Is the Nikon D5000 a better camera than the Nikon D50?

I've had a D50 fir about 6 years now and I recently bought my friends 2 year old D5000 for $300. I don't know much about the D5000 except for the fact that it shoots video and has a double the mega pixels that the D50 has, I just assumed it was a good upgrade from the 6 year old D50. I do a lot of landscape and low light/night photography, so I hope this was a good choice as an upgrade.
Thoughts and opinions please!

- Josh

It is an upgrade in many ways.

Have you done any research on DP Review to compare the two cameras.

I hope you know that just upgrading to a better camera will not necessarily make your images any better. To do that, you need to be continually improving your skills using such a camera and you need to study how you compose your images to make them more compelling.

You should see an immediate improvement in you low light photos. There should be a lot less noise.

http://www.dxomark.com/...nd2)/Nikon

You should have noticed that your new camera uses larger SDHC cards if you wish to buy larger ones

They are both entry level DSLRs, but the distinction of the D50 is that it was the only Nikon entry level DSLR to have an internal focus motor (so it can autofocus AF lenses).

However, the D5000, being a newer camera takes advantage of newer technology, as long as you don't need to autofocus AF lenses.

This tool shows many advantages that the D5000 has over the D50.
http://snapsort.com/...ikon_D5000

The thing is this Josh, more megapixels are mainly useful when you are making large prints intended to be viewed up close.

You aren't going to see any difference between 1, 000 megapixels and 16 megapixels if the photos are posted online @ 1000 pixels on the long side, unless its a photo made with a very high ISO level in which case noise will be less noticeable. For the most part, that's it.

Outside of that the D5000 is a better camera in pretty much every way it can be with a few exceptions such as the shutter for example. They both use a vertical travel focal plane shutter so its not like you are losing any flash sync speed benefits with your new upgrade. The viewfinder is still pentamirror rather than pentaprism which would be much brighter looking through the viewfinder. Many things are the same.

Its better for landscapes though because it has a greater dynamic range which means it can capture a greater range of brightness than the D50 and it can capture a greater amount of colors. Although it wouldn't be apparent without the right equipment to view them. ( Monitor, video card etc ) and even then the images are probably going to be converted to sRGB and posted online so nobody would really see that difference but still.

D5000 has an autofocus motor so there's greater lens compatibility, you have the option to use SDHC memory cards rather than standard SD for potentially faster storage of files on the card during capture. It also has an HDMI cable hookup if you are into that sort of thing. Of course it has video and the articulating screen etc but meh. I think the additional autofocus points are a bonus too. The low light performance is supposed to be better but its not by too much, it is better though.

So yeah all in all its a way better camera in most regards and its fine for an upgrade Josh no problems there.

In the future you may want to ask before you buy rather than after, lest thou gets the shaft ; D

Also if you intend to buy an SDHC memory card avoid ones marked as UHS-I. Those are rated for higher speeds but the camera also has to be UHS-I compliant to take advantage of that. The D5000 is not a UHS-I compliant device. It won't do you any good to buy one of those cards because it will operate at a much slower speed. You need a class 6 card for recording video.

Consider using an approved memory card
https://support.nikonusa.com/...-for-d5000

~ Anon