Nikon 5000 Digital Camera Photo Gallery

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A small portfolio of photography by Michael Gordon using a Nikon 5000 Digital Camera, except the clickable photograph at left of the Nikon 5000 (made using a Nikon 990 by Ladd Darley). It is a very compact camera, fun to use and produces excellent results. 5 megapixels is only 25 percent more dots-per-inch than the 3.3 megapixel Nikon 990 or 995, but it makes quite a difference especially if you are making large prints or cropping. At web size, even very large web size, there is no difference between the 990/995 and Nikon 5000.

All photographs by Michael Gordon. Page and photos copyright 2002 by Michael Gordon. Permission to copy, store, display, reproduce electronically or in print is granted for the purpose of discussion of this camera or discussion of the techniques of photography described herein. Individuals and nonprofit organizations may additionally archive and utilize these images for noncommercial purposes. First publication is Logan, Utah, USA in March, 2002. "Wells Fargo" is a trademark of Wells Fargo & Company. Nikon is a trademark of Nikon USA Inc .

Discussion of NOISE in the Nikon 5000 image sensor

Discussion later -- first, the PHOTOS! Click on the thumbnail to enlarge to standard VGA size (640x480). Click on the enlarged photo to return to this page.

SMALL is 640 x 480 pixels, standard VGA size.
BIG is 1280 x 960 pixels and is twice VGA.
HUGE is 2560x1920, four times VGA and the largest size the camera produces.

Logan, Utah, USA.

SMALL * BIG * HUGE : Angie's Restaurant, "Where the Locals Come to Eat" (700 North Main, just south and across the street from Fred Meyer's). This is an example of the Nikon 5000 using "BSS" -- Best Shot Selector, hand-held at dusk. This happens to be my favorite restaurant and I go there three or four times a month.

SMALL * BIG : The Wetlands of the Little Bear River a few miles west of Logan. View to north.

SMALL * BIG : The Wetlands of the Little Bear River . View to south.

Climbing at Arches National Park near Moab, Utah, USA. This is a hand-held shot, a good test of the camera's dynamic range, steadiness, sharpness, and ability to capture subtle shades of reds and browns.

SMALL * BIG * HUGE

Panoramic Photography. Railroad train northwest of Green River, Utah; Book Cliffs in the background. Cropped to a panorama. Normally you would not get much from doing this, but with 5 megapixels to start with, you can crop and still have superb results.

SMALL * BIG * HUGE

Macro photography. The Nikon 5000 has about the same macro capability (about an inch from the front of the lens) as the Nikon 990 and others of the series. Combined with 5 megapixels, the result is amazing!

SMALL * BIG * HUGE * Lizard

SMALL * BIG .:Hissing Beetle. Note: illuminated with a "Lightwand" 7-LED flashlight in the mountains near Montpelier, Idaho, USA.

SMALL * BIG : Praying Mantis on squash leaves (Sept. 2002)

SMALL * BIG : Mushroom gills (Sept. 2002)

SMALL * BIG : Cherry Tomato (Sept. 2002)

Manual Modes - Flowers. Manual color is almost a requirement for saturated colors, otherwise, the camera will think something is wrong and remove the color. This photograph also uses manual focus since the busy background "captured" the focus and I could not get an automatic focus on the flower. Photographs made using the 1280x960 pixel mode are optimum for viewing for technical reasons discussed elsewhere.

SMALL * BIG : Tiny blue flower about 2 centimeters across, manual color, manual focus.

SMALL * BIG : Peace Rose with water splash, manual color, manual focus.

SMALL * BIG : Peace Rose with Wasp; manual color, automatic focus.

Scenic Photography. Probably the specialty of the Nikon 5000 with its somewhat wider angle and higher contrast setting as compared to its predecessors. Images look less "digital" and more natural most of the time. This is a formation on the San Rafael Swell in west central Utah. Very often you will choose to use "BSS" (Best Shot Selector) which takes up to ten photos (while you hold down the shutter release button) then compares them for sharpness and keeps the best. It is unpredictable in the case of moving scenes.

