Photo-facts A-Z

Nikon D60: Review

Tuesday, 19 February 2008

The D60 is a 10-megapixel digital SLR aimed principally at beginners, with a clear, simple control layout and a range of in-camera retouching options which let you enhance your pictures once you’ve taken them without having to use a computer. It follows on from Nikon’s D40x, which also has 10 million pixels and shares the same body design and layout. The D60 is updated, though, with new features and enhancements. You wouldn’t upgrade your D40x to this camera, though, because the step isn’t big enough. Instead, the D60 is aimed at capturing first-time buyers.

The D60 can be bought in body-only form, but it’s much better going for one of the body/lens kits. The cheapest includes the existing Nikkor 18-55mm low-cost kit lens, but for just £30 more you can get it with the new VR (Vibration Reduction) version of this lens which does a good job of cutting camera shake at slower shutter speeds.

What’s special about it?

★The 2.5-inch LCD is used for the graphical control interface, which looks terrific and displays all the shooting information very clearly. You press a button to make the display ‘interactive’ so that you can move around it, selecting and changing settings.
★A new dust removal and airflow control system should reduce or even eliminate dust on the sensor and hence spots on your photos.
★The Nikkor 18-55mm VR lens should help you get sharp shots 2-3 shutter speeds slower than usual.
★You can shoot RAW files and then convert them into JPEGs in-camera, changing certain shooting settings if required. Or use the bundled Nikon ViewNX software to carry out basic RAW file conversion on your computer.
★The optional ‘Active D-Lighting’ mode adjusts the exposure so that the maximum highlight detail is recorded, then enhances the shadow detail as the image is processed so that you get good results even with high-contrast scenes.
★An eye sensor below the viewfinder detects when you put the camera to your eye and switches off the LCD display so that it doesn’t distract you.

What’s it like to use?

There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that the D60 is small and light and you’ll hardly notice you’re carrying it. The settings are displayed really clearly on the LCD and it’s easy to see what you’ve got to do to change any of them. The bad news is that the body is so small it feels a little cramped. Worse than that, though, is that although the settings are really clear, it takes a lot of button-presses to change the ISO, the white balance and other options. It does slow you down when you’re taking pictures and experimenting with different settings.

What are the pictures like?

The pictures are very good. The 18-55mm VR lens is pretty sharp, and the VR works well, too. There’s a fair amount of barrel distortion at the wideangle setting, but you must expect this with zoom lenses. There’s some chromatic aberration (colour fringing) at the frame edges that you wouldn’t get with more expensive lenses, but it’s not too bad and you’d expect it at this price anyway.

The colour rendition is fine. In Standard colour mode, the D60’s shots are rich and natural-looking, but in Vivid and Vivid+ modes, the colours really ‘pop’, but without ever starting to look unreal. If you shoot RAW files, you can choose the colour mode when you convert the images in Nikon ViewNX – and you can also shoot pictures in mono.

The exposure metering isn’t bad, but the default Color Matrix metering does tend to overexpose high-contrast subjects. This is typical of multi-segment metering systems in general. If you want to make sure that highlights are preserved, you’re better of switching to the simpler centre-weighted metering mode.

Nikon’s VR system certainly works. This was shot hand-held at 1/8sec. Long enough to blur the water but the sticks and foliage are still perfectly sharp.

Nikon claims super-fast startup and shutter response times, but in reality you’re always going to be dependent on the speed of the autofocus system. The Nikkor 18-55mm is quite quick, but you still need a little anticipation to grab candid shots like these where timing is everything.

If you like your colours intense (I do), then the D60 doesn’t disappoint. This was shot in Vivid+ mode, but if you shoot RAW files you can always change your mind later in Nikon ViewNX.

The maximum ISO is 1600, though there is also a ‘high’ mode equivalent to ISO 3200. In this ISO 1600 shot, the detail remains good and the noise is well controlled too.

To see more pictures taken with the D60, click here to visit a gallery.

Should you buy it?

The D60 is a very good camera for beginners, or people who want to take top-quality pictures without having to learn a lot about photography. It has a very clear and attractive display and lots of shooting and retouching options to experiment with. But changing the settings involves quite a lot of button-pressing, so more experienced users could soon find this camera quite frustrating to use. If you’re thinking of upgrading your current SLR, you’ll probably want something more ‘professional’ with more hands-on control, like the Nikon D80, for example.

What are the alternatives?

CANON EOS 450D: The 12-megapixel sensor gives the EOS 450D a 2-megapixel advantage over the D60 and the Canon has an excellent Live View mode for composing shots using the LCD. The picture quality is average, though, with subdued colours and indifferent fine detail rendition – to get the best results you need to shoot RAW files rather than JPEGS.

OLYMPUS E-410: Smaller even than the Nikon D60, and with a much more compact kit lens. The E-410 has been around for a while but it’s still an excellent choice. It has built-in dust removal, an excellent Live View mode and great photographic controls which are easier to get to than on the D60. The new E-420 is very similar but has an improved Live View mode.

SONY ALPHA A200: The replacement for the Alpha 100, Sony’s first bash at a digital SLR. It’s the cheapest Alpha model, but it still comes with a sensor-based anti-shake system built in that should work with any lens. It’s little plasticky here and there, but the control layout is good, as is the picture quality and colour rendition. It’s excellent value for money, too.