Nikon D60 review

Nikon D60 Review

Reviewed by: Philip Ryan

Reviewed on: 3 April 2008

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.