SMALL * BIG * HUGE * San Rafael country

SMALL * BIG * Sprinklers in Franklin County, Idaho

SMALL * BIG * The Road to Snowville. Optimized a bit to remove through-the-window haze.

SMALL * BIG * Tony Grove Lake, northern Utah. Nearly the maximum telephoto of this camera (not very impressive telephoto, but certainly right for this photo).

SMALL * BIG * Tony Grove Lake , northern Utah. Wide angle, looking north, polarized. Ordinarily this much sky would be boring, but the fluffy white early morning clouds balance the detail at the bottom and right edges (mountains, lake and trees).

SMALL * BIG * Tony Grove Lake, northern Utah. Moonlight photo, night shot. Approximately 80 seconds exposure, manual focus, color balance set to "speedlight". Camera set to SXGA, fine, to reduce noise.

SMALL * BIG * Tony Grove Lake, northern Utah. Late afternoon photo looking south. Marvelous contrast, perhaps a bit overexposed.

SMALL * BIG * Sherwood Hills in the Wellsville Mountains.

SMALL * BIG * Wellsville Springs after the rain.

SMALL * BIG * Wellsville Mountains and Cutler Marsh (28 March 2003)

SMALL * BIG * Southbound Railroad Train at Willard

SMALL * BIG * Northbound Railroad Train at Willard

SMALL * BIG * Mount Nebo, central Utah, photographed from Interstate 15. (10/2002)

SMALL * BIG * HUGE * Mount Nebo, view to northeast, across a valley (10/2002).

SMALL * BIG * HUGE * Powerlines and towers leading to the IPP power plant (Intermountain Power Project) north of Delta, Utah.

SMALL * BIG * HUGE * S&S Trading Post in Delta, Utah. Features a very fine totem pole.

Architectural Photography . A wide angle lens always displays keystone distortion: That is to say, vertical lines are not vertical, but point to the vertical vanishing point. This is scientifically correct, but people are accustomed to seeing the edges of buildings point straight up. You can correct this afterward by squeezing the bottom of a photo together, or widening the top, to compensate for this phenomenon. Having 5 megapixels to start with means that after you have made your adjustments, you still have 3 or 4 megapixels of excellent quality image remaining.

SMALL * BIG * HUGE : Atrium of the Wells Fargo Center, Salt Lake City, Utah. Keystone distortion corrected using Corel Photo Paint.

Cityscape Photography. High detail and contrast combined with wide angles lends snap to dramatic cityscape photos.

SMALL * BIG * HUGE : View north from the Wells Fargo Center, Salt Lake City, Utah

Polarized. Most effective on sky, water and leaves (foliage). The effect is to increase color saturation of objects whose natural colors are hidden by surface reflections (shiny objects) and it darken the blue of the sky (leaving clouds a bright white) under certain circumstances. Here's how it works: The blue light of the sky is actually reflected light and, when viewed at approximately right angles to the incoming sunbeams, is rather strongly polarized (light waves vibrating in one plane). You can diminish this light by blocking it with a polarizing filter. For leaves and pretty much any shiny surface (metal, glass), light that bounces off at approximately 45 degree angle is polarized by the bounce. You can block this with a polarizer, letting the true colors underneath the "shine" become visible.

You will need a Nikon UR-E5 step-down-ring-adapter (it's a hollow black cylinder) and a 46 millimeter threaded, rotating, polarizing filter. It is often called a circular polarizer but it does not mean "circular polarization" in the scientific sense, it just means that the polarizer filter is round like a disk. The polarizing material is the same linear polarizing material that has been used for decades. Some interesting facts: The adapter is a cylinder. It screws into a 47 mm threaded ring on the body of the camera and it contains a 46 mm female thread for accessories such as the teleconverters and polarizing filter. When a filter is mounted, it forms a complete shroud around the camera's lens; you can focus and zoom the lens inside this cylinder. Obviously, you can put a clear class or skylight filter on the cylindrical adapter and use it to protect the delicate zoom mechanism from dust and sand while traveling in the desert or at the beach.

SMALL * BIG * HUGE : The Logan, Utah, Tabernacle . It is a type of church building used only for occasional large group meetings. This particular one is fascinating in large part by its construction; lacking adequate quarries for stone, the builders took rocks and poured mortar over the rocks. Each "brick" was assembled in a wooden box, and when the boxes are removed, each brick reveals the surface of the rocks that make that particular brick.

Weather Photography: The wide-angle lens is superb for sky views. The telephoto end of the zoom is adequate for most detail views of large cloud formations. Large expanses of dark sky tend to have noticeable noise (speckles or granularity). This can often be remedied by separating out the colors, masking the sky portion of the red channel, blurring the sky slightly with a gaussian blur, then recombining the red channel back into the image.

SMALL * BIG Thunderstorm over Logan (Portrait view; image at left). Noise filtered as described above.

SMALL * BIG Thunderstorm over Logan (Landscape view). Noise filtered as described above.

SMALL * BIG After the thunderstorm. An interesting view of distant cumulo-nimbus clouds topped by reddish sunlight (sunset was only a few minutes yet to come) overshadowed by dark clouds in the foreground. This image has been adjusted somewhat to emphasise contrast in the clouds (a 3-point adjustment of the brightness curve).

Discussion

The demo unit on the shelf exhibited some noise in the blue channel and caused me to cautiously delay purchasing a Nikon 5000. I am delighted to say that my unit does not exhibit this problem and I have made about 500 photographs in one week. Alert: On a trip to Sacramento, the problem became conspicuously noticeable when I used a polarizing filter. I concluded that in automatic mode, the camera switched itself to ISO 200 speed/sensitivity where noise is conspicuous in sky photos and further enhanced by the polarizer! Solution is to always use a manual mode and make sure the ISO is 100. Unfortunately, the ISO setting is not persistent and it will sometimes switch to 200 without your notice.

It is very easy to use despite the multitude of switches and menu options. After I had shot about 200 photos I decided to have a look at the book to see what features I had not yet discovered.

The largest print made so far was 7 feet tall for a convention booth. A print one meter (3 feet) high in portrait mode is acceptable from a viewing distance of one meter or more. Large prints reveal noise in the image, so you will want to use your various noise reduction and noise remediation strategies.

Main differences as compared to Nikon 990:

Mostly GOOD: This model (the 5000) has much greater "persistence" of settings. That means, if you have set an exposure compensation, when you turn it off, then back on, it will still have that exposure compensation. This is usually good but can sometimes be bad. I went a whole day on EV - 0.3 and some photos were underexposed as a consequence. But the benefit is substantial; you can get things set up, and turn it off between photos, substantially saving on your battery.
Mostly GOOD: The battery is a 2CR5 Lithium, or the equivalent size rechargeable Lithium-ion battery. Interestingly, although the battery is very small and rated at only 650 milliamp-hours, it has quite a bit more endurance, seems to me, than four 1600 milliamp-hour AA batteries in the Nikon 990. They are expensive ($30 for Digipower at Ritz) but you can go for a long time on them -- about 100 photos per battery.
GOOD: It is much smaller than a Nikon 990. Hardly any of the reviews show a person actually holding the camera.
GOOD: It is fairly easy to operate with one hand, if you are right-handed. Operating this camera with one's left hand is very difficult; but possible if you invert the entire camera and operate the shutter release with the thumb of your left hand.
GOOD: The on-off switch has only two positions: on, off. Clever, no? Your selection of manual mode is not so easily entered into but is much less likely that you will accidentally choose the wrong mode when you are in a hurry. A slide-switch on the back puts the camera into playback mode.
BAD: Noise is considerably worse than the Nikon 990. In fact, the Nikon 990 never exhibited noise whatsoever, not enough to capture my attention. Noise is a nearly constant problem in the Nikon 5000; it can be reduced in the first place and filtered afterward, but it requires constant attention to your ISO setting.

