Nikon D5000 Body Only Digital Camera

If you are interested in a simple-to-use camera for family and vacation pictures, snap-shots at birthday parties and such, you should look elsewhere.

This camera doesn't perform well in low light and with flash. At a party, if you are too close to your subject, you will get a washed out picture. If you are slightly out of range, the picture will be dark. Why does this happen? Two reasons: Low flash output power and too small an aperture zoom lens.

This camera is complicated. It takes hours spent with the manual to understand slightly more than basic operation. The complication is Nikon's signature trait. They build wonderful film cameras excellent for photographers who know photography but don't build great cameras for the casual photo taker who wants a high quality family and vacation camera. Only recently with the CoolPix 2500 have they figured out that simplicity has its merits.

The software stinks. It doesn't work on Dell computers, Nikon told me to take it up with Dell. You have to download a special version for XP and when you finally get this bloated suite of stuff installed, half of it is demo-ware, making itself useless unless you shell out another $100. My last camera, the wonderful Agfa ePhoto 1680 came with simple, excellent software I still use to this day.


If you are a professional/semi-pro or an advanced amateur, there's a lot to like with this camera. Much of what should be controlled can be. Some of the complicated steps can be condensed into user modes and lots of choices exist for storage density, i.e. the amount each picture takes up on your memory card.

Even though its advertised to have little lag time to taking a picture, it has terrible lag. It feels like an endless wait between turning it on and being able to snap the picture. I know 10 seconds doesn't sound like a long time, but if you see something you want, you can't get it with the time lag the CoolPix 5000 requires. Further, there's sometimes no way to know why the camera won't take the picture. I have clicked the shutter release and thought the camera recorded the frame, but didn't. When it does fire, you wait for the blinking greed LED in the viewfinder to signal you when it's done. Can take 2 - 5 seconds depending on what type of memory card you have. I use a MicroDrive and the wait is long.

There are some GOOD things about this camera, I will try to highlight those too.

The wonderful 28mm lens. If you find a web site that lets you compare digital cameras side-by-side, check to see how many have a 28mm lens. Not many. This is a great feature that more cameras should have. If you are in a room filled with people you can fit more into your frame with a wide angle lens than with the typical 38mm lens that comes with almost all the others. This is a wonderful advantage as well for landscape photography, in many cases a wide-angle accessory can be avoided, and it's expensive.

The battery life is great. Although spare batteries are expensive, they last ALL DAY. I recently returned from a two week trip to Morocco and there's not much I can do about a dead battery while out in the countryside, I didn't even need my spare.

The picture zoom feature. After you take your picture, you can see it on your tiny camera screen. You can magnify it and zoom around it to see fine details. This is a useful, cool feature.

The camera is small. I carry it on my hip. It's light weight and the battery charged is tiny.

I have made some beautiful photographs with this camera, mostly outdoors and on a tripod, but with 5MP and patience. I will not give up my medium format equipment just yet, I don't think Digital is quite ready to take their place.

For a family photographer, I would look elsewhere, possibly the Canon S40 or the Canon G2. Both are high resolution and simple to use.