reduction. When set to On, the camera takes a second exposure for the same duration with the shutter closed, and subtracts the "dark frame" from the first, to reduce hot-pixel and amp noise for exposures longer than 8 seconds.

Release Modes. The Nikon D5000's release modes are selected via the menu system. Release modes consist of Single Frame, Continuous, Self-timer, Delayed Remote (two second delay), Quick-response Remote, and Quiet Shutter-release Single Frame (S) mode takes one shot each time the shutter-release is pressed. The Nikon D5000's Continuous mode is rated by Nikon for up to 4 frames per second (we got 4.04 frames per second in our testing), for a total of 100 Large/Fine JPEGs before the buffer fills and the camera slows. Of course, the number of consecutive shots could be limited by memory card space, if your memory card(s) are nearly full. Also, when shooting JPEGs of a very complex scene with a lot of sharp, fine detail may also compress less and result in lower buffer capacities. Self-Timer mode opens the shutter by a programmable delay (2, 5, 10, or 20 seconds) after the shutter button is pressed. Self-Timer mode can also be programmed to take up to nine shots, at three-second intervals. The Remote release modes are for use with the optional ML-L3 wireless remote. The 2-second delay option is useful for hiding the remote when taking photos that include the operator. Quiet Shutter-release is similar to Single Frame; however, the camera makes no noise until the finger is removed from the shutter button, and the beep does not sound when the camera focuses, keeping noise to a minimum.

Interval Timer Mode. Another useful feature on the Nikon D5000 that first appeared on more expensive models is Interval Timer mode, which facilitates time-lapse photography by taking a series of images at preset intervals. You can set the starting and ending times for the series, as well as the amount of time between shots and the total number of shots to be captured. You can set hours, minutes, and seconds between each shot, and you can set a start time up to 23 hours, 59 minutes from the current time. This is a good way to capture a timeline of slower events, such as clouds passing across the sky, tidal changes, a flower opening, etc.

Retouch Menu. The Nikon D5000 has the most extensive Retouch menu of any Nikon SLR to date. The amount of image alteration that can be performed in-camera is starting to rival what basic image editing software packages can do on a computer, so much so that many users may not feel the need to use a computer for Nikon D5000 image editing at all. Retouch options include adjusting D-Lighting, red-eye correction, image cropping (trim), converting to monochrome, applying up to seven filter effects, adjusting color balance, resizing to small images (for TV, Web or email), image overlay for combining two RAW images into one JPEG, NEF (RAW) processing, "Quick Retouch" for fast adjustments to saturation and contrast, straighten for fixing slanted horizons, distortion control for fixing lens distortion (see above), fisheye effect, color outline, perspective control (see the User Report), stop-motion movies, and side-by-side comparison. Phew, that's quite the list!

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Nikon D5000 Photo Gallery .

Not sure which camera to buy? Let your eyes be the ultimate judge! Visit our Comparometer(tm) to compare images from the Nikon D5000 with those from other cameras you may be considering. The proof is in the pictures, so let your own eyes decide which you like best!

Performance

Nikon D5000 Performance

Imaging

Nikon D5000 Image Quality

Color

Saturation & Hue Accuracy
Better than average accuracy and pleasing color overall.

In the diagram above, the squares show the original color, and the circles show the color that the camera captured. More saturated colors are located towards the periphery of the graph. Hue changes as you travel around the center. Thus, hue-accurate, highly saturated colors appear as lines radiating from the center. Click for a larger image.

Saturation. The Nikon D5000 oversaturates some blues, oranges, and greens a bit, and actually undersaturates some cyans, purples, and yellows. The net effect is pleasing and accurate color, actually somewhat more in keeping with the demands of professional users than that of other recent consumer oriented Nikon SLRs. If you'd like a bit brighter-looking color, it's easy enough to dial in a bit more saturation in the D5000's Picture Styles menu; the steps there are a bit bigger than we'd optimally like to see, but the +1 or +2 saturation setting should please most people looking for slightly brighter color, without going too far. Most consumer digital cameras produce color that's more highly saturated (more intense) than found in the original subjects. This is simply because most people like their color a bit brighter than life. Professional models tend to be more restrained in their color rendering.

Skin tones. The Nikon D5000 rendered skin tones just slightly warm/pink. Still, the results looked natural, well within what we'd consider an acceptable range. (Here, too, the D5000's saturation adjustment may come into play for some users, letting them knock down the color on skin tones a little, if they find the default rendering a bit too saturated for their personal tastes.) Where oversaturation is most problematic is on Caucasian skin tones, as it's very easy for these "memory colors" to be seen as too bright, too pink, too yellow, etc.

Hue. With an average hue error after correction for saturation variation of only 4.21 delta-C units, the Nikon D5000's hue accuracy is very good; closer to technically accurate than many DSLRs on the market. All in all, accurate and pleasing color. Hue is "what color" the color is.

Saturation Adjustment
The Nikon D5000 lets you adjust the image saturation, contrast, and sharpness in seven steps each. As can be seen below, the saturation adjustment worked very well, providing a reasonably fine-grained adjustment over a useful range of control. (While we'd personally like to see just slightly smaller steps, the Nikon D5000 gives an excellent degree of control.) The saturation adjustment also has almost no impact on contrast. That's how it should work, but we've often found interactions between saturation and contrast (and vice versa) on the cameras we test.

Saturation Adjustment Examples
-3	-2	-1
	Default
+1	+2	+3

Sensor

Exposure and White Balance

Indoors, incandescent lighting
Auto and Incandescent settings are quite warm, but good color with the Manual white balance. Higher than average positive exposure compensation required.

The Nikon D5000's auto white balance had a difficult time with the very warm color balance of the household incandescent bulbs used in this shot, and its Incandescent white balance setting was only slightly better. The Manual white balance setting produced much more accurate results, with skin tones and white values that looked the best of the three settings. The Nikon D5000 required a +1.0 EV increase in exposure to get best results, higher than average of +0.3 EV normally required for this shot. Our test lighting for this shot is a mixture of 60 and 100 watt household incandescent bulbs, a pretty yellow light source, but a very common one in typical home settings here in the U.S.

Outdoors, daylight
Good color outdoors, though slightly high contrast at the default setting. Very good highlight/shadow detail preservation, though. Higher than average exposure compensation required for our outdoor portrait shot, but our far-field house shot was dead-on.

The Nikon D5000 handled tough outdoor lighting under harsh sunlight pretty well, and produced good overall color, but underexposed our outdoor portrait shot by quite a bit with the kit lens, requiring +2.0 EV exposure compensation. (See the Sunlight section below for more on the role of the lens when it comes to exposure accuracy.) The default contrast setting was a bit on the high side, but shadow and highlight detail in the Portrait shot was excellent. The far-field house shot was very well exposed at the default setting, only losing a tiny amount of the highlights and shadows, but that might in part be due to our kit lens underexposing. Color looks very good outdoors as well.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Resolution
Very high resolution, 1,700 lines of strong detail.

Our laboratory resolution chart revealed sharp, distinct line patterns all the way down to about 1,700 lines per picture height in both directions, which is excellent. (Some would doubtless argue for an even higher lines/picture height rating, but we judge the aliasing that appears shortly after 1,700 lines as an indication that 1,700 is about the limit of the camera's true resolution.) Extinction of the pattern occurred at around 2,500 lines. Use these numbers to compare with other cameras of similar resolution, or to see just what higher resolution can mean in terms of potential detail.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Sharpness & Detail
Very detailed images, though slightly soft overall. Minor edge-enhancement on high-contrast subjects and minimal noise suppression.

Sharpness. The Nikon D5000 captures a lot of fine detail, but its images are a bit on the soft side at default settings, at least with the kit lens (we'll retake these with a sharp prime when we get the chance). Some very slight edge-enhancement artifacts are visible on high-contrast subjects such as the crop above left, but they're really pretty minimal. Nikon D5000 images take sharpening in Photoshop and other software pretty well. You'll do somewhat better if you process the Nikon D5000's images straight from the NEF RAW files. Overall though, detail is excellent.

Detail & Noise Suppression. The crop above right shows some noise suppression in the shadows at ISO 200, but individual strands of hair can still be seen even in relatively low-contrast areas. Noise-suppression systems in digital cameras tend to flatten-out detail in areas of subtle contrast. The effects can often be seen in shots of human hair, where the individual strands are lost and an almost "watercolor" look appears.

JPEG vs RAW

JPEG vs RAW Comparison
Camera JPEG (Default Settings)	RAW via View NX (Default Settings)	RAW via dcraw (USM= 250%, r=0.3%)

Mouse over the links in the box above to compare the difference in sharpness and detail from camera JPEG versus a RAW file processed with Nikon's View NX version 1.3.0 and dcraw version 8.86. Camera settings for the JPEG settings were the defaults.

We've found that generally there is indeed a good reason to shoot RAW, because RAW files have more detail than makes it out in the camera-produced JPEGs. This seems also to be the case for the Nikon D5000. Its in-camera JPEG processing is actually pretty good, but you can nonetheless produce a sharper, more finely-rendered image by manipulating the RAW files in a good third-party RAW converter.

The camera's own JPEG processing and that of Nikon's View NX produce very similar-looking images (no surprise there), though there's slightly more detail and contrast in the View NX converted file. Nikon Capture NX2 gives you more control over image-sharpening parameters and the result can be quite a significant increase in sharpness without additional artifacts, but we haven't tried Capture NX2 on D5000 files yet, as we'll be retaking these shots with a prime lens in the near future.

The examples above also include a crop from an dcraw conversion, as Adobe Camera Raw does not yet support the D5000 (April 2009). As usual, we applied very strong/tight unsharp masking as well as a small boost in contrast and saturation in Photoshop, as dcraw does not apply any sharpening after conversion.

ISO & Noise Performance
Good noise performance, with low noise levels and good detail up to ISO 1,600.

ISO 100	ISO 200	ISO 400
ISO 800	ISO 1,600	ISO 3,200
	ISO 6,400
These crops taken from shots with High ISO NR set to "Normal," the default.

Noise levels are quite low at the Nikon D5000's lower ISO settings, and really quite reasonable even at ISO 800. At ISO 1,600 noise levels increase with more blurring in the fine details and visible "grain," but there is still quite a bit of detail. At ISO 3,200, blurring is stronger with more noise-reduction artifacts, but the grain pattern is still quite tight and results compete well with the performance of DSLRs in its price range from other manufacturers at that ISO level. ISO 6,400 is quite noisy with purple and yellow blotchiness, bright noise pixels as well as much stronger blurring of fine detail. (See our High-ISO comparison page for a detailed comparison between the D5000 and D90's High-ISO performance.) As always, see the Print Quality section below, to see how we think this noise performance translates into practical print sizes at each ISO setting.

Extremes: Sunlit and low-light tests
Severe metering error with kit lens. Once adjusted, very good detail in both highlights and shadows, with high resolution. Very good low-light capabilities as well.

Kit Lens: Nikkor AF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR DX
Default	+1.3 EV	+1.7 EV	+2.0 EV

Sunlight. The Nikon D5000 did very well under the deliberately harsh lighting in the test above, though it underexposed by a lot at the default exposure. The best exposure is at +2.0 EV, which is much higher than usual for this shot. The mannequin's skin tones are at a good level, and even though her shirt looks blown out, the vast majority of highlights in the shirt are intact.

The image looks a little contrasty, but that's just representative of the lighting itself. The key is that highlight and shadow detail are both very well preserved, with good-looking midtones as well. Noise and noise suppression are quite low in the shadows, and fine detail in these areas looks very good. Still, the camera's adjustable contrast, saturation and D-Lighting adjustments do help fine tune the exposure for conditions like this. (As always though, we remind readers to be sure to use fill flash in situations like the one shown above; and it's better to shoot in the shade when possible.)

Lens: Nikkor AF-S 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G DX
Default	+0.7 EV	+1.0 EV	+1.3 EV

To see if our copy of the AF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR kit lens had anything to do with the extreme underexposure in this shot, we reshot the Outdoor Portrait series with another lens, the Nikkor AF-S 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G. As you can see, we got better exposure with the 18-70mm, requiring only +1.3 EV exposure compensation for a good exposure versus +2.0 EV with the kit lens. Our particular kit lens was likely stopping down further than the requested f/8 aperture. Still, the exposure compensation required with the 18-70mm lens is still higher than the +0.7 EV average for this shot.

Contrast Adjustment Examples
-3	-2	-1
	Default
+1	+2	+3

The series of shots above show the results of the different contrast settings, all shots captured at an exposure setting of +2.0 EV. While it can be difficult to evaluate small differences in contrast on small thumbnails like these, it's pretty easy to see the impact of the Contrast adjustment in the images above. At its lower settings, the D5000 did a really excellent job of handling the deliberately horrific lighting of this shot. Like the Saturation adjustment, the control for Contrast is quite effective, and interacts very little with color saturation.

Active D-Lighting Examples
Low	Normal	High	Extra High
Off

Active D-Lighting The Nikon D5000 offers four levels of Active D-lighting (same as the D90 and better than the D60's single setting), plus the default Off setting. Nikon's Active D-Lighting does a good job at preserving highlights while bringing up detail in the deep shadows, though not surprisingly, more noise is visible in the darker areas of the test shots above. (Active D-Lighting's effect is small in shots like those above, that have broad areas of both very bright highlights and very deep shadows - You'll notice more impact in shots that are over- or underexposed overall, or where the central subject is in shadow from significant backlighting.)

Because digital cameras are more like slide film than negative film (in that they tend to have a more limited tonal range), we test them in the harshest situations to see how they handle scenes with bright highlights and dark shadows, as well as what kind of sensitivity they have in low light. The shot above is designed to mimic the very harsh, contrasty effect of direct noonday sunlight, a very tough challenge for most digital cameras. (You can read details of this test here.)

	1 fc 11 lux	1/2 fc 5.5 lux	1/4 fc 2.7 lux	1/8 fc 1.3 lux	1/16 fc 0.67 lux	1/16fc No NR
ISO 100	1.6 sec f2.8	3 sec f2.8	6 sec f2.8	13 sec f2.8	25 sec f2.8	25 sec f2.8
ISO 200	0.8 sec f2.8	1.6 sec f2.8	3 sec f2.8	6 sec f2.8	13 sec f2.8	13 sec f2.8
ISO 400	0.4 sec f2.8	0.8 sec f2.8	1.6 sec f2.8	3 sec f2.8	6 sec f2.8	6 sec f2.8
ISO 800	1/5 sec f2.8	0.4 sec f2.8	0.8 sec f2.8	1.6 sec f2.8	3 sec f2.8	3 sec f2.8
ISO 1600	1/10 sec f2.8	1/5 sec f2.8	0.4 sec f2.8	0.8 sec f2.8	1.6 sec f2.8	1.6 sec f2.8
ISO 3200	1/20 sec f2.8	1/10 sec f2.8	1/5 sec f2.8	0.4 sec f2.8	0.8 sec f2.8	0.8 sec f2.8
ISO 6400	1/40 sec f2.8	1/20 sec f2.8	1/10 sec f2.8	1/5 sec f2.8	0.4 sec f2.8	0.4 sec f2.8

Low light. The Nikon D5000 turned in a very good performance here, capturing bright images at the lowest light level even at the lowest sensitivity setting. Color balance is quite cool and purplish from the Auto white balance setting, especially at the lower ISOs. The camera's handling of noise was very good, with minimal noise artifacts and good detail up to ISO 1,600. Noise was moderate at ISO 3,200, and a little high at ISO 6,400, along with quite a few hot pixels at lower light levels. The AF system was able to focus unassisted down to the 1/16 foot-candle light level, and in total darkness with the AF assist enabled. When in Live View mode, the contrast-detect autofocus system struggled to focus at the 1/2 foot-candle.

How bright is this? The one foot-candle light level that this test begins at roughly corresponds to the brightness of typical city street-lighting at night. Cameras performing well at that level should be able to snap good-looking photos of street-lit scenes.

NOTE: This low light test is conducted with a stationary subject, and the camera mounted on a sturdy tripod. Most digital cameras will fail miserably when faced with a moving subject in dim lighting. (For example, a child's ballet recital or a holiday pageant in a gymnasium.) Digital SLRs like the Nikon D5000 do much better than point & shoots, but you still shouldn't expect a quick autofocus lock with moving subjects.

Output Quality

Print Quality
Excellent print quality, great color, good 20x30 inch prints, excellent 16x20 inch ones at ISO 100 and 200. ISO 400-800 good at 13x19. ISO 3,200 images are surprisingly good at 8x10, even better at 5x7.

Output from the Nikon D5000 was good enough to produce good-looking 20x30-inch prints, and sharp 16x20-inch ones at ISO 100 and 200. As noted elsewhere in this review, the D5000 rewards RAW shooters with really excellent detail when its NEF files are processed through a good RAW converter.

The image quality as we move up the ISO scale is so good that I have to be quite a bit more picky than usual, attending more to shadow density and noise suppression than to detail, which remains good in most parts of the photographs, even the low-contrast areas. ISO 400 and 800 shots are better printed at 13x19 inches, while ISO 1,600 shots start to soften a bit, with fine grain in the shadows appearing. They would be acceptable on any wall at this size, however, and improve for pixel peeping at 11x14 inches.

ISO 3,200 shots are still surprisingly good at 11x14, with some softening around edges and still darker shadows, with more abrupt transitions. As a result, round objects start to lose their sense of depth, and edge-enhancement starts to show. Detail looks better at 8x10.

An abrupt falloff in quality occurs at ISO 6,400, with increased chroma and luminance noise in the shadows, and an overall reduction in contrast; though most consumer point-and-shoot cameras struggle to produce this quality at ISO 800. The Nikon D5000 at this point is competing only with itself, the Nikon D90, and the Canon T1i/50D duo in the sub-$1,200 space. Printed at 5x7, the picture improves, and at 4x6, photos look downright excellent. This opens up whole new worlds of potential, making the Nikon D5000 quite a formidable low-light image maker.

Testing hundreds of digital cameras, we've found that you can only tell just so much about a camera's image quality by viewing its images on-screen. Ultimately, there's no substitute for printing a lot of images and examining them closely. For this reason, we now routinely print sample images from the cameras we test on our Canon Pro9000 studio printer, and on the Canon iP5200 here in the office. (See the Canon PIXMA Pro9000 review for details on that model.)

Viewfinder

Nikon D5000 Viewfinder

As with most DSLRs, the Nikon D5000 has an optical viewfinder that lets you view your subject through the lens. Following a popular trend, though, the camera also offers a Live view mode, in which the mirror flips up and the main image sensor continuously captures a live image of the subject, displaying it on the rear-panel LCD screen. The Nikon D5000 is the first Nikon with an articulating LCD, making its Live View mode that much more useful.

Nikon says the D5000's viewfinder provides a magnification of 0.78x and a coverage of about 95%. (We measured slightly higher coverage on our production-level sample of the D5000.) The Nikon D5000's dioptric correction (for eyeglass wearers) has a range from -1.7 to +0.7 diopter, adjusted via a slider on the right side of the viewfinder eyepiece housing. The viewfinder has an eyepoint height of 17.9mm at -1 diopter. This is enough that most eyeglass wearers should be able to see the full viewfinder area without having to mash their glasses against the viewfinder bezel. The Nikon D5000's viewfinder employs a pentamirror design, rather than the brighter but heavier and more costly pentaprism system.

The graphic and table below shows what information is displayed in Nikon D5000's viewfinder.

Viewfinder Test Results

Coverage
Good accuracy with the optical viewfinder, excellent with the LCD monitor's Live View mode.

The Nikon D5000's optical viewfinder proved fairly accurate, with just over 96% coverage when measured with our Sigma 70mm f/2.8 test lens. This is very good for a consumer model, and is better than the coverage Nikon claims (95%), though the viewfinder image in our production-level test sample was shifted very slightly vertically. The camera's Live View LCD mode was extremely accurate, however, with 100% coverage.

Live View

Nikon D5000 Live view

The Nikon D5000 brings Live view to Nikon's consumer DSLR line for the first time (unless you consider the D90 a consumer model; we class the D90 as a prosumer or enthusiast model).

One welcome enhancement carried over from the D90 to the Nikon D5000 is its one-touch activation, via the Live view button. On the D300, Live view mode had to be selected via the Drive Mode wheel on the left side of the camera's top panel; a somewhat cumbersome arrangement. By contrast, the Nikon D5000 sports a LV button on its rear panel, in very convenient reach of your thumb. Press it at any time and the mirror flips up and the camera immediately enters Live view mode. A nice feature, it does a lot to make Live view a much more fluid part of your photography than it's been in the past.

Live view Mode Displays

Another nice feature in the Nikon D5000's Live view mode is the full information display optionally available while working in that mode. The Live Mode shooting info display shows you a lot of what you'd normally see looking through the viewfinder, yet manages to keep most of the information out of the way of the live image area. Information displayed includes current metering mode, shutter time, aperture, exposure compensation, ISO setting, shots remaining, exposure mode, face detection active/inactive (more on this in a bit), file mode (RAW or JPEG), and white balance setting. It also shows microphone status and minutes/seconds of movie recording available at the current resolution and quality settings. There's also an optional grid overlay mode, as well as a reduced size preview with menu options to the right and below. One thing we miss in the Nikon D5000, though, is the live histogram display that's an option on the Nikon D3 and on some competing SLRs from Nikon's arch-rival Canon.

Like the D90, the Nikon D5000 has only one type of autofocus method in Live view, and it's not the traditional phase-detect AF. The D5000's only option for autofocus in Live view mode is contrast detection. This is a fairly radical departure compared to other camera makers.

Contrast-detect vs. Phase-detect Autofocus

By way of explanation, the phase-detect/contrast-detect distinction is one of the fundamental differences that separates digicams from digital SLRs, and is the core reason that SLRs focus more quickly. Contrast-detection autofocus involves looking at the image from a camera's main image sensor and evaluating it to see how abruptly brightness values change from one pixel to the next. If an image is soft and fuzzy, brightness changes between adjacent pixels will be relatively slight, but if it's sharply focused, they'll be much greater. The point of ideal focus is found by moving the lens elements back and forth and determining whether the contrast signal gets stronger or weaker. Achieving focus this way necessarily involves some back-and-forth hunting, which can take a while to accomplish. By contrast (no pun intended), phase-detect AF uses a system of prisms, lenses, and a secondary sensor to determine not only whether the image is in focus or not, but by how much it's out of focus and in which direction. The camera can then adjust the focus setting to exactly the position needed in a single step. As a result, phase-detect AF systems are generally much faster than contrast-detect ones.

The catch with phase-detect AF though, is that it requires some of the light passing through the lens to be diverted to the focus sensor. This is fine in an SLR when the mirror is down between exposures, as part of the mirror is typically partially transmissive, with the light passing through it deflected by a secondary mirror down to the AF sensor, usually located in the bottom of the mirror box. When the mirror is raised in Live view mode, though, light from the lens can't get to the separate AF sensor. This accounts for the rather lengthy (and noisy) AF cycles in most Live view SLRs: To focus the camera the mirror has to be dropped, focus determined, and the mirror raised again, adding several tenths of a second to the normal non-Live view shutter lag. For example, the Nikon D5000 has a shutter lag of only 0.276 second when using the optical viewfinder and a single AF point. This increases to an average of 2.30 seconds in Live view mode via contrast-detect, all other settings being the same. While it takes some time for the mirror to drop and re-open for phase-detect AF in Live view mode, the overall result can still be faster than when relying on contrast-detect autofocus. The Nikon D300 for instance can focus and capture a shot in 0.465 second in Live view mode using phase-detect AF.

With the above as background, you can see why we were surprised to find contrast-detect AF the only autofocus option available on the D90, and that they've carried that limitation forward on the Nikon D5000. The Nikon D5000's contrast-detect AF in Live view mode clearly isn't something you're going to be using for sports shooting.

One advantage of contrast-detect autofocus, though, is that you're not restricted to focusing only on those areas where you happen to have an AF point. The Nikon D5000 lets you put the focus box anywhere in the frame when in Live view mode.

Face detection. Here's a look at the D90's face detection working with a live subject, which operates the same way on the Nikon D5000. Click to view/download 1.7MB MPEG-4 file.

Besides the ability to position the AF area wherever you like it, the Nikon D5000's contrast-detect AF in Live view mode also offers face detection. Up to 5 faces can be detected in an image in Face Priority mode, and the AF areas adjust to match the size of each face detected. The face-detect box shows yellow when not in focus, and green when in focus (after half-pressing the shutter button). The video clip at right shows the D90 tracking a live face while zooming in and out and panning around. The Nikon D5000's face detection autofocus mode is identical.

Playing with face-detect autofocus in Live view mode, we were pleased to see that the camera not only tracked the faces, but was also intelligent enough to set focus based on the eyes of subjects, rather than on their noses or mouths. (In portrait work, the eyes are the most critical part of the face to render in sharp focus. Other parts of the face can be soft but viewers will regard the shot as properly focused if the eyes are crisp.)

Other Nikon D5000 Live view autofocus modes are: Wide Area, designed for hand-held shots of landscapes and other non-portrait subjects; Normal Area, designed for pin-point focusing using a tripod; and a new mode called Subject Tracking. This mode is designed to track just about any selected subject as it moves through the frame. It need not have a face.

Manual Focusing in Live view Mode

With appropriate magnification, Live view displays can be very useful when manually focusing SLR cameras. During manual focusing, the Live view display on the Nikon D5000 can be magnified quite considerably, but it seems it's not all that you might expect from the specifications. In Live view mode, pressing the magnifying glass button on the camera's back lets you zoom in up to a maximum of 6.7x. The viewfinder image at this magnification isn't sharp, though; it seems the camera is actually grabbing fewer pixels than that section of the sensor actually contains and then interpolating them to form the image. (You can check this by snapping a shot and then magnifying the resulting image to the same degree in playback mode. Doing this, you'll find the image is quite a bit sharper than what you saw on the LCD in Live view mode.) While the magnified Live view display is still usable for focusing, it isn't as sharp as it could be, nor as sharp as the Live view display on some of Canon's SLR models sporting this feature.

Video

Nikon D5000 Video

Apart from the advantages provided by an articulating LCD, the Nikon D5000's video capabilities are identical to the D90's, so this page is borrowed from the Nikon D90 review.