	Logan, Utah, USA. SMALL * BIG * HUGE : Angie's Restaurant, "Where the Locals Come to Eat" (700 North Main, just south and across the street from Fred Meyer's). This is an example of the Nikon 5000 using "BSS" -- Best Shot Selector, hand-held at dusk. This happens to be my favorite restaurant and I go there three or four times a month. SMALL * BIG : The Wetlands of the Little Bear River a few miles west of Logan. View to north. SMALL * BIG : The Wetlands of the Little Bear River . View to south.
	Climbing at Arches National Park near Moab, Utah, USA. This is a hand-held shot, a good test of the camera's dynamic range, steadiness, sharpness, and ability to capture subtle shades of reds and browns. SMALL * BIG * HUGE
	Panoramic Photography. Railroad train northwest of Green River, Utah; Book Cliffs in the background. Cropped to a panorama. Normally you would not get much from doing this, but with 5 megapixels to start with, you can crop and still have superb results. SMALL * BIG * HUGE
	Macro photography. The Nikon 5000 has about the same macro capability (about an inch from the front of the lens) as the Nikon 990 and others of the series. Combined with 5 megapixels, the result is amazing! SMALL * BIG * HUGE * Lizard SMALL * BIG .:Hissing Beetle. Note: illuminated with a "Lightwand" 7-LED flashlight in the mountains near Montpelier, Idaho, USA. SMALL * BIG : Praying Mantis on squash leaves (Sept. 2002) SMALL * BIG : Mushroom gills (Sept. 2002) SMALL * BIG : Cherry Tomato (Sept. 2002)
	Manual Modes - Flowers. Manual color is almost a requirement for saturated colors, otherwise, the camera will think something is wrong and remove the color. This photograph also uses manual focus since the busy background "captured" the focus and I could not get an automatic focus on the flower. Photographs made using the 1280x960 pixel mode are optimum for viewing for technical reasons discussed elsewhere. SMALL * BIG : Tiny blue flower about 2 centimeters across, manual color, manual focus. SMALL * BIG : Peace Rose with water splash, manual color, manual focus. SMALL * BIG : Peace Rose with Wasp; manual color, automatic focus.
	Scenic Photography. Probably the specialty of the Nikon 5000 with its somewhat wider angle and higher contrast setting as compared to its predecessors. Images look less "digital" and more natural most of the time. This is a formation on the San Rafael Swell in west central Utah. Very often you will choose to use "BSS" (Best Shot Selector) which takes up to ten photos (while you hold down the shutter release button) then compares them for sharpness and keeps the best. It is unpredictable in the case of moving scenes. SMALL * BIG * HUGE * San Rafael country SMALL * BIG * Sprinklers in Franklin County, Idaho SMALL * BIG * The Road to Snowville. Optimized a bit to remove through-the-window haze. SMALL * BIG * Tony Grove Lake, northern Utah. Nearly the maximum telephoto of this camera (not very impressive telephoto, but certainly right for this photo). SMALL * BIG * Tony Grove Lake , northern Utah. Wide angle, looking north, polarized. Ordinarily this much sky would be boring, but the fluffy white early morning clouds balance the detail at the bottom and right edges (mountains, lake and trees). SMALL * BIG * Tony Grove Lake, northern Utah. Moonlight photo, night shot. Approximately 80 seconds exposure, manual focus, color balance set to "speedlight". Camera set to SXGA, fine, to reduce noise. SMALL * BIG * Tony Grove Lake, northern Utah. Late afternoon photo looking south. Marvelous contrast, perhaps a bit overexposed. SMALL * BIG * Sherwood Hills in the Wellsville Mountains. SMALL * BIG * Wellsville Springs after the rain. SMALL * BIG * Wellsville Mountains and Cutler Marsh (28 March 2003) SMALL * BIG * Southbound Railroad Train at Willard SMALL * BIG * Northbound Railroad Train at Willard SMALL * BIG * Mount Nebo, central Utah, photographed from Interstate 15. (10/2002) SMALL * BIG * HUGE * Mount Nebo, view to northeast, across a valley (10/2002). SMALL * BIG * HUGE * Powerlines and towers leading to the IPP power plant (Intermountain Power Project) north of Delta, Utah. SMALL * BIG * HUGE * S&S Trading Post in Delta, Utah. Features a very fine totem pole.
