Nikon D60 review

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