Resolution & Recording Time
The Nikon D90's movie resolutions include 1280x720 (16:9), 640x424 (3:2), and 320x216 (3:2). Recording times are limited to five minutes per clip for HD mode, and 20 minutes per clip for the latter two modes. Nikon couldn't explain the reason for the limit as of this writing, but it's likely due to sensor heating issues that might start to degrade image quality. The frame rate is 24 frames per second, and audio is monaural, not stereo. Approximate maximum file sizes of the two larger sizes both seem to be about 600-800MB. The shorter maximum recording time of the higher resolution option seems to about balance the longer recording time of the lower resolution, producing the same size files overall. Nikon says that recording will stop at 2 GB even if it's been less than the 5 or 20 minute time limit in the various modes, but we never made a file larger than 800 MB, regardless of subject choice. (Subjects with lots of fine detail will produce larger images, as the fine detail is harder for the motion JPEG processing used in the D90 to compress.)

The Nikon D90's movie recording is accessed from Live view mode: You just press the OK button to start or stop recording at any time. You have to set focus before you start shooting your movie, but you can still focus manually and adjust the zoom setting of the lens while you're shooting. The movie will record the noise of the zoom ring to an extent, depending on which lens you're using and how fast you zoom, but it's still pretty impressive. Of course, one of the big advantages of being able to record movies with a Nikon SLR is that you have the full spectrum of Nikon lenses available to you, ranging from ultrawide angle and fisheye lenses all the way to ultra telephotos. You can also obviously use special lenses like the new LensBaby Composer for special effects. (While the D90's video is more oriented toward the making of quick "video snapshots," we can imagine some pros using it just to be able to incorporate special effects like the LensBaby look into their productions.)

Frame Rate
The Nikon D90 captures images at 24 frames/second, the same frame rate used in the motion picture industry. This produces reasonably smooth motion, but we found that rapidly moving subjects close to the camera could look a little jumpy: The same as they do at your local cinema. If you've been using a digicam with a frame rate of only 15 frames/second (fairly common a generation or two back), the D90's 24 fps will be a welcome upgrade. On the other hand, if you've recently been using a digicam with 30 fps capture, you may find the D90's video a little jumpy. Once again, this probably isn't critical for "snapshot" videos, but another indication why the D90 really isn't a substitute for a dedicated camcorder.

Focusing
Prior to recording, you can let the camera set focus via one of two ways: First, you could half-press the shutter button before switching to Live View mode. This will use the camera's normal autofocus system, which is quite fast. (As is typical of SLR phase-detect AF systems.) Alternately, most people will probably switch to Live View mode and do their initial framing before half-pressing the shutter button. This uses the D90's contrast-detect focusing mode, which is rather slow: Expect it to take two or three seconds, longer if it has to move the lens elements a lot.

The lack of autofocus during movie recording with the Nikon D90 is something that may give many potential owners pause, as focus is so critical in still photography and dealing with moving subjects would seem to make it even more so. In practice, we were surprised to find it not nearly the issue we expected it to be. This may be because the lower resolution in video mode greatly increases the effective depth of field: Subjects that would be well out of focus when shot at the D90's maximum still-image resolution of 12 megapixels often looked just fine when viewed at even the maximum video resolution of 1,280 x 720. Lower resolutions only increase this effect. And it's not just the resolution, either, the video compression introduces quite a bit of softness on a frame-by-frame basis, further masking softness due to defocusing.

Still, the Nikon D90's manual-only focusing in movie mode means that a whole new generation of non-professionals will now learn what it means to "pull focus" while recording movies, as the point of interest move from one subject to another, or if the subject moves significantly closer to or further from the camera during a segment. "Focus pulling" is a cinematic technique often performed by someone other than the camera operator, who is usually too busy framing the image to attend to focus as well. But millions of Nikon D90 owners will be able to try a technique that few camcorder owners can.

In our own admittedly limited playing with the Nikon D90's video recording, we found that pulling focus during a recording was a skill that required some learning, particularly if there were things going on in the scene that needed paying attention to. If we knew the approximate locations where the subject would be at the start and end of a clip (think of a video of a Little Leaguer sliding into home), we could check the corresponding positions of the focus ring and then try to repeat them while the action was taking place. This was a little hard to do with only a ring to grab onto, as the tactile reference for the different focus positions was pretty weak; a lever would have made the starting and stopping positions much more evident and easier to remember. As more SLRs capable of video recording get out into the market (Canon recently announced the EOS-5D Mark II, which also offers HD-resolution video recording), we suspect we'll aftermarket gadgets will appear that will let you temporarily attach a lever of some sort to lens focus rings, for just this purpose.

If you don't know in advance how the subject is going to move, you can try to judge focus from the image on the D90's rear-panel LCD and adjust accordingly. The exceptional resolution and sharpness of the LCD makes this more practical than it might sound. Once again, some practice (and inherently good reflexes) are required, but given enough practice, it could work reasonably well.

Audio
The Nikon D90 has an internal microphone concealed behind three small holes on the front of the camera body. There is no provision for an external mic, nor do you have any control over the audio recording level: The camera's auto gain circuit (AGC) adjusts the mic sensitivity as needed to maintain a more or less constant recording level. We found the D90's microphone to be quite sensitive. It has no problem picking up even quiet conversation from across a room, as long as there are no background noises. Ah, but there's the rub: The mic will pick up all sorts of background noise if you're not careful. For a camera-mounted mic, there's not much else the engineers could do: The last thing you'd want in this case would be a mic with limited far-field pickup. Given that most users will likely be using the D90's video recording for short clips of memorable moments, its tendency to pick up every sound is probably a positive feature.

Rolling Shutter Artifact ("Jello Effect")
There was one aspect of the Nikon D90's video that we found less than wonderful, though, namely the way its progressive data readout from the sensor chip can produce distortions in the image when the camera or subject moves suddenly. The D90 records its movies at 24 frames/second, but the way it clocks data off its sensor chip means that it takes on the order of 1/24 second to read out each frame. By contrast, most camcorders grab each frame at a single moment in time, with all of the pixels in the image acquired simultaneously.

The consequence of this progressive capture is that any movement of the camera or subject between the beginning of a given frame's capture and the end of it will produce distortions in the shape of the image.

We first noticed this effect when panning rapidly to follow fast motion: Trees and buildings would lean opposite the direction of our panning. On the other hand, if you're panning slowly to take in a larger scene, you're not likely to notice the effect at all. More disconcerting, once we became sensitized to the phenomena, we noticed our video subjects "jiggling" slightly in response to even fairly minor camera shake as we were hand-holding the D90. Lens-based IS helps with this somewhat, but we'd be much happier if Nikon could figure out a way to grab the image data all at once and then read it off to the memory card before starting the next frame grab.

Video Examples: Dave shot some examples of video with the D90, so you can see what the different resolution levels look like. Click on any of the thumbnails below to bring up each video in a new window.

Nikon D90 Video Examples

Three Video Sizes
Options include 1,280 x 720, 640x424, and 320 x 216 pixels, all at 24 frames/second
(Click on any thumbnail to launch/download the movie in a new window)

As noted earlier, the Nikon D90's video imagery is not only considerably lower resolution than its still images, but the heavy JPEG compression applied to the video frames further reduces detail. The upside of this is that the effective depth of field is quite a bit greater than you'd find in its still images at similar focal length and aperture. Note in some of the shots how little the apparent focus changes as wonder-dog Charlotte runs toward or away from the camera.

In the highest-res shot above, the lens was initially focused somewhere between Marti and the camera, so she's a little soft at the start of the clip. That said, I found it quite surprising how little apparent sharpness changed as Charlotte ran approached and receded from the camera.

Jello Effect
(Rolling Shutter Artifact)
Rapid camera motion can result in pretty severe distortion and apparent subject motion.

As mentioned earlier, the Nikon D90's "rolling shutter" can introduce pretty severe distortion in response to either camera or subject movement. The clip above is an extreme worst case: You'd probably never film with this kind of extreme camera motion, but it illustrates the nature of the problem pretty clearly. Notice how it's really not noticeable when panning slowly. Notice too, though, how even relatively minor hand movements at the end of the clip still create some distortion.

Pulling Focus
Manual focus while recording is challenging, but can be learned.

I didn't have much time to devote to sharpening my focusing skills with the Nikon D90 in video mode. (Nor, for that matter, my skills in tracking small, rapidly moving subjects. :-) Nonetheless, this clip shows that it's not too difficult to focus based simply on what you're seeing on the D90's excellent, high-resolution LCD screen.

Flash

Nikon D5000 Flash

Flash photography has been a particular strength of Nikon SLRs for some time now, and the D5000 follows suit, with its implementation of Nikon's 3D Color Matrix II metering for flash exposures. This advanced exposure metering system takes advantage of subject-distance information relayed by the lens to compute more accurate flash exposures than more conventional systems based on reflected light alone.

