Nikon D60

Print | Close this window

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/digitalcameras/0,39030233,49296171,00.htm

Reviewed 3 April 2008

Reviewed by Philip Ryan

There was a time when the idea of an entry-level dSLR was an oxymoron. Even the least expensive dSLR was a large step up from the digital compacts at the time. These days, entry-level dSLRs are being made to be entry level, and their prices line up closely with the most expensive compact cameras.

For around £450 with lens, Nikon's D60 is a good example of the current breed of these dSLRs. It checks in with a healthy 10.2-megapixel CCD sensor, a slightly small-by-comparison 64mm (2.5-inch) LCD, and an upgraded, optically stabilised kit lens.

Design
The fact that the D60 looks almost exactly like the Nikon D40x probably doesn't help Nikon's public perception on this model. Nikon even says that it has the exact same form factor as the D40x. Of course, that's not a bad thing, since the design is good. At 495g with a battery and an SD card, it's lightweight enough to shoot comfortably for a day, and the kit lens is one of the lightest Nikon lenses we've worked with, so it doesn't add much weight.

The body is also quite small and will fit well into smaller camera bags, though the grip will leave your pinky finger dangling off the bottom of the body -- something that tends to bother us, but doesn't bother most people.

As has become the trend, many of the camera's controls are accessed through a virtual control system on the LCD instead of physical buttons on the camera body. When Nikon first switched to this system, we were hesitant, but we can see why users that are used to a compact camera might find this system more familiar than trying to learn the layout of a hard-button-based system.

Nikon also includes a nice visual representation of aperture and shutter speed to underscore the fact that the aperture blades make a smaller opening for light in the lens as you make the f-stop a higher number, while showing bars that wrap around those virtual aperture blades as you make the shutter speed faster.

They still make you press the "i" button to get into the control system, which wasn't intuitive to us the first time we encountered it, though there's so little space on the camera back, and the button doubles as a zoom control in playback mode. That double functionality was our biggest gripe about this system though, since we ended up zooming in during the automatic image review quite and had to first press the shutter button halfway to exit that before getting into the control system.

We could have turned the automatic image review off in the custom function menu, but we don't think that is an adequate solution to this issue. One thing Nikon could do is relocate the playback button above where it is now, to the left shoulder of the camera, behind the lug for the strap. Then they could shift the other three buttons up one and give the control system its own button.

Features
Given that Nikon prices the D60 higher than some competitors, notably Olympus's E-510, Pentax's K200D and the Sony DSLR-A200, you'd think that they would include more than this camera's three autofocus points. Even more so since the Pentax and Sony offer 11- and 9-AF points respectively and, along with the Olympus, offer sensor-shift image stabilisation systems that work with all lenses for their respective mounts.

Of course, the big benefit of optical image stabilisation is that you'll see the stabilising effect while you frame your shot, which becomes more useful when your lens' focal length becomes longer. However, this shouldn't be a major issue until you reach focal lengths in the range of 300mm and higher, so if you don't plan to get a very long lens, the edge provided by lens-based stabilisation may be moot compared with the sensor-shift alternatives.

Nikon's menu system in the D60 hasn't changed much from the D40x, but it now includes a retouch menu, so you can tweak your images in the camera after you shoot them. In addition to the tweaks included in the D40x, such as D-Lighting -- to fix minor exposure issues and bring detail out of shadow areas all in one-step -- plus red-eye reduction and cropping, Nikon has added a couple of new filter effects with the D60.

Red, green and blue Intensifiers let you add some saturation to those colours, while the Cross Screen filter mimics a traditional Cross Star lens filter, adding a twinkle to small light sources and highlights in an image. The Cross Screen can look cool, and Nikon includes controls for the angle, length and number (4, 6 or 8) of points, as well as the intensity of the effect. Be careful to use this filter in moderation, though -- it can have a digitally enhanced look to it if taken too far.

Nikon has also built an NEF (Nikon's raw image file type) to JPEG converter. While this makes up for the fact that you're limited to shooting basic, highly compressed JPEGs when shooting raw+JPEG with the D60, we'd rather Nikon include this and let us shoot fine, lowest compression JPEGs in raw+JPEG mode. Still, it's nice to be able to do a basic conversion on the fly if needed.

More fun than the raw conversion is the D60's Stop Motion Movie mode, which lets you convert a series of JPEG files into an AVI movie up to 640x480 pixels at a frame rate of up to 15 frames per second. The process is really easy, and you can even change the start and end points, remove specific frames from the middle, and change the frame rate before finalising. A preview option lets you confirm you've got it right before committing. We made a short clip, but we got conversion errors whenever we tried to upload it to YouTube.

Another nifty new feature is the Rangefinder function. The feature converts the exposure/exposure compensation scale to a distance-based focus assist when you're in manual focus mode and not shooting in full manual exposure mode. Since the D60 -- like the Nikon D40 and D40x before it -- can only autofocus with Nikon's AF-S and AF-I lenses, the Rangefinder feature offers nice help when focusing with a non-AF-S or AF-I lens. Be warned though, in low light, the Rangefinder function may get confused, just as the camera's AF system tends to.

