Upon searching for a new camera, we were left with a few choices as to what would give us the best bang for our buck. Digital SLR cameras have become ubiquitous by user choice, due to their ability to take professional grade pictures for the average user. Due to their immense popularity, many companies, namely Sony and Nikon have begun to develop their own brands of SLR cameras over the years. As technologies adapt and advance, the cameras have gotten smaller and more feature packed than anyone can hope for. In all seriousness, the average user will probably only use about 20% of the features these cameras have to offer. Of course if you are using them for professional grade work, the feature rich Digital SLR cameras will also be your weapon of choice.

More recently, Nikon has launched a few new SLR cameras, including the D300S, D3S, D3000 and the D5000. We have chose to review the D5000 which is one of the more affordable models. Several DSRL models can retail for several thousands of dollars, while Nikon’s cool D5000 currently retails for $629.95, a several hundred dollar price drop from its original cost. Some packages for this camera may include the 18-55mm lens, but of course any older Nikon or Nikkor lenses will fit in just fine.

Compact and powerful, the D5000 is a remarkable blend of simplicity and advanced D-SLR capabilities with breathtaking 12.3-megapixel image quality ~Nikon.com

In the box, you will find: the D5000 camera and the following:

• EN-EL9a Rechargeable Li-ion Battery
• MH-23 Quick Charger
• DK-5 Eyepiece Cap
• DK-24 Rubber Eyecup
• UC-E6 USB Cable
• EG-CP14 Audio Video Cable
• AN-DC3 Camera Strap
• Body Cap
• BS-1 Accessory Shoe Cover
• Software Suite CD-ROM

A chock full of accessories are included, and probably the only thing missing is a nice case to protect your investment. After opening the box, we simply charged up the camera for several hours while we installed the software on our PC. Nikon has made it pretty brainless to transfer and edit your images with their transfer wizard, and video editing programs. You can easily re-size and crop images, remove red-eye and adjust an array of settings directly from your computer. Windows 7 users will also find that they may not even have to install this software. The computer auto-recognized the camera upon input to the USB connection, and after a few seconds a new screen pops up giving you several options including to import all images and videos to your computer.

For most users, 12.3-megapixel should be more than sufficient, unless you are creating poster size images. A nice added bonus over the D5000′s predecessor the D3000, the D5000 also takes wonderful video at 720p HD resolution. From our test of the video capabilities, we were more than surprised with what this camera had to offer. With nice added effects, you can easily blur out the background and focus clearly on your object of choice. We took a few sample videos and were utterly amazed on what we saw. Hairs, fibers and blemishes that are not even noticeable by the naked eye in reality were shown on our computer screen when we played back the video. We can now see why some actors are shunning High-Definition which can often augment their imperfections.

The Nikon D5000 also advertises its Vari-angle color LCD monitor which can also offer you an abundance of options. The 2.7″ screen can freely show you your shooting perspectives. You can easily adjust the screen to many different angles depending on your comfort, so you can take pictures from all different angles without have to look through the camera. With one button, ‘Lv’, you can easily get the live-view initatied, while you are otherwise shown statistics about the picture and camera mode.

The Nikon D5000 is almost as featured packed as it gets. With continuous shooting at 4 frames per second, built-in image sensor cleaning, 11-point AutoFocus System with 3D Focus Tracking, Auto Active D -Light which can help you restore lose shadow and highlight detail contrast exposures – this camera has it all. You can even edit images right on the camera, with In-camera Retouch image editing. Picture Control Settings and GPS Geo-tagging top off this cameras features which are sure to impress the average photographer.

On probably the only down note of this camera, buttons may be accidentally presses, images may be accidentally un-focused, and videos may be accidentally recorded due to some of the button placements and the size of the camera. For those with exceptionally large hands, this camera may not be for you. The viewfinder is also sometime dim and hard to use. Furthermore, at times, the video quality may middle and become hard to focus unless you are an above-average user of this camera. Make sure you read the book and learn most of the features it has to offer.

Overall, the Nikon D5000 is not only an amazing DSLR camera, it is absolutely outstanding when you combine several factors including its functionality, quality, and especially its price. With it’s recent price drop, the D5000 is now more affordable than ever. With video capabilities at 720p, this camera doubles as a video camera for your viewing pleasure. We suggest you buy a 16GB SDHC Memory Card which can store thousands of pictures and hundreds of videos. In regards to picture quality, it is almost impossible to match the quality that Nikon boasts, as you will be utterly amazed with the output this little camera can produce. Photography has come a long with with the digital revolution, and the advancements that these cameras have to offer a none other than par. If you’re in the market for a new camera that is feature-rich and top-quality, the Nikon D5000 is for you.