Like the D60, flash capability is an area where the Nikon D5000 shed some substantial capability relative to the D90 and higher models, though, in that its built-in flash can't serve as a Commander in Nikon's Wireless Lighting System. You can still use the Nikon D5000 with a Nikon SB-800 or SB-900 flash to control multiple remote flash units, but the built-in flash doesn't have that ability on its own.

The flash modes available vary depending on the setting of the mode dial, with some of the more automated/programmed modes restricting your choices. The full list of flash modes includes Auto, Auto+Red-Eye Reduction, Auto+Slow Sync+Red-Eye Reduction, Slow Sync, Slow Sync+Red-Eye Reduction, and Rear Curtain+Slow Sync. Red-Eye Reduction mode fires the (very bright) AF-assist light before the main flash exposure, to reduce the Red-Eye Effect in shots of people. Red-Eye Reduction with Slow Sync works in a similar fashion, but combines the flash with a slower shutter speed for night portraits. (This reduces the harsh effect of nighttime flash shots, allowing more of the ambient illumination into the picture.) Slow Sync mode works with shutter speeds as slow as 30 seconds to preserve color in night shots. Finally, Rear-Curtain Sync fires the flash at the end of the exposure, producing light trails that appear to follow (rather than precede) moving subjects. A Manual flash exposure mode is available via Custom Settings Menu option e:1.

Flash exposure can be set over a range of -3 to +1 EV by holding the Flash and Exposure Compensation buttons down simultaneously, while rotating the Command Dial. (Flash exposure can also be adjusted via the Shooting Display and Multi-Controller arrow keys, which some users may find more straightforward.)

The Nikon D5000 has a 1/200 second maximum X-Sync speed, and its built-in flash is not FP-capable. Basically, this means that the on-board flash can't sync at shutter speeds greater than 1/200 second. There also doesn't appear to be any support for external flash units that are FP-capable, so it seems that 1/200 second is the fastest shutter speed you'll be able to use with the flash, regardless of mode or flash source.

Besides the main flash modes listed above, the Nikon D5000's onboard speedlight can also be used in manual mode, in which you can set its power output to fixed levels of full, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, and 1/32 power. The Nikon D5000's internal flash is reasonably powerful, with a guide number of 12 meters or 39 feet at ISO 100 in auto mode, extending slightly to 13 meters (43 feet) in manual mode. The greater range in manual mode is because it doesn't have to expend energy on the metering pre-flash. (Novices should note that 39 feet is the guide number, not the range. Divide the guide number by your lens' aperture setting to produce the actual range in feet.) Guide numbers at ISO 200 are 17 meters (56 feet) in auto mode, and 18 meters (59 feet) in manual mode.

3D Color Matrix II Flash Metering
As noted above, the "3D" aspect of the Nikon metering system is that it uses subject distance information from the lens (only available with G or D-type lenses) to guide its exposure decisions. This is particularly key with flash exposures, because flash illumination falls off quite strongly as the subject gets further from the camera. The "Color Matrix" part of the name refers to the use of a 420-segment RGB sensor for exposure determination, which significantly improves the accuracy with which the camera can determine various scene types, for lookup in its 30,000-image exposure database. We at IR are huge fans of Nikon's flash technology, it's really a case of technology working perfectly in the service of creativity. The camera just quietly does its job, so you can focus on composition, color, interacting with your subjects, etc. It doesn't remove the creative decisions of how you want to light your subject, it simply removes the technical legerdemain from the equation. It won't by any means turn a duffer into a pro photographer, but it'll certainly take an average shooter a long way in that direction.

The Nikon D5000 with Nikon's Creative Lighting System
Nikon has long been a leader in flash technology, but in late 2003, they significantly upped the ante with their Creative Lighting System. This system of flashes and supporting camera bodies lets the photographer control up to three separate groups of remote flash units, with an essentially unlimited number of individual strobes in each group. The exposure and operating mode of each group of flashes can be controlled independently, and exposure is metered through the lens (TTL) for all units.

While the D5000 built-in flash can't act as a controller for remote strobes, it's perfectly compatible with the system if you slip an SB-800 flash, SB-900 flash or SU-800 commander into its hot-shoe. The control and creative freedom Nikon's Wireless Lighting system offers is truly amazing: See our Nikon Creative Lighting System review for more info.

Flash Test Results

Coverage and Range
A reasonably powerful flash, with somewhat uneven coverage. Our standard shots required above average positive exposure compensation.

Coverage. Flash coverage was uneven at the widest angle setting of the 18-55mm kit lens, with some noticeable fall-off at the edges and in the corners. At telephoto, flash coverage was more even.

Exposure. The Nikon D5000's flash underexposed our Indoor subject a bit, requiring a +1.0 EV exposure compensation adjustment. This is a little higher than the +0.7 EV average for this shot. The camera's Slow-Sync flash mode produced brighter and more even results at only +0.3 EV compensation, though with a strong orange cast from the room lighting.

Flash Range: Wide-angle
6 ft	7 ft	8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft
1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100
12 ft	13 ft	14 ft	15 ft	16 ft
1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100

Flash Range: Telephoto
6 ft	7 ft	8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft
1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100
12 ft	13 ft	14 ft	15 ft	16 ft
1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100

ISO 100 Range. The Nikon D5000's flash range shots started out a bit dim, but didn't fall in intensity until about 13 feet at ISO 100 at 18mm. At 55mm, flash intensity didn't fall until about 8-9 feet. (Note, the base ISO of the D5000 is 200, but this test is shot at ISO 100 for comparison with most other SLRs.)

Manufacturer-Specified Flash Range
Wide-angle	Telephoto
16.0 feet ISO 200	10.0 feet ISO 200

Manufacturer Specified Flash Test. The D5000's built-in flash is rated with a GN of 17m at ISO 200 in auto mode (12m at ISO100). That works out to a range of about 16 feet at f/3.5 (wide-angle) and 10 feet with an aperture of f/5.6 (telephoto). In the shots above, the D5000 doesn't quite perform as Nikon says it will, producing slightly dim exposures at the rated distances. Our standard test method for flash range uses a fixed setting of ISO 100, to provide a fair basis of comparison between cameras. We've now also begun shooting two shots using the manufacturer-specified camera settings, at the range the company claims for the camera, to assess the validity of the specific claims.

High ISO Noise Reduction

Nikon D5000 High ISO Noise Reduction

The Nikon D5000 delivers similar high-ISO image quality compared to the D90. Like the D90, the D5000's different noise-reduction settings allow you quite a bit of flexibility in choosing how you want to make the trade-off between subject detail and noise levels. It's not clear that the "off" setting truly eliminates the noise processing altogether, but it is true that it leaves a lot of fine/subtle subject detail there for you to work with. The combination of shooting with NR turned off and using a good noise-filtering program after the fact can produce very clean images with lots of fine detail in them. (And of course, the D5000's NEF RAW files have no noise-reduction processing applied to them at all, adhering to the true philosophy of RAW shooting.)

See for yourself how the noise reduction works under daylight-balanced lighting. Click on any of the crops below to see the corresponding full-sized image.

High ISO Noise Reduction Comparison Simulated Daylight
	Off	Low	Normal	High
I S O 8 0 0
	Off	Low	Normal	High
I S O 1 6 0 0
	Off	Low	Normal	High
I S O 3 2 0 0
	Off	Low	Normal	High
I S O 6 4 0 0

The above crops show the effects of the 4 levels of high ISO noise reduction, under our studio HMI lighting we use to simulate daylight. Note that some minimal NR is still performed at ISO 3200 and above when High ISO NR set to "Off".

How does the D5000 compare to the more expensive D90? See the crops below.

High ISO Noise Reduction D5000 vs D90 Comparison Simulated Daylight
ISO 800
	Off	Low	Normal	High
D5000
D90
D5000
D90
D5000
D90
ISO 1600
D5000
D90
D5000
D90
D5000
D90
ISO 3200
D5000
D90
D5000
D90
D5000
D90
ISO 6400
D5000
D90
D5000
D90
D5000
D90

The above crops compare the D5000 (top row) versus the D90 (bottom row) of each set. While the exposures are not identical, it looks as though high ISO performance is. That's no surprise. since they share the same sensor.

Imatest Results

Nikon D5000 Imatest Results

We routinely use Norman Koren's excellent "Imatest" analysis program for quantitative, thoroughly objective analysis of digicam test images. I highly recommend it to our technically-oriented readers, as it's far and away the best, most comprehensive analysis program I've found to date.

My comments below are just brief observations of what we see in the Imatest results. A full discussion of all the data Imatest produces is really beyond the scope of this review: Visit the Imatest web site for a full discussion of what the program measures, how it performs its computations, and how to interpret its output.

