Review on High-Performance Nikon D5000 12.3 MP DX Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR Lens and Versatile 2.7-inch Vari-angle LCD by Tami Boudreau

Have been using the D5000 for 2 months now. Two areas that impress me the most are exposure accuracy and backwards compatibility. I like the control over the exposure settings, although menu navigation is sometimes tricky outdoors in sub-zero temperatures with gloves on. Got 18-55 and 55-200 VR straight away, they work well for relatively slow lenses in reasonable light but that's not where the magic images are for me. Too often, the lag when using autofocus slows me down, gives up, or worse, captures something I didn't intend. I like the opening display but hate the puny viewfinder. Bought a used long distance CPU 75-300 Nikon FX lens and converted my old manual Tamron AdaptAll 28-80mm FX lens from Pentax to Nikon. No problems, everything works great. Using my trusty Sunpak TTL flash for off-camera lighting gives great results, especially from a distance. I even turned my old Pentax 50mm f1.2 FX upside down for macro photography. It's good to know that all the modes and manual adjustments required to make these accessories/investments work with the new technology are in place and excellent. Battery life was amazing with 1500-2000+ frames between charges. But as you can imagine I prefer to be in control of composition and usually shoot with autofocus off and use the display with Liveview to focus. And I usually like to flash at almost any angle other than parallel to the lens, so I use a self-powered camera flash. Not sure if this affects battery life, but I shoot in RAW and edit them off-camera in Photoshop. The D5000 is a very effective entry-level digital camera. I found that I needed a fast lens and an FX format camera. Still not convinced the technology can compensate for APS-C's interlaced DX format. I give it 5 stars because it works as advertised and exceeds my expectations. If only Nikon had made the D3 with a pop-up screen.