Nikon's D5000: a camera with a twist

The Gadget Show  Tuesday 14 April 2009

Introducing the Nikon D5000: ooh, suits you, SLR!

The Nikon D5000 DSLR camera has definitely got talent. By which we don’t mean that it comes on stage, puts its hand up the arse of a puppet and mimes along to a rubbish song in front of the feature-less visages of Morgan, Holden and Cowell. So what’s its special talent? The articulating 2.7-inch screen on the rear of course.

Like a quick, ahem, “evacuation flap” on the rear of a pair of long johns, the Nikon D5000 DSLR’s articulating display on the backside of the camera can be stowed as normal, or twisted, rotated and flipped. It apparently allows the user to shoot from all sorts of imaginative angles (hmm, paparazzi shooting celebrities up-skirt, perhaps?).

Camera-wise, the D5000 has a 12.3-megapixel DX-format sensor, and the ISO has been cranked up to encompass 3200, so it can cope with almost any light condition from the darkest cellars, to the brightest Terminator-style nuclear explosions.

As if that wasn’t enough to get us drooling like a Golden Retriever in the back of a hot car, it also features a 4fps burst mode, one-button Live View, a 720/24p movie mode, and an 11-point AF system with 3D focus tracking. If you can’t take decent photos with this DSLR camera, then there’s truly no hope for you!