Performance
We're not entirely certain why, but while the D40 had a flash sync speed of 1/500 second, the D40x and now the D60 have a sync speed of 1/200 second, as does the Canon EOS 450D. Both the Pentax K200D and the Olympus E-510 sync at 1/180 second, while the Sony A200 and Panasonic Lumix DMC-L10 have sync speeds of 1/160 second. If you don't know what a sync speed is, it's the fastest shutter speed you can use with the camera's built-in flash.

Since there are times when you need a fast shutter speed to stop the motion of a subject, but still might need to use the flash as fill flash, perhaps for a backlit subject in motion, such as a footballer running towards you down the field, the general rule is that a faster sync speed is better. As such, the Nikons' and Canon's sync of 1/200 second is the best of the budget bunch, but it would've been even nicer if Nikon would've kept the 1/500 second speed of the D40.

The D60 performed well in our tests, showing a slight improvement over the D40x in its low-light shutter lag and raw shot-to-shot times, but was slower on start up, though it's still plenty fast. The camera took 0.4 seconds to start up and capture its first JPEG and took 0.5 seconds between subsequent JPEGs with the flash turned off. With the flash turned on, that stretched to 0.8 seconds, while the camera took 0.5 seconds between shots when shooting raw.

Shutter lag measured an impressive 0.4 seconds in our high contrast test and 0.7 seconds in our low contrast test, which respectively mimic bright and dim shooting conditions. However, in our field tests, the camera did get confused on several occasions when shooting in dim light. Sometimes, it would fail to achieve focus in situations where a lot of other cameras could.

When it was able to focus in dim situations, it locks rather quickly, but it just isn't quite as reliable as some more expensive Nikons, or as reliable as we remember the D40x to be. In our continuous-shooting test, the D60 was able to capture an average of 2.8 frames per second (fps), putting it extremely close to Nikon's claim of 3fps.

Image quality
Image quality from the Nikon D60 is very nice, though our numerically based colour accuracy test, and close side-by-side scrutiny with images from other very accurate -- and more expensive -- models, showed that its images aren't quite as colour accurate as competitive cameras we have tested so far.

Shooting speed (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Time to first shot

Raw shot-to-shot time

Shutter lag (dim light)

Shutter lag (typical)

Sony Alpha DSLR-A200

0.5

0.6

1.2

0.3

Nikon D60

0.4

0.5

0.7

0.4

Olympus E-510

1.3

0.8

1.3

0.4

Pentax K100D

1.2

0.5

1.3

0.4

Typical continuous-shooting speed (in frames per second)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Typical continuous-shooting speed

Pentax K100D

3.1

Olympus E-510

2.9

Nikon D60

2.8

Sony Alpha DSLR-A200

2.8

However, most people won't be able to tell a major difference in this area. Unless you're completely fanatical about colours being represented absolutely exactly as they exist -- something most consumer-oriented film rarely did back in the day -- then it shouldn't be a major issue for you. This is especially true since the D60 turned in pleasing, if slightly oversaturated, colours and in other ways its image quality is nice for a camera of its class.

The D60 includes Nikon's 3D Matrix Metering II to determine exposure when not using centre-weighted or spot metering. Nikon's Matrix mode does a very good job of determining the best exposure for a given scene. Generally, it seems to make the most logical compromise between preserving highlight or shadow detail.

For example, if faced with a high contrast scene and the area of highlight detail is significantly smaller than the main area of shadow detail, the camera will likely sacrifice the highlights to hold on to the shadows. However, since the system also compares the given scene with a database of images, the camera should notice if you're shooting a portrait, or other scene, in which a simple compromise wouldn't be best. We have to say that we are impressed with the camera's metering.

This crop of a bird in a tree shows that despite the somewhat high-contrast scene, the D60 retained a decent amount of detail in the shadow areas

As has been the case with other Nikon SLRs recently, the D60 does a very good job of keeping noise in check. At ISO 100 and ISO 200, noise is virtually nonexistent and only starts to creep in at ISO 400, though it doesn't take away any significant amount of sharpness or shadow detail. By ISO 800 a minor amount of grain is present, a very minor amount of sharpness becomes softened, and an equally small amount of shadow detail falls away.

Even at ISO 1,600 there is a decent amount of shadow detail and a tonne of sharpness given such a high sensitivity in an entry-level SLR. At ISO 3,200, which Nikon calls Hi1, noise is quite heavy, a large amount of shadow detail is lost, and while noise obscures a lot of sharpness, there's still a substantial amount. Still, we suggest sticking with ISO 1,600 and below whenever possible.

Conclusion
While the new features are nice, the D60 falls behind the competition in several areas in terms of its specifications. For instance, Sony's DSLR-A200 also sports 10.2-megapixels, but has a slightly larger 69mm (2.7-inch) screen, body-based image stabilisation, similar in-camera editing and dynamic-range optimisation features, and costs less than this Nikon.

Its performance numbers were slightly worse than the D60, but not by very much. Meanwhile Canon's EOS 450D, offers 12.2-megapixels, a 76mm (3-inch) LCD, 14-bit digital-to-analogue conversion, and also comes with an optically stabilised lens, though its list price is higher than the D60.

The main issue with this Nikon is that it doesn't feel like a major upgrade over the D40x, while Sony and Canon's upgrades over their predecessors are easy for consumers to understand.

Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday