I’ve been taking pictures for a couple of months with my iPhone and have discovered a love of photography. I don’t have a decent camera myself, but was lucky enough to be given the opportunity of trying out the camera by NikonHQ.

Having never really held a DSLR before, I immediately felt the D5000 was quite bulky and heavy to hold in comparison to the P&S and phone cameras I've used before. However, after using it for a few minutes I soon got used to it and discovered that, actually, it's not all that big and not particularly heavy.

Since having the camera I have tested it rather thoroughly, doing a range of different styles of photography, including portraits, still life, landscapes and night-time photos.

The first thing I learned was how to focus on objects, using the Auto mode. The focus is super quick, and there is also a live view option, which features an LCD display which can be angled and rotated allowing you to capture an image in a difficult place with very little effort. The freedom of a creative focus allows you to achieve great close up and detailed shots. The camera has 12.3 megapixels, which provides excellent quality pictures.

Before using the camera, I was worried that it would take longer to set up a shot than with a point and shoot camera or my iPhone, but this wasn’t the case. After a few test shots I was able to start snapping away with confidence and achieve the images I wanted quickly.

I took a visit to some local ruins, which gave me the chance to try out the zoom and to focus on objects that were in the distance. This was incredibly easy and simple to do by changing the auto focus point. I was also able to zoom out to capture the grand scale of the building.

By the third day of having the camera, I was using the aperture priority mode and learning how the available light affected the settings I would need to use. In bright situations for example, you would need a higher aperture to close the lens down to stop so much light reaching the sensor.

Using a camera at night or in low light situations is usually problematic, and without the use of off camera flashes and other clever lighting solutions, the only real option is the onboard flash, which I’m not really a great fan of. However, the D5000 offers fantastic lighting solutions; there are various different flash settings which are easy to switch between. It also offers D-lighting, which helps prevent over exposure and other lighting problems. This is useful as it can be applied to the shot even after the picture has been taken.

The ISO and exposure compensation are incredibly easy to adjust, making it simple to shoot in any situation. Each feature is displayed on the LCD screen. If you press the 'i' button you can access a number of menus to change these settings to your taste. The manual is very comprehensive and explains what each of the settings do, so even someone using a DSLR for the first time can gain an understanding and try some different techniques.

The camera also boasts an HD video option which I am yet to use.

One disadvantage of the camera that I have noticed compared to a point and shoot is that it can be very noisy in quiet situations. For example, I saw some rabbits that I wanted to take photos of. However, when I half clicked the shutter, the noise it made alerted them to my presence and scared them away.

As it’s a bigger camera, it won’t just slip into your pocket or handbag. Not a major issue, but because it is larger than your normal camera it can sometimes get in the way when on a day out or can become tiresome to carry around. However, I feel this is a small price to pay for the quality of the images that are produced.

It is reasonably priced and offers plenty of value for money. Its competitor is the Cannon 1000D, which is in a similar price range, but doesn’t offer video recording, making the Nikon the clear winner.

There are a lot of menus on the camera and a lot of options which could put some people off, especially those not used to DSLRs, like myself. However, the manual explains the functions in a concise manner allowing everyone to make the most of the features available.

The D5000 is easy and comfortable to hold, even for long periods, and very fast at focusing to make sure that you capture the shot you want before the moment passes.

Overall, I’d say that this was a great buy for any budding photographer, someone who wants to have a little more freedom to produce better images than you can with a point and shoot, or a photographer who requires a good quality yet compact DSLR.