Here's some of the results produced by Imatest for the Nikon D5000:

sRGB Accuracy Comparison
Nikon D5000	Nikon D90	Canon XSi	Pentax K20D	Sony A350

The Nikon D5000 showed very good color accuracy overall. Hue accuracy was also excellent, with most of the hue shift occurring in the cyans, sky blues, and reds. Average saturation was 105.3% (oversaturated by only 5.3%, mostly in the blues, and dark greens). Average "delta-C" color error was an unusually low 4.21 after correction for saturation, which is excellent. All in all, a very good color response for an SLR. Mouse over the links below the illustration above to compare results with competing models.

Adobe RGB Accuracy Comparison
Nikon D5000	Nikon D90	Canon XSi	Pentax K20D	Sony A350

Using the Adobe RGB color space (which provides a much wider gamut, or range of colors that can be expressed), the Nikon D5000 delivers more highly saturated color, as is usually the case. The average saturation was 111.9% and average saturation-corrected hue error of 4.64 "delta-C" units, which in this case is slightly more accurate than most of the competition here. Again, mouse over the links below the illustration above to compare results with competing models.

This image shows how the Nikon D5000 actually rendered the colors of the MacBeth chart, compared to a numerically ideal treatment. In each color swatch, the outer perimeter shows the color as actually captured by the camera, the inner square shows the numerically ideal color, after correcting for the luminance of the photographed chart (as determined by a second-order curve fit to the values of the gray swatches), and the small rectangle inside the inner square shows the numerically ideal color, without any luminance correction. This image shows the D5000's excellent hue accuracy, as well as a contrast curve that results in moderate overexposure of some highly saturated colors. (We've seen this in most cameras, increasing the "punch" of images by lightening bright colors a little, while actually keeping both the hue and saturation level very close to technically accurate values.)

There's a lot in this particular graph, a lot more than we have room to go into here. (This set of plots has also changed a little in the more recent versions of Imatest. Some of the plots that were shown here previously are now shown in other Imatest output. Since we largely focus on the Noise Spectrum plot, we'll only show the graphic above, which includes that plot.)

In comparing these graphs with those from competing cameras, I've found that the Noise Spectrum graph at lower right is the most important. Cameras that manage to shift their noise spectrum to higher frequencies have much finer-grained noise structures, making their noise less visually objectionable. In the graph above, this would show up as a noise spectrum curve that remained higher on the right side, representing higher noise frequencies. The champion at this was (and still is) the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, which produced remarkably fine-grained image noise, even at very high ISOs.

ABOVE, we see the results at ISO 100, which is as a low extension of the normal ISO range for the D5000. The luminance curve is reasonably flat except for the lowest frequencies, however the red and blue color channels exhibit higher noise values, especially at lower frequencies. While the overall noise levels are very low, the dominance of low frequencies in the red and blue channels point to low-level blotchiness.

Here we see a slight increase in overall noise levels at the D5000's base ISO of 200 (although still very low), although the red and blue low-frequency noise doesn't reach quite such high levels as at ISO 100. The the graph is still skewed to the left, however, indicating a coarser "grain" in the small amount of noise that is present. The blue and red channels follow the green and luminance channels more closely than at ISO 100, but still show more noise energy, especially at lower frequencies.

Above is the same set of noise data at ISO 3,200. Here, we can see the overall noise energy has gone up somewhat (the area under the curves is larger), and the Noise Spectrum graph is still shifted toward the left-hand, lower-frequency side. This time, the red channel has slightly more noise energy at lowest frequencies, though the channels are more closely matched than at ISOs 100 and 200, an effect of the D5000's default high ISO noise reduction.

Here's the same set of noise data at ISO 6,400. Very similar to ISO 3,200, with a slightly larger area under the curve, indicating higher noise levels overall. There's also a significant shift to the left, indicating a coarser grain pattern.

This chart compares the Nikon D5000's noise performance over a range of ISOs against that of other competing cameras, using default settings. While we continue to show noise plots of this sort because readers ask for them, we each time point out that the noise magnitude is only a small part of the story, the grain pattern being much more important. In the case of the Nikon D5000, the magnitude of the image noise starts out slightly below most of the competition at ISO 100, and remains lower than all the competition except for the Canon XSi, up to ISO 800. At ISO 1,600, the D5000's default high ISO noise reduction kicks in more aggressively than most, keeping noise magnitude almost level out to 3,200, after which is climbs again at a higher rate to ISO 6400. Not surprisingly, the D5000 follows the noise curve of the D90 fairly closely, since they use very similar, if not the same sensors. Keep in mind these are at default settings, so the shape and positions of the curves will be influenced by your settings.

Nikon D5000 Dynamic Range Analysis

A key parameter in a digital camera is its Dynamic Range, the range of brightness that can be faithfully recorded. At the upper end of the tonal scale, dynamic range is dictated by the point at which the RGB data "saturates" at values of 255, 255, 255. At the lower end of the tonal scale, dynamic range is determined by the point at which there ceases to be any useful difference between adjacent tonal steps. Note the use of the qualifier "useful" in there: While it's tempting to evaluate dynamic range as the maximum number of tonal steps that can be discerned at all, that measure of dynamic range has very little relevance to real-world photography. What we care about as photographers is how much detail we can pull out of the shadows before image noise becomes too objectionable. This, of course, is a very subjective matter, and will vary with the application and even the subject matter in question. (Noise will be much more visible in subjects with large areas of flat tints and subtle shading than it would in subjects with strong, highly contrasting surface texture.)

What makes most sense then, is to specify useful dynamic range in terms of the point at which image noise reaches some agreed-upon threshold. To this end, Imatest computes a number of different dynamic range measurements, based on a variety of image noise thresholds. The noise thresholds are specified in terms of f-stops of equivalent luminance variation in the final image file, and dynamic range is computed for noise thresholds of 1.0 (low image quality), 0.5 (medium image quality), 0.25 (medium-high image quality) and 0.1 (high image quality). For most photographers and most applications, the noise thresholds of 0.5 and 0.25 f-stops are probably the most relevant to the production of acceptable-quality finished images, but many noise-sensitive shooters will insist on the 0.1 f-stop limit for their most critical work.

The image below shows the test results from Imatest for an in-camera JPEG file from the Nikon D5000 with a nominally-exposed density step target (Stouffer 4110), and the D5000's settings at their default positions, where Active D-Lighting is set to Off.

These are very good results for in-camera JPEGs, among the top performers in the high quality category (7.65 f-stops). The tone curve shows excellent gradation in highlights but tails-off very abruptly in the shadow end. This can be seen when closely inspecting shots captured by the D5000, where detail is held very nicely in strong highlights, but somewhat less so in the deepest shadows.

The results with Active D-Lighting set to Low are a bit higher at the highest quality level, increasing from 7.65 to 7.75 f-stops. The total dynamic range figure (irrespective of noise levels) has increased a full stop, from 8.99 to 9.99 f-stops. This is unusual in our experience: Camera features like Active D-Lighting that are intended to improve the visual dynamic range of photographs almost never increase the actual dynamic range, as they mainly just shift the tone curve to bring out shadow detail or make minor variations in highlights more visible.

The Active D-Lighting Normal setting had slightly better results than with it set to Off, but slightly worse results than the Low setting. Dynamic range at the highest quality was 7.66 f-stops, and the total dynamic range to 10.3 f-stops.

It's interesting that the High setting actually reduced both dynamic range figures. This is because it's really just redistributing the available tonal scale, which involves boosting brightness levels in the shadows pretty substantially. This also boosts the noise, so the useful dynamic range is reduced.

Not surprisingly, the Extra High setting took another step back in both the high-quality (7.55 f-stops) and total (9.90 f-stops) scores.

Processing the Nikon D5000's ISO200 RAW (NEF) file through Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) version 5.4 beta improved dynamic range by over 1-3/4 stops to 9.5 at the best quality level, and by almost 3 stops total, to 12.1 f-stops. ACR's automatic settings were used. Tweaking the sliders manually may result in slightly better results. Worth noting here is that ACR's default noise reduction settings reduced the pixel noise quite a bit overall, contributing to the score at the highest quality level. These are the best results from RAW that we've seen from any DSLR with a sub-frame sensor.

Dynamic Range, the bottom line:

The net result was that the Nikon D5000 JPEGs came in above most other DSLR models we've tested recently at the highest quality level, including the D300. Results with Adobe Camera Raw converted NEF files were excellent, placing the D5000 at the top of the APS-C sized models, besting the more expensive Nikon D90.

To get some perspective, here's a summary of the Nikon D5000's dynamic range performance, and how it compares to other digital SLRs that we also have Imatest dynamic range data for. (Results are arranged in order of decreasing dynamic range at the "High" quality level.):

The results shown in the table are interesting. One of the first things that struck me when I initially looked at test data for a wide range of DSLRs, was that here again, purely analytical measurements don't necessarily correlate all that well with actual photographic experience. There's no question that the Fuji S3 Pro deserved its original place atop the list, as its unique "SR" technology did indeed deliver a very obvious improvement in tonal range in the highlight portion of the tonal scale relative to competing models of its day. (Amazing that it's now surpassed by even consumer-level models using today's technology.) I was also surprised to see the analytical results place the original Olympus E-300 as highly as they did, given that our sense of that camera's images was that they were in fact noisier than those of many other DSLRs that we looked at. In the other direction, I was quite surprised to see the Nikon D2x place as low on the listings as it did, given that we found that camera's shadow detail to be little short of amazing.

