A couple weeks ago I asked the question about how long a video the D5000 could make. I got several good answers (but to be honest I don't remember what they were).

Today, I had the opportunity to make a couple videos and I learned that the apparent limit is 20 minutes. I had put in a 4GB SD just to make sure the size of the media didn't limit the video recording time. The first I made started at 20 minutes and counted down to about 5 before I stopped it. A little while later I started another and it again started at 20 minutes again. I let it run about 5 minutes and shut it off. Finally I started a 3rd video just to see if it would start at 20 minutes again. It did. I'm quite pleased with this performance, especially since it means you could stop a video and immediately restart it and make a much longer film.

Tom
D5000IR, V1, Oly OM-D E-M5
Nikkor Zooms: AF-S 18-105 f/3.5-5.6 VR, VR, AF-S 18-135 f/3.5-5.6
Nikkor primes: 24 f/2.8Ai-S, 28 f/2.8D, Micro 60 f/2.8, 85 f/1.4D, Nikkor-C 500 f/8 Refl.
Nikon 1 lenses: 10mm f/2.8, 10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 VR, 30-110mm f/3.8-5.6.
Voigtlander 58mm f/1.4, Sigma 70-300 Macro f/3.5-5.6.
Oly 12-42mm f/3.5-5.6, 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3, 12mm f/2.0, 45mm f/1.8, 75mm f/1.8.
Lumix 20mm f/1.7, 14-140mm f/4.0-5.8, 100-300mm f/4.0-5.6
Gitzo GT3541L, Manfrotto MT293A4, MP 680B
Markins M-20, RRS BH-25 Pro

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the review.
From the D5000 Users Manual:
"Maximum Size
Each movie file can be up to 2 GB in size. The maximum length is 5 min for movies with
a frame size of 1280 × 720, 20 min for other movies; note that depending on memory
card write speed, shooting may end before this length is reached."

It seems the write speed of the memory card could also reduce the maximum time.
Good Luck and Enjoy your nIKONS!

Best Regards,
Marty