Yes yes yes, I know it’s only been two years and five months since I bought the D40, but I have upgraded to the D5000! The kit I purchased came from Jessops, and had a new 70-300mm Tamron macro lens thrown in. But, it is a most awesome camera and I enjoyed today’s quick trip to the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, followed by a quick trip up the Vale of Llangollen along the narrow and bendy Rhewl road, and then back along the Worlds End Pass road. The camera is as easy to use as the D40, just about the same weight, yet comes with a whole slew of new features that boggle the mind, such as on the go retouching (including a handy perspective feature which tries to straighten out any non straight buildings due to lens angles); as well as HD movies, and a swivel screen that, with live view, allows you to reach over obstacles and see what you’re looking at.
The movies are okay, but ‘ve got to figure out where the mic is so I can shelter it from wind with my hand. As it’s mono there’s no noise cancellation, and the slightest breeze becomes a mighty hurricane.
The two new lenses are most awesome. One is a VR version of the same 18-55mm I already possess, and the other is a telephoto macro that can zoom further than the 55-200mm, and also pick out finer details on Macro mode. The two photos here are made using the Tamron lens. Hopefully the 70mm will also be more adaptable for indoor use, as currently I need to switch between the two. However I suppose I could sell my VR 18-55 and VR 55-200 and simply purchase the 18-200mm. This would leave me with the two best lenses, although the larger the lens, the heavy the camera for normal use. This should now be less of a problem, as I have a new bag with the kit. It fits all three lenses, and all the accessories I possess, such as the remote, and the crazy USB it uses. On that note, the camera interfaces with Windows 7 quite well, having come out over a year ago, the Nikon devs would have had time to work on it – The icon on the taskbar is an image of the camera, and mousing over shows battery time, and a button to go straight to the photo folder. Most usefull.
As can be seen above, that’s everything the kit included. It was £689 from Jessops including the postage, but this comes down with the £200+ from the D40 I’m going to be selling, and the £50 cashback from Nikon. I could potentially get £300 off it in total. I leave you with the video test. I apologise for the sound, but there was a slight breeze!