Nikon clearly has the corner on the “Picture Mode” market with their 19 modes: Portrait, Landscape, Child, Sports, Close-up, Night portrait, Night landscape, Party/Indoor, Beach/Snow, Sunset, Dusk/Dawn, Pet portrait, Candlelight, Blossom, Autumn colors, Food, Silhouette, High key, and Low key effects. Canon, weighs in with a basic six: Standard, Portrait, Landscape, Neutral, Faithful, and Monochrome. There are also three user preset modes, but they fall a little short.

This looks like Nikon giving a nod to the marketing guys - giving them more to peddle to the target consumer/enthusiast segment. Between the in-camera editing, including the D-lighting feature, and the Picture modes, the D5000 gives users a lot of ways to get the effects they want straight out of the camera.

This isn’t a deal-breaker, one way or the other, but it does give an interesting insight into how the designers are targeting their products.