Nikon D3000 review

Probably the most beginner-friendly DSLR on the market

Nikon D3000
The Nikon D3000 is the most user-friendly DSLR yet released

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nikon d3000 angles

We've focussed a lot on the beginner friendly widgets on this camera but what about the other features?

The exposure system and autofocussing are as good as you'd expect from Nikon, and the camera's metering modes coped well with tough lighting conditions.

Obviously this camera isn't fast or robust enough to cope with pro sports photography, but it's fine for bagging great shots of the kids playing football, for instance.

AF is quick and smooth, though there's a really annoying lag when it comes to image playback. The power-saving modes are fiendish too so you'll need to adjust these to keep the camera ticking over.

So how much of a disadvantage is the lack of other features, such as HD video recording and Live View?

No Live View

While you can live without one or the other, having to do without both on a £500 camera is a bit of a disappointment, and we suspect Nikon will introduce them on the next iteration.

Being able to record HD is obviously a good thing, while Live View is very useful when it comes to taking candid shots or still life compositions, for instance.

Not having these extras is a pain; how much of a deterrent it will be to SLR novices weighing up their camera choices remains to be seen.