I found the Nikon D5000 to be a most interesting camera with an impressive feature list. It sits between base-level and top notch models, so it should have wide appeal.

Nikon D5000 Features

The camera uses a DX-sized 12.3 megapixel CMOS sensor and 12-bit analog-to-digital conversion, backed up by Nikon’s EXPEED image processing system. The same sensor is found in the Nikon D90: 23.6×15.8mm and producing an effective picture angle of 1.5x, so an 18-55m kit lens equates (in 35 SLR terms) to a 27-83mm zoom.

Here’s what Digital SLRs, Point and Shoot Digital Cameras, Lenses, Accessories and Books have been bought by DPS readers over the last three months (July-September in 2009) in their shopping at Amazon.

Popular DSLRS

The winner in the popular DSLR class was fairly clear – the Canon EOS Rebel T1i which took over from last survey’s winner the XSi. As usual – Canon and Nikon dominated the purchases of DLSRs by our readers with only the Sony Alpha just scraping into the top 10 to break up the list a little.

1. Canon EOS Rebel T1i
2. Canon Digital Rebel XSi
3. Nikon D40
4. Canon Rebel XS
5. Nikon D60
6. Canon EOS 50D
7. Nikon D300 DX
8. Canon EOS 5D Mk II

…

These days there are many good options available for RAW conversion software. Photoshop has Adobe Camera Raw, Adobe also has Lightroom and Apple’s offering of Aperture being a few popular choices. However the professional photographers software of choice for many years has been Capture One which is made by PhaseOne who you may recognise from also making top end digital backs for medium format cameras. So it would make sense for the same manufacturer to also make a top end piece of software to accompany it’s hardware.

I have been a Lightroom user for many years and was more than happy with the level of control I had over my imagery. There is one fundamental function missing though. Tethering. What is tethering? Rather than recording your imagery to your memory card in your camera, you connect your camera to your computer and the images record directly to your computer via a piece of software. The Pro version of Capture One combines the Raw processing work flow with the ability to tether.

Shooting Tethered

A majority of photographers will head out with their camera kit, armed with a bag full of memory cards and take their photos and when they get home download their images to their computer and view them from there. LCD screens are getting bigger, brighter and more accurate these days, but still for critical work, apart from looking at your histogram to make sure you aren’t blowing out the highlights or bogging in the shadows it’s not a fail-safe option. Some may say that digital photography and shooting in RAW has made photographers a little lazy as most imagery can be altered or fixed easily in RAW processing. We’ll leave that can of worms closed for now though.

Today Matthew Luttmer shares his experience of buying his first prime lens – a 50mm (sometimes known as a ‘nifty 50′).

It’s true. There is only 50mm separating you from the photos you always wanted to take. Of course it is a 50mm prime lens that is between you and your goal. All the happy owners of this wonderful lens will testify on its behalf as to how their skill where strengthened by this marvel.

I got a 50mm prime lens this summer (a Nikon 50mm 1.8D AF), wanting a lens that was sharp and cheap. Little did I know how much I would improve as a photographer for it. Excited with my purchase, I immediately rushed to try it out.

“Wow this thing is weird!”. “I have to move to compose my shot?”. Not to sure how I was going to like this new lens. I moved forward and back, side to side and “Gasp” all the way around my subject to get a composition that wasn’t going to make my eyes bleed, on viewing the LCD. Click. Wow that’s better than a stick in the eye. Lets try another. Compose, move, compose, move again. On and on this dance went until I saw that certain something that made my subject compelling. I let the shutter fall like the guillotine it is, shaving off a piece of time an tucking it away to devour later at my computer.

After firing off my 21 exposure salute to the day. I sat on a bench and began to thumb my way through the fodder I thought I was taking. Hey! Wait a minute. These aren’t my usual boilerplate shots. There is something different about them. There is more contrast, the composition could make a diamond out of coal, they look almost 3d. Just about every image was holding my attention and my eye was not falling out of the picture like I tend to fall out of bed in the morning (groaning and complain). I… took… good pictures!!!!

Well it wasn’t like I became better over night. I had taken some pretty good shots in the past with the lenses I had before. The difference was, just about all the shots I had taken that day where not just better than pedestrian, they where ahead of the curve!

I realize now why I find this lens to be so magical. Its not because Gandalf blesses them as they roll down the line at the factory. It is because it forced me to compose each and every shot by moving and recomposing. The result was better composition. Great composition is what makes great photos. You can take a photo of the most uninteresting thing and it will burn through the viewers eyes with good composition. The 50mm prime helped me get off my ass and showed me a better way to take a photo. It was not easier, in fact it was much harder. In this day of making our lives easier the camera companies have tied our hands to the chain of mediocrity. The zoom.

Leica this week announced their new Leica M9 Digital Rangefinder – a camera that many will lust after but few will afford. Priced at around $7000 USD this is not a camera that most will be realistically be putting on their Christmas wishlist but it’s certainly a camera worth us taking a moment to profile.

Leica are promoting it as the world’s first full frame digital rangefinder camera – of course there’s not a lot of competition, not many manufacturers are making rangefinders these days. It’s also the smallest full frame camera currently available.

The Leica M9 takes most Leica M lenses, has a shutter speed of 1/4000 to 32 seconds, 2.5 inch LCD, ISO of up to 2500 and has an 18 megapixel CCD sensor (developed by Kodak).

Expect this camera to be impeccably crafted – I’ve had an opportunity to ‘play’ with it’s predecessor (the M8) and it was simply beautiful. Leica does = Luxury, Craftsmanship and Refinement, but you pay for it.

Keep in mind that this is a Rangefinder not a DSLR – when lining up the shot you’re not looking through the lens itself but a separate focusing screen. The system does have some advantages (smaller and quieter – less moving parts etc) but it does taken a certain skill to use one as there’s no auto-focus, there are fewer options with telephoto lenses etc.

Rangefinders are one of those types of cameras that you either love or hate – but then most of us will simply have to admire the M9 from afar.

If you have a spare $6995 – Pre-Order the Leica M9 at Amazon.

We hope to post a review of the Leica M9 when they become available.