First off we'll tackle the LiveView arguments. The complaint is that the LiveView feature focus is either SO incredibly slow or it just fails to focus at all.I was really worried about this going in because the whole reason for this over a D90 in my case was that the stupid angles I tend to like taking pictures from REALLY make an articulating LCD a godsend.Well, my first picture with the 5k was in a room with no lighting other than a natural light source in the form of a sliding glass door (venetian blinds half open) in the OTHER room (though the door was in front of me and I WAS shooting in it's direction, but still the light level was LOW). The AF on LV took approx 2sec. to lock focus perfectly (I tried manually adjusting for better but could not). Tried this again with an artificial (CCFL, warm, not cool, spiral type) light source BEHIND me, approx. 6ft from the subject. The time to focus was about 1.3 seconds (iPhone used for stopwatch, so add in my reaction time if you want, personally at 1.3sec I don't care).The bottom line here is AF in LiveView is something NO DSLR does truly WELL right now, but as far as what's out there goes, this performs admirably. And my fears have ALL vanished.Next up, the recall.Ooooh, scary, right? Not so much, first of all the complaints voiced here are that Nikon is somehow being shady by not giving an open list of which serial numbers are impacted. Look the simple truth of the matter is you either have this problem, and it's pretty much dead from the factory, or you don't. There was a pretty insanely wild guesstimation by one of the 1-star reviewers here on amazon who, one breath after saying there was no information available on affected units, then proceeded to toss out potential numbers for affected units.Yes, there is a recall, but the plain truth is, you get your camera, you turn it on, odds are GOOD it will power on just like mine did, fresh and happy and ready to go. If you are still worried you go to their site, plug in the serial number, and get your mind put at ease. This is NOT that big a deal and I personally think it's good of Nikon to voluntarily offer a recall without having to be brow beaten into it, especially on one of their more buzzworthy cameras, normally (ahem, apple) you'd have to bury a company in a pile of their defective products up to their ears to get them to replace one of their "most talked about" new products.Cut then some slack. And rest fairly comfortably in the knowledge that, odds are more than just good you wont get a defective unit.As for the rest of the camera, I LOVE the auto-rotating menu for the LCD, just, awesome, the articulating LCD is great and I for one am VERY happy it's not side-hinged, if you have problems with this hitting your tripod, you take shots from WAY more crazier angles than me lol, and that's saying something. :)Image quality, top notch.Menu systems. I will go on record as saying that nikon has THE best menu system on a DSLR, PERIOD. ABSOLUTELY in love with it.Love the optional viewfinder gridlines ala the D90, the 11-area-AF is superb and fast in non-LV mode. LV is as good as ALMOST any other example out there right now (and if you exclude cameras if LV-focus specific lenses it's an even closer race).A note, you WILL need to upgrade CameraRaw to 5.4 if you use Photoshop (CS4 here) or the NEF files wont be understood, rest easy though as it's a free upgrade.[...]What else. The weight is nice, still lighter than a D90 but not as feather light as a D40, continues the common-model battery from most other Nikon's which is great, means if you go from one Nikon to another you gain yourself an extra battery and charger out of the deal (handy!).Overall this is a GREAT camera for the price. If an articulating LCD is important to you, then this is the camera for you, if it doesn't matter, consider the D90, it's pentaprism IS a step up but the differences are NOT great.HIGHLY recommend this camera.

