|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Nikon DSLR
Home > Digital Camera Reviews > Nikon Digital Cameras > Nikon DSLR
Advertisement
Nikon D60 Digital Camera Reviewby Steve MorgensternPublished on June 03, 2008
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.
If you value accurate color reproduction, the D60 is not your camera. The similarly-priced Canon XSi performs particularly well in this area, surpassing even the generally excellent Nikon D300, so there's no shame in failing to match that lofty standard. But the D60 scored worse in this area than the Nikon D40, which has been on the market for nearly two years and can't match the processing power of its new brandmate.
The only saving grace here: consumers don't notice most color accuracy flaws unless the original subject and the photograph are seen together. The color the D60 captures will look fine to most users, but you would definitely notice the superior color of the XSi if you looked at photos from the two cameras side by side.
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.
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.
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.
White Balance (5.35)
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.
Low Light (7.72) 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. Dynamic Range (7.23)
The wider the dynamic range, the better the camera captures both the bright highlights in a scene and the dark shadow areas. To test dynamic range, we repeatedly photograph a backlit test strip with the full range of shades from pure white to pitch black. The resulting images are processed using Imatest software, which can determine the number of steps the camera successfully captured with more accuracy than the human eye.
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.
Speed/Timing
Tests to determine the shooting speed of the D60 were conducted using a 2GB PNY SD card, shooting at default image settings (fine resolution, medium image size). Startup to First Shot (9.20)
This test checks how quickly you can take your first photo after turning on the camera. The D60 performs well here, consistently squeezing off a first shot in less than half a second after flipping the power switch. This means you should be able to catch most candid shots without problems. Shot-to-Shot (2.75) Here we test the time between shots when holding down the shutter in Continuous Release mode. Nikon claims to capture up to 3 frames per second (fps). Our testing came up with just under 2.75 fps –a good result for an inexpensive SLR. Shutter-Shot (10.00) The delay between the moment you press down on the shutter and the instant the picture is taken was too short to measure accurately – our results were consistently less than 0.2 seconds, which is a fine performance for a camera in this class. Processing (4.79) A few fractions of a second are consumed after every shot processing the digital information from the sensor, storing it on the memory card, and then displaying it on the screen – this is the time that elapses before a review image appears on the LCD screen. Here again Nikon's new processing chipset performs decently, taking an average of just 1.7 seconds between shooting the photo and seeing it displayed. That's a little slower than some, but it shouldn't prove to be a major problem for most users.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
© Copyright 2008 DigitalCameraInfo.com, all rights reserved. All trademarks and product names are property of their respective owners. DigitalCameraInfo.com makes no guarantees regarding any of the advice offered on this web site or by its staff or users. All user comments and postings are not the responsibility of DigitalCameraInfo.com. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||