One thing that's going on here though, is that we tested each camera at its lowest (base) ISO setting, which should produce best-case noise levels. This is in fact what many photographers will be most interested in, but it does perhaps place some of the Nikons (like the D40 and D5000) at a disadvantage, as their base ISO setting is 200, as compared to the ISO 100 settings available on most other models.

All that said, the Nikon D5000 delivers excellent dynamic range performance, clearly one of the leading cameras currently on the market in this regard.

Nikon D5000 Resolution Chart Test Results

The chart above shows consolidated results from spatial frequency response measurements in both the horizontal and vertical axes. The "MTF 50" numbers tend to correlate best with visual perceptions of sharpness, so those are what I focus on here. The uncorrected resolution figures are 1,543 line widths per picture height in the horizontal direction (corresponding to the vertically-oriented edge), and 1,576 lines along the vertical axis (corresponding to the horizontally-oriented edge), for a combined average of 1,559 LW/PH. Correcting to a "standardized" sharpening with a one-pixel radius increased both vertical and horizontal resolution significantly, resulting in an average of 2,002 LW/PH, slightly below what we'd expect from a 12-megapixel DSLR.

To see what's going on, refer to the plots below, which show the actual edge profiles for both horizontal and vertical edges, in both their original and corrected forms. Here, you can see that the D5000's default in-camera sharpening is fairly conservative (only a slight bump at the top ends, and no noticeable bump at the bottom ends of the black edge profile curves). Imatest reports that the horizontal direction (vertical edge) is "undersharpened" by 18.7% while the vertical direction (horizontal edge) is undersharpened by 17.6%. Professionals and serious amateurs prefer this to oversharpening, and the D5000's images respond very well to the use of strong/tight sharpening post-exposure in Photoshop or other image editors. (That said, you should be able to extract still more fine detail if you begin with a RAW file, rather than a JPEG.)
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RAW Files

Nikon D5000 High ISO RAW Image Quality

We've recently started looking at RAW files converted with dcraw, an excellent freeware raw converter. dcraw usually offers timely support for the latest cameras, but more importantly, it does not apply any noise-reduction, sharpening or other corrections such as geometric distortion correction to the output files. (We found that Adobe Camera Raw still applies some limited noise-reduction when its NR settings are set to zero, and it also applies other corrections depending on the make and model of the camera). There will always be differences between RAW converters, in terms of the sort of de-mosaicing algorithms they use (the processes by which they convert the separate Red, Green, and Blue data sets to an array of full-color RGB pixels), but dcraw seems to use a fairly generic algorithm that delivers good sharpness with relatively few artifacts, and can be counted on to not apply any noise reduction if you don't want it to.

Below are crops from Nikon D5000 high ISORAW files compared to RAW files from the D60 and D90, converted with dcraw.

High ISO Image Quality D5000 vs D60 and D90 RAW Comparison NEF files converted with dcraw, no NR, no sharpening Simulated Daylight
	D60	D5000	D90
I S O 8 0 0
	D60	D5000	D90
I S 0 1 6 0 0
	D60	D5000	D90
I S O 3 2 0 0
	D60	D5000	D90
I S 0 6 4 0 0	N/A ISO6400 not supported
	N/A ISO6400 not supported
	N/A ISO6400 not supported

As was the case with the JPEG results, there is virtually no difference in converted RAW files between the Nikon D5000 and Nikon D90. Both the D5000 and D90 handily beat the Nikon D60, despite the D60's lower resolution of 10-megapixels.

Menus

Nikon D5000 Modes and Menus

Nikon D5000 Capture Modes

The mode dial on the right side of the Nikon D5000's top panel provides access to its various exposure modes, the same arrangement of Auto, three semi-auto, and one Manual as found on all Nikon DSLRs, but with a total of seven Scene modes (which Nikon calls "Vari-Programs"), plus a Scene setting that accesses an additional 13 scene modes not on the dial. Here's a list of what's available:

• Auto: The camera sets everything. Used for snapshots or users who just don't want to be bothered with the details. The AF-assist light will come on if needed, and the camera selects the AF point covering the closest subject.
• Program: Puts the camera in charge of aperture and shutter speed, though all remaining camera settings are available. You can vary the combination of aperture and shutter speed the camera has selected by rotating the Command Dial.
• Shutter Priority: The user controls shutter speed, from 1/4,000 to 30 seconds, while the camera sets the aperture value.
• Aperture Priority: The opposite of Shutter Priority mode, this mode lets the user control the aperture, while the camera sets the shutter speed.
• Manual: Gives the user complete control over the exposure (both shutter and aperture settings), and provides access to the camera's Bulb shutter setting for exposures longer than 30 seconds.
• Night Portrait: Uses slow shutter speed with flash, balancing the two so that night portraits look natural even with flash. Closest-subject AF is used. Use a tripod to avoid blurring.
• Close up: Reds and greens are pumped up, camera selects center focus point, but other points can be chosen with the Multi-Selector. The built-in flash will pop up and fire if the lighting is too dim; tripod use is recommended.
• Sports: Uses higher shutter speeds, camera switches to continuous focus while the shutter button is held down halfway, tracking the subject in the center focus area. If the subject leaves the central AF area, the camera will follow it and judge focus from the other focus areas. The beginning AF area can be chosen with the Multi-selector. Both flash and AF illuminator are turned off and will not fire.
• Child: This mode boosts sharpness and saturation for clothing and background details, but renders skin tones soft and natural-looking. The built-in flash will pop up and fire if the lighting is too dim.
• Landscape: Boosts color saturation, contrast, and sharpening for city and forest landscape shots. Closest-focus AF is used, and the flash and AF-assist light are turned off in this mode.
• Portrait: Adjusts the lens aperture to soften background details to help the main subject stand out more clearly. Sharpness and color saturation are moderated somewhat, to give softer, more natural-looking skin tones. The built-in flash will pop up and fire if the lighting is too dim.
• Scene: The D5000 is the first Nikon DSLR with additional scene modes that aren't accessed by a dedicated positions on the mode dial. A total of 13 new scene modes can be accessed using the command dial when the mode dial is set to Scene. They are: Night Landscape, Party/Indoor, Beach/Snow, Sunset, Dusk/Dawn, Pet Portraits, Blossom, Autumn Colors, Food, Silhouette, High Key, and Low Key.
• Auto (Flash Off): In this mode, exposure is automatic but the flash is disabled, and the camera will vary the ISO up to a maximum of 3,200, to capture images using available light. The AF-assist light will come on if needed, and the camera selects the AF point with the closest subject. This mode is great for museums and other places where flash isn't permitted, more natural-looking indoor shots, etc.

Nikon D5000 Menus

The menu system on the Nikon D5000 follows that of other recent Nikons SLRs like the D60 and D90. Pressing the Menu button provides access to the camera's full menu system. See the tables below for details.

Playback Menu:

Shooting Menu:

Custom Settings Menu:

Setup Menu:

Retouch Menu:

Recent Settings or My Menu:

Recent Settings or My Menu mode can be selected. Recent Settings automatically adds 20 of the most recently used settings to this menu, while My Menu mode lets you define and order what appears on this menu. The screenshot below shows Recent Settings mode.

Comparison

Nikon D5000 Feature Comparison

The chart below compares the Nikon D5000 with its direct siblings in the current Nikon DSLR line-up. What we've done below is to present something of a hybrid comparison between these three models. A red cell means that a given camera performs below the other two, a green cell means that it performs better than the other two, and a yellow cell means it falls between the other two. In cases where two cameras share a superior capability, both their cells will be colored green. Sharp-eyed readers may find some areas where we haven't chosen to highlight a particular difference. Those cases are simply ones that we don't feel are significant in typical use of the camera.

Press Release

NIKON'S D5000 DIGITAL SLR CAMERA EXPANDS POSSIBILITIES FOR PHOTO AND HD VIDEO CREATIVITY WITH D-MOVIE MODE, VARI-ANGLE LCD MONITOR AND 19 AUTOMATIC SCENE MODES

MELVILLE, N.Y. (April 14, 2009) – Nikon Inc. today introduced the new D5000, a digital SLR camera with a host of features and capabilities that deliver superior performance and image quality along with amazing versatility for photo enthusiasts and those new to digital SLR photography. Leveraging Nikon’s expertise and innovative technologies found in its pro-level D-SLRs, the 12.3-megapixel D5000 enables users to capture exceptionally stunning images and High Definition video with remarkable ease.

