Menus

	The D5000 inherits the menu system that appears on the D90 and all cameras above, including the extensive but carefully color-coded Custom Settings Menus. It's the eternal struggle between keeping the camera unintimidating and offering lots of customization. The Nikon system is one of the better examples we've seen.

Help pages

Like most recent Nikons, the D5000 has a '?' button that offers a snippet of advice about the action of each setting or parameter. Explanations are even offered for settings that are essentially self-explanatory but it does mean that you can learn the camera as you go, without having to carry the manual around.

Playback menu

Option	Values / Actions	Notes
Delete	• Selected  • Select Date  • All	- Thumbnail selection
Playback folder	• D5000  • All  • Current
Display mode	• Done  • Highlights  • RGB Histogram  • Data
Image review	• Off  • On
Rotate tall	• On  • Off	When enabled portrait shots appear vertically orientated.
Slide show	• Start  • Frame interval 2 sec 3 sec 5 sec 10 sec
Print set (DPOF)	• Select / set  • Deselect all?	- Thumbnail selection

Shooting menu

A green superscript one (¹) indicates the default setting.

Option	Values / Actions	Notes / Sub options
Scene mode	• Night landscape  • Party/indoor  • Beach/snow  • Sunset  • Dusk/dawn  • Pet portrait  • Candlelight  • Blossom  • Autumn colors  • Food  • Silhouette  • High key  • Low key	Select which scene mode is used when the mode dial is set to SCENE (grayed-out at all other times)
Set Picture Control	• Standard Quick adjust (-2 to +2) Sharpening (A, 0 to 9) Contrast (A, -3 to +3) Brightness (-1 to +1) Saturation (A, -3 to +3) Hue (-3 to +3)  • Neutral Sharpening (A, 0 to 9) Contrast (A, -3 to +3) Brightness (-1 to +1) Saturation (A, -3 to +3) Hue (-3 to +3)  • Vivid Quick adjust (-2 to +2) Sharpening (A, 0 to 9) Contrast (A, -3 to +3) Brightness (-1 to +1) Saturation (A, -3 to +3) Hue (-3 to +3)  • Monochrome Sharpening (A, 0 to 9) Contrast (A, -3 to +3) Brightness (-1 to +1) Filter (Off, Y, O, R, G) Toning (10 options)  • Portrait Quick adjust (-2 to +2) Sharpening (A, 0 to 9) Contrast (A, -3 to +3) Brightness (-1 to +1) Saturation (A, -3 to +3) Hue (-3 to +3) • Landscape Quick adjust (-2 to +2) Sharpening (A, 0 to 9) Contrast (A, -3 to +3) Brightness (-1 to +1) Saturation (A, -3 to +3) Hue (-3 to +3)  • [custom]	- Default (3, 0, 0, 0, 0) - Default (2, 0, 0, 0, 0) - Default (4, 0, 0, 0, 0) - Default (3, 0, 0, 0, 0)
Manage Picture Control	• Save/Edit  • Rename  • Delete  • Load/Save	- Create custom Picture Control sets - Load / save from card
Image quality	• NEF (RAW) + JPEG Fine  • NEF (RAW) + JPEG Normal  • NEF (RAW) + JPEG Basic  • NEF (RAW)  • JPEG Fine  • JPEG Normal ¹  • JPEG Basic	Select image quality.
Image size	• Large ¹  • Medium  • Small	- 4288 x 2848 / 12.2 M - 3216 x 2136 / 6.9 M - 2144 x 1424 / 3.1 M
White balance	• Auto ¹  • Incandescent  • Fluorescent 1 Sodium-vapor lamps 2 Warm-white fluorescent 3 White fluorescent 4 Cool-white fluorescent 5 Day white fluorescent 6 Daylight fluorescent 7 High temp mercury-vapor  • Direct Sunlight  • Flash  • Cloudy  • Shade  • Preset manual	- A-B, G-M grid to fine tune WB - " - " - " - " - " - " - " - " - " - " - " - " - " - Select / program preset WB
ISO sensitivity settings	• ISO sensitivity Auto LO 1 LO 0.7 LO 0.3 200 ¹ 250 320 400 500 640 800 1000 1250 1600 2000 2500 3200 HI 0.3 HI 0.7 HI 1  • ISO sensitivity auto control On / Off ¹ Maximum sensitivity 400 800 1600 3200 ¹ HI 1 Minimum shutter speed 1/2000 - 1 sec
Active D-Lighting	• Auto ¹  • Extra High  • High  • Normal  • Low  • Off
Auto distortion control	• Off  ¹  • On
Color Space	• sRGB ¹  • Adobe RGB
Long exp. NR	• On  • Off ¹	Enables dark frame subtraction NR for exposures of 1/2 sec or longer.
High ISO NR	• High  • Normal¹  • Low  • Off
Active folder	• Select Folder  • New  • Rename  • Delete
Movie Settings	• Quality 1280 x 720 (16:9) 640 x 424 (3:2) 320 x 216 (3:2)  • Sound On Off
Interval timer shooting	• Start Now Start time  • Interval [hh:mm:ss]  • Select Intvl*Shots [000] x [0] = 0001  • Start Off On	Time lapse / interval shooting.