Nikon D5000

The D5000 also shoots video at a maximum resolution of 1280x720 (720p), and the good part is that it can shoot video in any mode, by simply pressing the Ok button in live-view mode. The autofocus is fixed in video mode, but you do have the option to initiate it while recording by doing the half-shutter release press while shooting. Though it's not as good as the video quality of a good quality HD camcorder, it is quite usable and better than the lower-end HD camcorders.

The D5000 also shoots video at a maximum resolution of 1280x720 (720p), and the good part is that it can shoot video in any mode, by simply pressing the Ok button in live-view mode. The autofocus is fixed in video mode, but you do have the option to initiate it while recording by doing the half-shutter release press while shooting. Though it's not as good as the video quality of a good quality HD camcorder, it is quite usable and better than the lower-end HD camcorders.

The 11-point autofocus should be an easy way to separate the D5000 from the lower-end Nikon DSLR cameras that feature a very unsatisfactory 3-point autofocus. With 11 points, you have a pretty good control of getting the right focus in every shot, rather than framing your shot around the point of focus.

Other features include Active-D lighting, in-camera RAW processing and some pretty good post-processing options like funky filter effects. I was especially surprised to see how well the fish-eye filter worked in most scenarios.