To many to name
Easy to handle
Light weight
Quick start up
Takes beautiful pictures
battery life is great

None so far

I love this camera. This is my first DSLR and it is amazing. It lets me adjust settings so I can practice and learn what works. At the same time if I am not sure about the setting it has plenty of help programs that will take great shots and adjust the settings for me. I am fairly new to photograpy, I love this camera because it feels like a stepping stone. This is the camera that will prepare me for a more expensive camera.

Predictable performance
Small size
Quiet
Image quality

I'm surpised that an entry-level camera can satisfy me and take the place of one of the all-time great film cameras

The viewfinder is not really big enough to allow me to see the detail of what I'm shooting. I can't see the facial expressions of people in a scene unless they are really prominent in the image

I bought a kit with the 16-85VR lens (which is what I really wanted) and the D60. Why would Nikon make a kit with one of their best lenses and an entry-level body? I guess it's for photojournalists so here we go for an Experts view of the D60

First surprise: The D60+lens fits in the bag that I used for my Leica. First time ever that an SLR has fitted in the bag. This is important to me. Most of the time I am in cities. I need a small shoulderbag that doesn't get in the way in the subway, doesn't look like a camera bag but the camera can be got out in an instant when I see something and put away just as quickly.

Second suprise: The D60 is really quiet. The shutter release is sweet. At 6 feet you can hardly hear the camera

Third surprise: The D60 with the 16-85VR feels good. The 16-85VR is quite heavy and has no sloppiness or play. Set it at 28mm and it says there. The whole system feels like a quality job.

So my first task was to plunge into the menus and set up the camera the way I wanted. The camera features are often the same as the D300 but instead of having a button to control it you have to plunge into the menus which takes time
I set up the camera the way I wanted it and left it there (deactivate autofocus assist, activate auto-ISO, user-selected focussing zones, never use the automatic flash pop-up..)

It is very important to me to have predictable focus. When I'm doing pictures indoors there is often limited depth of focus and I have to be sure that the camera will focus where I want and hold focus while I reframe before taking the shot
The D60 focussing is very accurate. I even tried it with my 85mm f1.8 (using manual focus and the focus-assist spot). The D60 focusses fast and it's accurate. I just found that I have a slight tendency to release the autofocus hold and
refocus on the center when the subject is at the edges. Matter of practice.

Accurate exposure is important to me. The lighting indoors is often not ideal. There is often a bright patch of light in the wrong place and I have to correct the whole thing in the lab later on (I shoot RAW). I need a camera which is not fooled by atypical lighting situations. The D60 does quite a good job, but not as good as the D300. The maximum correction so far with the D60 has been 1.5 stops and more often it's within 2/3 or a stop. Contrast correction is the same story, the simplest way is to use D-lighting in NX which brings up the mid-tones and puts detail back into shadowed faces.

Most of the time with the Leica I was shooting on 400ISO film. 1/60 f4 was a typical exposure setting. So far with the D60 its been about the same. I know I have in reserve the ability to go to 1600ISO and the lens has VR which gives me some more leeway in low light.

I don't usually need the built-in flash. It's been useful a couple of time to give extra light on a subject's face when I had to do a good job (the local beauty queen under an umbrella on a rainy day). The camera got the flash/ambient balance just right. I have tried the D60 with a serious flash (SB800) - no problems with that so far.

Image quality is important to me. The image has to be very clear to tell my story, with nice tones. The D60 at 400 ISO look like what I got from my 6x6 film Hasselblad. Very satisfactory. A lot of what I do in cities I convert to
black-and-white and I haven't quite found the same tones as with black and white film, but that's not an issue with the camera

Customer Service

Excellent service from the Nikon center in Paris

Similar Products Used:

Nikon D300, D200, D70, Leica M4P, Konica Hexar, Minolta CLE, Leica CL, Rollei 35

responsive
high ISO range
very light
fast repeating shutter (3fps {best you can get at this price point})
versatile
AWESOME kit lens (fast AF too)

lacks some features of other cameras (within this price range).

high iso noise

anti-dust does almost nothing

a bit small for those with larger hands

they dont(yet) make a battery grip with internal wiring for functions(shutter release etc)

This is a great DSLR! anyone looking for their first steps into the DSLR world will be very happy.

