So I went past the Jessops along New Oxford Street (in London, UK for newer readers) seemingly by accident today, and decided to pop in to give the D5000 and D3100 a try after dismissing them the last time.
(Side Note: At the moment, I've more or less disqualified the GF1 as a choice, mainly due to the insane distortion of the normal zoom and battery life. Maybe down the road when I have loads of disposable £££ I may get it, however right now, I want something I know I will use.)
As luck would have it, the D3100 was not on the shelves, sold away perhaps? Only had the D5000 to try. As mentioned in a previous post, I put the D5k and D3.1k at a firm no just by virtue of their lack of a top LCD screen. A screen I use very very often on my D200/300 for settings.
First off, the AF on the D5000 was bloody bloody slow. And no AF points showed up. A quick tour of the menu indicated the auto area AF. Switching over to single point AF resolved any speed issues. I've owned the 18-55VR in the past, and am quite familiar with its focusing speeds. I wonder if this auto-area AF is similar to the close priority dynamic AF on the D200 - the AF was so much faster on the D200 in similar light. But who knows. I am fine with the single point and dynamic AF on the D5000 + 18-55VR, it's definitely not 17-55 AF-S speeds, but snappy enough inside the store.
One big issue concerned me - the seeming inability of the camera to separate the shutter button and auto focus. I was able to set the custom function to allow the AE/AL lock button to be used as Af-on, however, did not find a custom function to disable AF on the shutter release. As with the D90, the AF selector is just waay off from where my thumb rests.
There is a possibility I'm just asking too much from a budget, entry level dslr designed for beginners :) Some plus points include a very nice +/-2 stop bracketing ability. I'm pretty sure even my D300 has a maximum of 1 stop between brackets, though it's possible to do a 9 frame bracket on the D300 vs 3 on the D5000. That's a low priority thing anyways. Tested live view AF - a joke, seriously when compared to the GF1, or even my Lumix FS7. Also, the AF point layout is similar to the D200, plus point there. And there is even the overlaid grid which I really like. Viewfinder is of course, super dim but we're talking about a small dslr with a pentamirror, not pentaprism and 100% view which costs like 3 times more.
Also, the obvious lack of AF motor. In general though, looks promising. I'm just reeling at the idea of missing the usage of the 24/2.8 and 50/1.8 on this baby. However, as memory serves, I've never actually used either of these lenses when out on tour even though I've brought them along so..... perhaps I should just bite the bullet and get the D90.... or D5000 + a 35/1.8DX to satisfy my urge for a fast prime (hahaha 2.8 is fast for prime? lols)
On a crop body, the 35mm is about 52.5mm equivalent field of view, which I am just not a big fan off :-/ Even when I was shooting film, on my Contax G, even though the 45mm/2 Planar produced the most amazing feel, I still preferred a wide normal; hence the 35/2 was the one mostly mounted.
End of the day? I still have no bloody idea. I've still got a week or so to decide. Ah well.
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