I got this camera on the 25th of july and will try to tell my experience with it so far. Actually trying to pass the happiness I am having for getting such and amazing product in hands, after so many good options I looked over!!Got it with 18-55mm lenses, a small tripod and a 16GB class 4 SDHC card. Was in doubt between nikon's D5000, D90 or D60, Canon's EOS Xsi and T1i, Sony's A200 or A350 and Olympus E520 or E620.First, I have had some diferent digital cameras (and also a couple analogic before that), the better ones being sony's DSC W7, H9 and H50 (not mine, but I used for some days), so I don't know how the D5000 compares to other DSLR, but I can feel the great lap between this amazing camera and those other simpler ones I am used to...My first impression was that it really can take good color, bright and lively pictures from the box, on auto mode... maybe the one I am least using by now, but good to know it will work when you can't or don't want to set anything before the shot. So the camera goes great on full AUTO. Same for video, easy to focus with the kit lenses and pretty professional looking movie results.My dad was with the camera for 2 weeks before I put my hands on it, and he shot amazing pics from simple places and situations, even at night... and he was on AUTO all time, so this nikon can be used as a point-and-shoot, actually the best I've ever seen... it is funny to see that any picture taken with it looks like it would be very hard or impossible to be taken with the cameras we used before.I havent posted any video so far, but I had put some pics here [...]I've done a lot of research on the DSLR world and the most useful site was [...] where I found the info that made me decide between the Canon EOS 500 (or T1i) and this Nikon D5000 that I got here on amazon.com .So, knowing some previous things about aperture, shutter speed, focus, depth of field an ISO from the previous cameras and some books I've read in the past fell weeks I tried the Nikon on the other modes, A,M,S and P...Ok, P is also as good as the AUTO, but it is almost just AUTO, I found it hard to change to the type of exposure I wanted while rolling the control. So between this and AUTO I stay with AUTO."A" mode (aperture prior)works great for me... the control with the DOF is good and the kit lenses on auto focus are great.The "S" mode is normal, but I have not used it too much, havent had action scenes so far.The "M" mode is easy to use as all controls are at reach, the only change I did was to make the Fn button control the ISO, so I have the shutter on the main wheel with my right thumb, click with a finger on the button behind the shutter and have the wheel to control aperture, with my left thumb I make it control the ISO or flash (2 buttons well placed close to the lenses) and if I use manual focus the left hand is already in place and stays there, zooming and focusing.About the kit lenses (18-55mm nikkor lenses), the focus has a really short turn (about 30 degrees, but fells like 5) from 28cm to infinity, it is handleable on manual focus but a bit too sensitive... the zooming is perfect though.I already bought a used nikkor 28mm 2.8 AF-D lenses, that goes well with the D5000 (with manual focus only, cause it is not DX) and have a much better focus ring, with about 160 degree turn from 25mm to infinity that fells like 360... this made me fell good for not buying an olympus because the nikon DX format has a 1.5 relation for lenses and the four third had a 2.0 relation, at this point I realise that finding good old used lenses that can work well on the D5000 is easy, and this 28mm lense made me remember using my father's yashica 45mm focus when I was 6... very good felling.For the manual focus the camera helps with the green light that goes on when on focus, and changing the menu to show distance info on the viewfinder I got it to show arrows that indicate to witch side to change the focus.Live view... I did not mention, but my father took all his picures on this mode and liked it, so again can be used as p-a-s, but I have not used it too much, just loved the viewfinder and the 11point AF.The picture reviewing is also nice on the LCD panel and it being articulated is good for awkward shots, but even greater to protect it and to maintain the screen off when using the viewfinder (when I don't want more info than that on the small window).I did record some movies and they all look great, only did on 720p and no complains, all them look better than any other camera I used, only inconvenience is the focus but it is easy to learn... and zooming during video looks nicer than on video cameras that have digital controls for zooming.Battery lasts long, about 6 days traveling on my father's hands and 1 or 2 full shooting days on my hands... you notice that the camera is all the time saving power and even turning the LCD off when you are looking is not annoying because it comes back nicely.Flash is powerful and have a good range, also very tunable for adding light to a scene or to freezing someone or something on a shot... helped with some exposures...The retouching options are fast, easy to understand and vastly usable, I did some shots on a cloudy day and with some NEF processing on camera and one or two other adjustments (also in the camera) I got images that seemed taken at noon!!In conclusion on this messy review, the D5000 is a great camera and I would recommend to anybody who wants good pictures and movies... take that from a DSLR newbie and a nature, travel, sports and technology lover.And also, on my personal experience, it fells amazing to handle this camera, hear it shooting, bursting at 4fps (the sound is lovely), doing everything well and much more than I would expect. (I am not a brand person, but the nikon name helped on my choice and I am pleased it did).

When I got this camera, I was thrilled. It was light, easy to use, and took great pictures. I missed the top LCD that my D70 had, but it was mostly great.Just recently, after about six months of ownership, but only maybe 20 or 30 days of use, the camera broke. Well, not broke exactly. It still takes pictures, but the mirror seems to be locked up or something. When you look through the viewfinder, you see what looks like a focusing screen with the blurry out of focus image and several focus points clear. It takes clear pictures, but is unuseable because you basically can't see what you're pointing at.I discovered this problem the day before a three week trip to Australia. My local camera guy says this is a common problem with the D3000 and D5000.I live overseas. I can't bring back the camera. I'll have it repaired when I get a chance to return it in the U.S. (this warranty is not international).But the damage is done. I won't be buying another Nikon. I'd only bought this camera over the Canon d500 (Ti1) because of my previous investment in lenses, etc. (turns out you can't use lenses from the D70 in auto-focus anyway).When I get my camera repaired, I'll use it and probably take reasonable pictures with it until it possibly breaks again. But I won't be investing in any more lenses, etc. My next camera will be a Canon.