I've been shooting with this camera for a few months now and im amazed with it's ability to do just about whatever I want. this is my first DSLR and im a bit of a technical guy so I have looked into the competition extensively and i am confident this camera was the right step into the DSLR world. As the anti-dust facilities are almost a joke I've already had experience cleaning my camera and it's not incredibly hard, dont be fooled that this feature will keep you from having to clean your sensor, but its no big deal. the first body I got had a dead pixel and was easily returned for a new body at best-buy, but the customer service and trouble shooting offered by nikon was awesome (24-7, very knowledgeable)

I shoot with the kit 18-55vr and the 55-200 vr
have also used the 70-300 nikkor(not too impressed
50mm f1.8(need to buy one soon)

I have an sb600 strobe(very useful)

if youd like to see more of that this camera is capable of feel free to check out my flickr account: www.flickr.com/ggcadc

Customer Service

incredibly happy with nikon's customer service!

Similar Products Used:

Nikon D80
Canon XTi

-small
-lightweight
-excellent image quality
-very good build quality (good "haptics")
-special features (ADR, Auto ISO, ...)
-great kit lens
-quick, easy, intuitive operation
-all buttons easy accessible
-customizable menus
-clear, bright finder
-great built-in flash
-crystal-clear LCD
-dedicated AF assist light
-cheap!

-no depth-of-field preview (not really a problem, look at the LCD)
-no Live View (who needs this? IMHO, this is a feature for compact camera users)
-no internal AF drive (may be a problem if you own older AF lenses)
-no dedicated buttons for all features (if you need this, go and buy a D3 ;-))

A very compact & lightweight DSLR, great build quality (compared to e.g. Canons Rebel XTi/450D). Very easy to operate, it has all the features you need and some more. It includes the great Active D-Lighting function (it shares this function with the D3/D300/D700), Nikon´s special Auto ISO function (perfect) and has (in its price range) probably the best image quality (especially at high ISO rates!). Customizable Menus give you the ability to access only the features you need by a few clicks. It lacks special Buttons for WB, ISO and so on, but its menu structure allows it to adjust all settings very quickly - additionally, you can assign at least one special function to the function key (I use it for changing WB). It has a 10 MP CCD (DX format, crop factor 1.5) with a built-in sensor cleaning function. It lacks an internal AF motor, so it can ONLY autofocus with AF-S and AF-I Nikkors (which have an internal motor) - ALL other AF lenses can only be focused manually! For me this is not a problem, since I do not own older AF Nikkors (I used to shoot Minolta), but this definitely limits your choice ob AF lenses. An iTTL flash is included, which works great and automatically adjusts the necessary flash intensity depending on the picture. Unlike other Cameras (which use the built-in flash), it has a special LED to provide AF aid light. Generally it focuses fast and safe, it only has 3 AF sensors - I prefer that, since you can switch very quickly between them -and each sensor covers quite a large area. It has a very good Matrix metering system, which works great under severe conditions - especially combined with the Active D-Lighting, which is great for high contrast subjects (see e.g. www.kenrockwell.com for further details). The frame rate in continuous mode is 3fps, which is normal in its price range. The included kit lens (18-55 VR) has a great optical performance, is very lightweight, and is totaly made from plastic (except the lenses, which are glass - Canon´s kit objectives really do use plastic LENSES!) - I bought the kit with the VR lens, which means vibrational reduction (works GREAT!!!). Most people seem to judge this lens as "average" without even relly testing it - I like it, it´s quite sharp, superlightweight and has very low distortions. It´s even quite good wide open! Sometimes I miss one thing: a depth-of-field preview button - it has none. This is sad, but since its a DSLR, you just can take the picture and look at the screen afterwards to check your depth of field. IMHO, this is ok or sometimes even better than stopping down, since you do not have to look at the darker image in the finder when stopped down. Its LCD is super bright, has a very good color rendition and is extraordinary sharp. The card slot takes SDHC cards - I use an 8 GB card, which stores more than 2000 pictures (jpg, size Large, quality Normal - alternatively, you can store 600 RAW files, or 1000 highest quality jpgs, but imho the normal setting does not make a difference, since I do not print posters). The finder is brighter than the Canon´s, Olympus, Pentax´and so on, but as small as usual for APS-C sensor cameras. My old Minoltas had huge viewfinders compared to this one!

Customer Service

No experience yet...

Similar Products Used:

AF-S Nikkor 55-200mm VR