Nikon D60

This is the section of our report where we put the D60 through intensive laboratory testing to determine image quality performance relative to the hundreds of other cameras we've tested.

Overall the D60 tested well for a camera in its price range. While its color performance is underwhelming, its low-noise shooting results make it a good choice for large-scale prints or substantial enlargments of small sections of an image. And with a processor that's been upgraded from its D40x predecessor, we were impressed with the snappy performance figures for fast shooting and image processing.

Color (5.08)
Colors captured by the D60 aren't reproduced as accurately as we'd hoped, particularly in the blue and purple parts of the spectrum. Skin colors are likely to look about right, but skies, water, and other bluish tones could be noticeably off. The Nikon also tends to oversaturate colors, giving them an unnatural Kodacolor-style warmth. This boosted reality may appeal to certain consumers, but it isn't an accurate reproduction.  To test color accuracy we photograph an industry-standard GregtagMacbeth color chart under tightly-controlled lighting conditions. The resulting images are scrutinized using Imatest, a sophisticated image analysis program. This computerized process can determine how closely the camera reproduces known colors from the test chart. The results include numerical scores and the following test chart:

The 'ideal' is the original chart color, the outer rectangle wha the D60 captured.

In this chart, the outer border of each rectangle represents the color captured by the camera, while the inner square displays the color after luminance correction has been applied. The vertical rectangle shows the standard color as depicted on the color chart.

A second chart produced by Imatest provides further information regarding color accuracy, including statistical results. The squares represent the ideal color values as shown on the color chart, and the circles indicate the color values as captured by the camera. The shorter the distance between the square and the circle for each color, the more accurate the reproduction.

The squares represent the original chart color, the
circles represent what the D60 captured.

The D60 was tested with the color space set to the default sRGB color mode, which Nikon recommends for nature and landscape shots. The camera also supports a second sRGB mode, recommended for portraits, and the Adobe RGB color space, best suited for images destined for professional color printing.

Resolution (10.13)
In this test, we look at the amount of detail a camera can capture. Image resolution is measured based on a measure called line widths per picture height (lw/ph) – the number of distinct alternating black and white lines the camera can capture. There is more to resolution performance than the megapixel count of the camera's sensor. The raw data produced by the sensor has to be processed by the camera's circuitry, which can have a dramatic impact on the final image resolution. A higher megapixel count isn't an accurate predictor of resolution performance either, since cramming more receptors into a small space to increase the megapixel count can actually deteriorate image quality.

The industry-standard resolution chart we use for testing.

In judging the resolution tests, a higher lw/ph result indicates superior performance and a sharper image. The D60 did very well in our resolution testing, especially for an inexpensive SLR, with lw/ph scores well over 1900. This represents a huge leap when compared to the Nikon D40 and Pentax K10D, and even comes close to the resolution performance of the higher-end Nikon D300. Here again, Canon's XSi shows remarkable performance for an inexpensive camera.

Noise – Manual ISO (12.58)
Look very closely at a digital photograph and you'll find tiny clumps and blotches, particularly visible in large solid-color areas that are either very light or very dark. This imperfection is called noise, caused by shortcomings in a camera's sensor and electronics. Every image sensor has an optimal light sensitivity level and, the further you push it beyond that spec, the more noise you see in the resulting image. Noise becomes more of a problem as you boost the ISO setting to take low-light photos without flash or when blowing up a small part of a captured image to substantial print size.

Our testing procedure here requires multiple photos of a brightly lit color chart, systematically increasing the ISO level to produce a complete spectrum of test images, then analyzing these using Imatest to determine the noise level. The graph below displays two sets of results: one with camera's noise reduction processing on, the other with noise reduction off.

Nikon cameras generally perform very well when it comes to noise, and the D60 is no exception, shooting both with and without in-camera noise reduction processing turned on, at the full range of ISO settings. Turning the noise reduction setting on has little effect at low ISO settings, but from ISO 400 on, the improvement is significant. 

The overall noise performance for the D60 is a major win versus the competition, significantly besting the Canon XSi and even surpassing the pricier Nikon D300. While the importance of color accuracy is arguable in real-world viewing, anyone who hopes to print photos larger than 4 x 6 size or regularly shoots in low light situations such as concerts and parties will recognize the benefit of minimizing image noise.

Auto Noise (11.34)
As an additional check, we test noise levels with the camera set to automatic ISO, a popular choice when shooting quickly in a variety of lighting conditions. Here the camera chose conservative ISO settings between 280 and 320, and again delivered very good noise performance.

White Balance (5.35)
Our eyes don't perceive the difference in the color of a light source – the greenish tinge of a fluorescent bulb, for example, versus the orange light from a household lightbulb – but our cameras certainly do, and compensate for the difference via a setting called white balance. Every consumer camera includes an automatic white balance function that meters the light conditions and adjusts accordingly. While this capability has improved dramatically in the past few years, there are still situations where the photographer will want more control over the white balance setting. For the D60, as with most SLRs, this includes several presets for different lighting situations plus the option to create a manual white balance by shooting a white or gray card and having the camera determine the appropriate setting based on that reference point.

Auto (6.13)
The Nikon D60 has some problems with white balance, both on the auto setting and with the provided preset selections. Tungsten lighting (the kind produced by household bulbs) produces particularly poor results on the automatic white balance setting, which is problematic for available light photography. The automatic setting does produce a much more accurate result than the white balance preset, though, when shooting under fluorescent light. There's some logic to this, since the color temperature of fluorescents varies widely. The automatic setting also surpasses the preset in our daylight shade test, which is surprising.

Preset (4.57)
Based on our testing, using the tungsten preset is highly recommended when shooting with regular indoor light bulbs. Otherwise, just leave white balance on auto.

Exaggerated White Balance Errors (Presets)

Flash Preset WB - Flash Illumination

Florescent Preset WB - Fluorescent Illumination

Cloudy Daylight preset WB - Daylight illumination

Tungsten preset WB - Tungsten illumination

 
Still Life
To further test the Nikon D60, we took a variety of photos of a happily married couple and a still life scene at all ISO settings the camera supports. To view the original, full resolution version of any file, click on the image. However, remember that these files are very large (some are more than 4MB), so they may take a long time to download.

Low Light (7.72)
A camera's low-light performance has become a key differentiating factor when choosing between models. Improvements in sensor sensitivity and digital image processing let us successfully shoot without flash in situations that would been impossible just two or three years ago. This has led to fewer babies startled to tears by a flash in the face and kittens photographed with demonic glowing eyes, for which we are eternally grateful. While low-light performance has improved industry-wide, though, significant differences from camera to camera remain.

The D60 does well shooting in low light. The two desirable camera characteristics in low-light shooting are maintaining an accurate exposure and minimizing image noise.

Even with a 30-second exposure time, images are well exposed and show little noise. In fact, noise performance is remarkably consistent across the entire range from 1 to 30 seconds, with and without in-camera noise reduction.

The dynamic range for the D60 drops off very quickly as the ISO setting increases. We expect some deterioration at higher ISO settings, but the results here are worse than expected, leading to a loss of shadow detail when shooting in low light. The similarly-priced Canon XSi manages far superior performance here, nearly equaling the Nikon D300, while the D60 falls short of the scores recorded for its less expensive cousin, the Nikon D40.