I’ve finally done it… I bought a DSLR. After much reading around, I select the Nikon D5000. This is an entry level SLR, which made it very affordable (a plus) but that wasn’t my only reasoning.  The D5000 uses the same image sensor as the D90 and D300 and has a very similar feature set from a new photographers point of view. Compared to a D300, it gives up a number of physical buttons, and some of the more professionally oriented accessory connectors. It is still capable of using a remote as well as a GPS for geotagging.

In the end, one of the main advantages for me was its compact size and low weight. The D300 body weighs nearly 2x as much and is considerably larger. While this may seem like a disadvantage (the D5000 is a plastic camera, and is not as rugged as the D300 by any means), I often travel with large amount of non-photographic gear (diving gear for example) and I would like to have a “real” camera with me, not just my little point and shoot.

A couple much advertised feature that I didn’t care about was the Live View mode and tilt and swivel screen. I didn’t plan to use the camera like a point and shoot, but as it turn out, those features have ended up being VERY useful already.

I spent the first month or 2 with the 2 kit lenses I purchased – which are nothing special, but will get the job done.  I got the AF-S Nikkor 55-200 1:5-4.6 ED and the AF-S Nikkor 18-55 1:3.5-5.6. They take decent enough photos (well, facilitate decent enough photos – I’m responsible for all the pixels), but neither is particularly fast. They don’t make getting nice bokeh easy, nor are they great in low light (resulting in a need for high ISO) but they do a good enough job in most cases.

More recently I decided I wanted a lens with a much faster appeture, something 2.0 or below. The generally means big $.  I, however, went a different route. I enjoy night time shooting, and shooting with a very narrow field of focus. With those constraints, auto focus is nearly useless. It invariably ends up focusing on the wrong thing (or part of a thing) if it can even focus at all.  Because of that, I decided to go with an old school manual lens. I ended up with a Nikon 50mm 1:1.4 AIS lens. This is an old, all metal body lens.

Here is where the mentioned Live View comes in… The D5000 has a horrible view finder, at least if you care about manual focus and have a fast lens (like my f/1.4). Live view actually makes achieving sharp focus relatively easy. Better yet, if you are shooting a fix subject with a tripod, you can point the camera at your point of focus, ZOOM in Live View to 1:1 pixels, find razor focus, zoom back out, frame your shot (distance is still the same since nether the camera or subject is moving, only rotating) and take the photo.

A word of caution… The D5000 is one of the few DSLRs in Nikons line that will allow you to shoot with a manual lens like this. Various posts say the D300, D90, D60 and D40 will all refuse to release the shutter (I haven’t tested this of course). As it is, the D5000 will only shoot 100% manual (”M” mode). You get no automatic metering. You don’t even get a light meter. You will need to find the appropriate shutter speed by instinct, trial and error or whatever method you want. The camera will not do it for you. Luckily, guess and check works just fine in the digital world.