Nikon D5000 Review : Nikon D5000 Image Quality Part 4

Nikon D5000 Image Quality

The Nikon D5000 uses the same 12.3-megapixel sensor as the highly-rated Nikon D90. And like the D90, the D5000 excels at low light photography. I happily shot with it up to ISO 1600 and even ISO 3200 looked pretty good. I also was impressed with the way the D5000 renders subtle details – especially in highlights.

I shot all kinds of stuff with the D5000 and I was pretty damn pleased with all of it. The low noise levels mean you can really push your files in post-processing to recover shadow detail – and that means you can comfortably shoot a little dark to hold highlights. The more I used the camera the more comfortable I felt shooting at ISO 800 or 1600. Popular Photography magazine noted that the D90 has slightly better resolution than the D5000 even though they use the same sensor, indicating different in-camera processing. That’s not to say the D5000 has poor image quality, though. It just has slightly less resolving power and more noise at high ISO settings. So the D90 and D700 may be better. Ask me if I care. No – no I don’t. The D5000 is awesome at ISO 1600 and totally usable at ISO 3200. Check out the night shots I made at ISO 3200 with the AF-S 35mm f/1.8G lens. I’ll let those pictures (below left and middle) tell the rest of the story.
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