	Architectural Photography . A wide angle lens always displays keystone distortion: That is to say, vertical lines are not vertical, but point to the vertical vanishing point. This is scientifically correct, but people are accustomed to seeing the edges of buildings point straight up. You can correct this afterward by squeezing the bottom of a photo together, or widening the top, to compensate for this phenomenon. Having 5 megapixels to start with means that after you have made your adjustments, you still have 3 or 4 megapixels of excellent quality image remaining. SMALL * BIG * HUGE : Atrium of the Wells Fargo Center, Salt Lake City, Utah. Keystone distortion corrected using Corel Photo Paint.
	Cityscape Photography. High detail and contrast combined with wide angles lends snap to dramatic cityscape photos. SMALL * BIG * HUGE : View north from the Wells Fargo Center, Salt Lake City, Utah
	Polarized. Most effective on sky, water and leaves (foliage). The effect is to increase color saturation of objects whose natural colors are hidden by surface reflections (shiny objects) and it darken the blue of the sky (leaving clouds a bright white) under certain circumstances. Here's how it works: The blue light of the sky is actually reflected light and, when viewed at approximately right angles to the incoming sunbeams, is rather strongly polarized (light waves vibrating in one plane). You can diminish this light by blocking it with a polarizing filter. For leaves and pretty much any shiny surface (metal, glass), light that bounces off at approximately 45 degree angle is polarized by the bounce. You can block this with a polarizer, letting the true colors underneath the "shine" become visible. You will need a Nikon UR-E5 step-down-ring-adapter (it's a hollow black cylinder) and a 46 millimeter threaded, rotating, polarizing filter. It is often called a circular polarizer but it does not mean "circular polarization" in the scientific sense, it just means that the polarizer filter is round like a disk. The polarizing material is the same linear polarizing material that has been used for decades. Some interesting facts: The adapter is a cylinder. It screws into a 47 mm threaded ring on the body of the camera and it contains a 46 mm female thread for accessories such as the teleconverters and polarizing filter. When a filter is mounted, it forms a complete shroud around the camera's lens; you can focus and zoom the lens inside this cylinder. Obviously, you can put a clear class or skylight filter on the cylindrical adapter and use it to protect the delicate zoom mechanism from dust and sand while traveling in the desert or at the beach. SMALL * BIG * HUGE : The Logan, Utah, Tabernacle . It is a type of church building used only for occasional large group meetings. This particular one is fascinating in large part by its construction; lacking adequate quarries for stone, the builders took rocks and poured mortar over the rocks. Each "brick" was assembled in a wooden box, and when the boxes are removed, each brick reveals the surface of the rocks that make that particular brick.
	Weather Photography: The wide-angle lens is superb for sky views. The telephoto end of the zoom is adequate for most detail views of large cloud formations. Large expanses of dark sky tend to have noticeable noise (speckles or granularity). This can often be remedied by separating out the colors, masking the sky portion of the red channel, blurring the sky slightly with a gaussian blur, then recombining the red channel back into the image. SMALL * BIG Thunderstorm over Logan (Portrait view; image at left). Noise filtered as described above. SMALL * BIG Thunderstorm over Logan (Landscape view). Noise filtered as described above. SMALL * BIG After the thunderstorm. An interesting view of distant cumulo-nimbus clouds topped by reddish sunlight (sunset was only a few minutes yet to come) overshadowed by dark clouds in the foreground. This image has been adjusted somewhat to emphasise contrast in the clouds (a 3-point adjustment of the brightness curve).