Nikon D5000

Sharpness

Maximum sharpness results were found at 18mm, where the camera hit a mediocre 1169 lw/ph horizontal and 1342 vertical. At the center of the lens results were sub-1000 lw/ph at most focal length/aperture combinations. As you can see in the same-size crops from our test shooting below, the D5000 equipped with the kit lens takes noticeably soft photos.

The Auto Distortion Control function (available in the shooting menu) will process images as you shoot to minimize barrel and pin-cushion distortion. Alternatively, the in-camera editing system offers a distortion control option. More on how we test sharpness.

Image Sharpness and Chromatic Aberration

Focal Length:

18.0mm

36.0mm

55.0mm

Click blue squares to change sample crops below
f/3.5 f/10 f/22
f/3.5 f/9 f/22
f/5.6 f/14 f/36

Image Stabilization (4.48)

We test image stabilization at two levels of shake intensity, producing interesting results when shooting with the D5000 and 18-55mm VR lens. At our low shake setting, the stabilization system produced minimal benefits. Crank up the movement to a higher rate, though, and the VR lens delivered a significant improvement at most shutter speeds, even the higher-speed settings where most image stabilization systems we’ve tested are ineffective or even have a negative effect.

To test image stabilization, we mount the camera in a custom-designed computer-controlled rig that produced carefully controlled movement patterns and shoot a slanted-line chart at a range of shutter speeds from 1/500 second down to 1/8 second, analyzing the sharpness of the photos taken using Imatest.

The low shake setting is meant to approximate the movement you might experience holding the camera two-handed while standing still. As shown above, the image stabilization system had minimal effect in this relatively quiet shooting situation. On the plus side, it didn’t hurt resolution results at any shutter speed, which has frequently occurred with other cameras we’ve tested.

At the higher shake level, roughly what you’d find when shooting one-handed or while moving around, the VR lens produced a nice improvement at most shutter speeds, though at the really slow 1/15 and 1/8 second shutter speeds the effects were minimal.

Image Stabilization Comparison Table			Expand
	Low Shake IS Off	Low Shake IS On	High Shake IS Off	High Shake IS On
1/500
1/250
1/125
1/60
1/30
1/15
1/8

Compared to the two other cameras in our test group for which image stabilization data is available, the Nikon scored nearly the same as the Pentax K2000, which uses in-camera image stabilization. This is an area where the Canon Rebel T1i produced a higher score, but this is in part due to the fact that the base resolution figures for this camera were quite low, so the gain from using image stabilization enhancements represented a greater percentage improvement.