Whether consumers are progressing from a point-and-shoot digital camera or looking to upgrade their current digital SLR and elevate their photographic expression, the D5000 serves as an ideal solution. First time D-SLR photographers will appreciate logical and easy-to-use controls, while creative enthusiasts will appreciate the D5000’s robust combination of features, technologies and performance. The D5000 boasts a versatile 2.7-inch Vari-angle LCD monitor that encourages shooting with a fresh perspective, Nikon’s revolutionary D-Movie Mode and expanded automatic Scene Modes, delivering superior Nikon innovation in a compact, user-friendly design.

“The Nikon D5000 represents a cornerstone in Nikon’s D-SLR line, marrying simplicity and instructive features with superior technology and HD video, allowing the user’s ability and creativity to grow—with the camera,” said Edward Fasano, General Manager for marketing, SLR System Products at Nikon Inc. “While its easy-to-use design will attract first-time D-SLR photographers, the D5000’s rich feature set and high performance will also appeal immediately to more experienced enthusiasts. The D5000 is sure to inspire creativity and originality.”

Broadened Creativity and Adaptability

Photographers can easily compose stunning images on the Vari-angle LCD monitor that they can view in a normal position fitting securely within the camera back, or swung out to be rotated or tilted. The monitor can also be stowed with the LCD panel tucked against the camera back to protect the screen when not in use. This tremendous freedom of movement, along with four Live View autofocus shooting modes, affords users the opportunity to shoot from a multitude of imaginative angles. Easy one-button Live View activation now features Subject Tracking autofocus (AF), which automatically locks onto a moving subject. Even if the subject leaves the frame and returns, Subject Tracking AF maintains focus, making the D5000 ideal for capturing fast moving children and pets. In addition to Subject Tracking AF in Live View, the D5000 features Face Priority AF, which automatically detects up to five faces in a scene and focuses on the closest subject; Wide Area AF, which offers a large AF area for optimal hand-held shooting; and Normal Area AF, which provides pinpoint accuracy when shooting with a tripod.

The D5000’s D-Movie Mode allows users the exciting ability to record HD movie clips (1280 x 720) at a cinematic 24 frames per second with sound. Photographers will appreciate the quality produced whether creating vacation clips or intertwining still photographs and movies in a post-production creative montage. Additionally, the D5000 is compatible with a comprehensive assortment of AF-S NIKKOR interchangeable lenses to provide users with the ability to capture perspectives not possible with typical consumer video recording devices. When using any NIKKOR VR lens, D-Movie clips benefit from Nikon VR image stabilization, which automatically activates during recording to deliver added sharpness and image stability. VR image stabilization also extends the D5000’s performance in low-light situations. D-Movie clips are recorded onto an inserted SD or SDHC memory card and saved as Motion JPEG AVI files for easy editing with widely available video editing software.

Further bridging the gap between point-and-shoot cameras and more advanced D-SLRs are the D5000’s 19 automatic Scene Modes, which free users to capture beautiful images without having to manually adjust camera settings. With the broad range of automatic Scene Modes, including Sports, Portrait, Candlelight, Silhouette, Autumn Colors and more, D5000 is the perfect camera for anyone looking to make inspiring images in challenging photographic conditions.

The D5000 also incorporates a comprehensive set of in-camera editing features to make the most of captured images without the need of a computer. The D5000 also introduces several new Retouch features, including a Soft Filter effect, which applies a smooth appearance to faces or the entire image; Perspective Control, which helps correct distortions in perspective often encountered in photographs of architecture; and Color Outline, which creates monochrome outlines of objects in images by eliminating color and tonal gradations. The D5000 saves each of these edited images as a separate JPEG file, ensuring the original image is left unmodified. With Nikon’s exclusive Picture Control Settings, photographers can quickly select various image appearance profiles that include Standard, Neutral, Vivid, Monochrome, Portrait and Landscape settings. In addition, Picture Control provides the ability to create and store up to nine user-defined custom profiles to reflect each user’s personal preferences for hue, color saturation and image sharpening.

Extensive playback options allow users to review their photos in groups of four, nine, or 72 thumbnail images. Alternatively, users can select the Calendar View to easily group and select images by date. These playback features can be viewed either on the Vari-angle LCD or an HDTV with HDMI connectivity available via a dedicated HDMI port on the camera.

Proven Image Excellence

Consumers will immediately appreciate the benefits of the D5000’s 12.3-megapixel CMOS sensor coupled with Nikon’s exclusive EXPEED™ image processing system, which delivers highly detailed images with vibrant color reproduction and low noise across a broad ISO range. The D5000’s normal ISO range extends from ISO 200 to 3200, allowing for superior shooting in low-light conditions. Additionally, the D5000’s ISO range can be expanded to a Lo 1 setting of ISO 100 or a Hi 1 setting of ISO 6400, furthering the opportunities for previously impossible shots.

Nikon’s exclusive 3D Color Matrix Metering II, in conjunction with the EXPEED image processing system, contributes to the D5000’s ability to capture breathtaking images by instantly evaluating the exposure elements of each scene and comparing it to an onboard database of information from more than 30,000 images. These split-second calculations allow the D5000 to ensure the right exposure—even when conditions are extreme. To push creative boundaries even further, the D5000 allows picture-takers to also use Center-Weighted and Spot metering for added personal control.

Smooth, Swift and Quiet Operation

The D5000’s 11-point auto focus system utilizes Nikon’s exclusive Scene Recognition System with Face Detection to help create the best possible images in a variety of shooting environments. Nikon's 11-point AF offers best-in-class speed and accuracy, helping to ensure sharp focus, shot-after-shot. Single-point AF is suggested for static subjects, Dynamic-area AF for moving subjects, Auto-area AF for spontaneous shooting and 3D-tracking with 11 AF points for maintaining accurate focus on a subject moving throughout the frame.

Paired with Nikon’s AF-S NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR image stabilization lens and the ability to shoot at four frames per second, the D5000 easily captures moments other cameras miss. Nikon’s VR image stabilization lenses reduce the blurring in images due to camera shake, allowing photographers to shoot hand-held at as many as three full stops slower than would otherwise be possible.*

The new D5000 also features the innovative Integrated Dust Reduction System, which offers both an electronic sensor cleaning when the camera is powered on and/or off and the Airflow Control System, which directs dust away from the sensor with every snap of the shutter. These functions work to clear image-degrading dust from the sensor’s optical low-pass filter, helping to ensure spot-free images. In addition, the D5000 features a Quiet Release Mode that reduces the mirror cycling noise for discreet shooting in sensitive situations, such as weddings and other ceremonies.

System Expandability

Photographers and enthusiasts alike can also appreciate the D5000’s system expandability, as the camera can work in conjunction with a variety of Nikon accessories including a broad assortment of NIKKOR AF-S interchangeable lenses. While the D5000 offers a versatile built-in flash, the camera is also compatible with Nikon’s Creative Lighting System and capable of Advanced Wireless Lighting when using the SB-900 Speedlight or the SU-800 Wireless Commander. For those looking to document their photo excursions with geo-tagging, the D5000 is compatible with the optional GP-1 GPS Unit, which automatically records latitude, longitude, altitude and time information when a picture is taken.

The D5000 also works seamlessly with Nikon’s powerful Capture NX 2 image editing software (available for purchase separately), for more advanced photographers seeking greater control over their post-capture images. Capture NX 2 simplifies the path to beautiful images with easy-to-learn editing tools and a highly versatile and elegantly simple interface, which streamline editing procedures.

Price and Availability

The D5000 outfit, which includes the AF-S NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR lens, will be available at Nikon Authorized dealers beginning in late April 2009 at an estimated selling price of $849.95**. For consumers who want to configure their D5000 system or for photographers who need an additional D-SLR body for an existing system, the D5000 will also be offered as a body only for an estimated selling price of $729.95. For more information, please visit www.nikonusa.com.

About Nikon
Nikon, At the Heart of the Image™. Nikon Inc. is the world leader in digital imaging, precision optics and photo imaging technology and is globally recognized for setting new standards in product design and performance for its award-winning consumer and professional photographic equipment. Nikon Inc. distributes consumer and professional digital SLR cameras, NIKKOR optics, Speedlights and system accessories; Nikon COOLPIX® compact digital cameras; COOLSCAN® digital film scanners; 35mm film SLR cameras; Nikon software products and Nikon sports and recreational optics. For the second consecutive year, Nikon D Series digital SLR cameras are recognized as “Highest in Customer Satisfaction with digital SLR cameras, Two Years in a Row, Tied in 2008.” according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2007 and 2008 Digital Camera Usage and Satisfaction StudiesSM. Nikon Corporation, the parent company of Nikon Inc., recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of its legendary F-mount lens-mounting system. Only Nikon has sustained an original lens mount for such an extraordinary period, ensuring that photographers can continue to leverage their previous investments while still taking advantage of new innovations. For more information, dial (800) NIKON-UX or visit http://www.nikonusa.com, which links all levels of photographers to the Web's most comprehensive photo learning and sharing communities.

* As determined in Nikon performance tests

** Estimated selling price listed is only an estimate. Actual prices are set by dealers and are subject to change at any time.

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