Has anyone out there gone from the D5000 to the D5100??
I'm thinking about it as a local dealership has offered me a good trade in price.
The D5100 has a supposedly better image quality and a better ISO plus the sideways swivel monitor which itself is a bit bigger.
I'd be interested in your take on this.

According to DxOMark, the D5100 isn't much of an upgrade in IQ from the D5000. Depending on the age of your current camera, and how much they're willing to give you for it, and how much you think you might benefit from the newer camera's features, plus the , the swap could be a good idea.

Hi TCav,
Yes I realise there wont be a big difference but I would like to think it would be noticeable.
One thing I did like when I looked at it was in the VF instead of the small black squares the D5K uses, the D5100 uses red dots like my old Canon used to, which makes focusing a bit easier in poor light, for me at least.

Well I've been and gone and done it. I got the D5100.
My Grandson has been telling me he needs a good DSLR for his University work,so I gave the 5K to him, he loves it.(He couldn't have bought one for the trade in that I was offered).
I bought the kit and gave him the 18-55mm that came with it, seems a nice little lens,quite sharp I thought.
The price was good + I like the focusing red dots and the swivel out LCD is more useful.
I will be surprised if I can really see a difference in my photos, despite the salesman insisting that I would.
Having said all that I may go down in lens size to get rid of the some of the weight, when I can work out what is the best shorter zoom image quality wise.

I must put this on.
I've been playing with my new toy today.
Loading Raw pics with Adobe DNG and jumping through various hoops.
Then I put the Cd that came with the camera in place of a decent handbook (they give you a quick start beginners guide) and guess what ? the D5k comes with an in camera Raw editor and converter. How cool is that?

congrats, what you have is a camera that feels familiar, yet it has new features
im sure youll be very happy with it

There are several big improvements over the D5000... better video, (it gains 1080p video capability (at 30, 25 or 24fps) much better sensor, (same as D7000) , better LCD tilting, (D5000 tilting LCD got in the way of tripod heads) Expeed 2 processor, D5100 offers the same ISO settings as its big brother - extending up to an equivalent of ISO 25,600. It also inherits 14-bit Raw shooting - one of the factors that helps give the D7000 its impressive dynamic range - which is something Nikon used to offer only on its more expensive models.

Key Differences

Higher resolution sensor (16.2MP vs. 14MP)
1080p video mode
Wider ISO range (100-25,600 equivalent)
Full-time AF mode (AF-F in live view)
Dual IR receivers (front and rear)
Side-articulated LCD screen (as opposed to bottom-articulated)
921k dot LCD screen
14-bit NEF (Raw) mode
Effects modes

...and someone here said it wasn't much of an upgrade?

I've gone from a D5000 to a D5100 myself, which is now a backup to my D3.

Hi Jack55,
Thanks for the reply.
There is something you could do for me if you wouldn't mind.
On the D5k if you try to change the brightness or contrast with Active D lighting turned on it wont let you. I you turn off A.D.L then change the brightness or/and the Contrast take a shot ,when you turn ADL back on it cancels out the changes .When you review the photo in camera it shows "active D lighting" where the brightness and contrast changes would have been.
On my D5100 this doesn't happen , with ADL turned on I can still change the brightness and contrast, plus if I take a shot with ADL on it still leaves those changes in place. Plus when I review it in camera it shows those changes to brightness and contrast as well as ADL being on.
Would you kindly check to see if your D5100 is the same mine.

The reason I'm asking is I bought a book on the D5100 by David Busch and in it he describes the the D5100s ADL working exactly the same as the D5K by not allowing B & C changes when ADL is on.
I never had a book on the D5K but the D5100 doesn't come with a decent hand book.
I'm hoping that David Busch just upgraded the book but didn't pick up on all the changes between models.
I could go to the dealer but it's a long drive.
Many thanks.

Did you try ADL bracketing?
I tried coping the text on the PDF online manual, which is updated, but it wouldn't let me. Go to Nikon, download the pdf manual and that should help... they had a lot of info on the different ways to use ADL.

Thanks for the reply Jack55 ,
There appears to be a misunderstanding here, perhaps I didn't explain myself very well.

I have now made the journey to the Nikon dealer and found out that the book by David Busch is wrong .
It appears he has mostly just changed the name of the book from D5000 to D5100 and not done enough research into the differences between the two cameras.
It's the first camera book I have bought for ages, but as the handbook is such rubbish I thought I would spoil myself Dohh!
Looking through the Cds contents on my PC is a pain ,nowhere near as good as thumbing through a decent manual. There is a web company that prints manuals off for about £14 = $20+ but Nikon needs to rethink this miserly idea.