d5000 or d5100

[Tuck]

with a price difference of $600 with an 18-55 lense, would it be worth getting the 5000 and spending the extra on getting another lense 55-300 or 70-300 with the savings?

Extra lense is for surf photography.

Cheers

[MiniChris]

I don't know a thing about the D5100 but can tell you the D5000 Nikon is okay, but not great. It has very limited camera controls and in fact, not much more than the D40 or D90 (I've been using one for the last week while my D7000 was in the shop). The 18-55 is a very limiting lens and not particularly fast in low light situations and somewhat soft at lower apertures (3.5-4) even in bright sunlight.
However, with a slightly better lens (18-105), the D5000 does shoot better with a greater range of usable apertures. I did shoot the D5000 with an aftermarket Sigma 70-300 with the 2x tele-extender and was quite disappointed in either its natural state or extended. Very soft at almost all apertures, and dlow as snail in the autofocus mode.
Don't know this will help, but they are my observations.

[tclune]

This is a tough call, and would depend on what you value the camera for. DPReview has just published its in-depth review of the D5100, which includes a table comparing the D5000 and the D5100. I own the D5000 and like it a lot. But I would be tempted to upgrade to the D90 before I got the D5100. The main things that would tempt me are the pentaprism viewfinder, the commander mode for off-camera flash control, the in-body motor for using some of the older or third-party good inexpensive lenses, and the higher resolution LCD for easier focusing in Live mode while macro shooting. The only one of those you'd get with the D5100 is the last one. However, you also get the greater dynamic range of the new generation chip (14 bits is very tempting) and the higher resolution makes it easier to crop without losing IQ. A D90 won't get you either of those over the D5000. But, on a tight budget, I would probably still choose between the D90 and the D5000. In your shoes, I'd probably do exactly what I did last time -- get the D5000 and opt for more glass.

[Tuck]

Thanks for your help,

I am using a D90 at the moment, not mine unfortunatly.
my understanding is that it has more manual control than the 5100 and 5000, am i correct and if so i would assume that i mite find them limiting?

[tclune]

I'm not aware of any manual control that can be done on the D90 that cannot be done on the D5x00. However, the D90 does have the two-wheel control that makes it easier to access the manual controls without using a menu. Nonetheless, I find that I can set up the D5000 to allow me ready access to most of what I would readily change by means of the control wheel, and I don't find the menu control particularly limiting. But, for people who have become used to the two-wheel layout, the D5x00 controls are a bit slower.

[niallc99]

Engadget have posted a review of the D5100.

Nikon D5100 impressions, head-to-head with D7000