Nikon D60 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G Auto Focus-S Nikkor Zoom Lens

I've been using Canon PowerShot point-and-shoot digital cameras for the past 6 years, and because they're so small, portable, and unobtrusive, I've ended up taking a lot more photos that I ever did, because I had my camera with me. The good thing is that I've taken a lot more pictures, and most of them have been very good (the camera gets much of the credit here). But the bad thing is that I started to reach the limits of what a point-and-shoot camera can do. The biggest problems I had with my compact point-and-shoot camera was the lag between shots and the generally poor performance in low-light settings. For most shots, these weren't big problems, but when they were a problem, they were a huge problem, and there's not much you can to solve it without moving to a better camera. I don't think I'm the first person to reach a brick wall when using compact digital cameras, which is why there are now some excellent options that don't cost a fortune. After reading a lot of reviews for digital SLR cameras online, I narrowed it down to two choices: the Sony A300 or the Nikon D60. I love my compact Canon, but I wasn't all that impressed with the Canon dSLR's that I looked at, either in terms of price or features. The Sony is priced very competitively and offers some great features, such as auto-focus and image stabilization built into the camera itself, not relying on the lens. The A300 also has live preview on the LCD screen, which the D60 doesn't offer (live preview is what you get on a compact camera: you see what you are shooting as you take the picture). Finally, the A300 has more focus points than the Nikon. I spent a long time in several stores doing side-by-side comparisons of these two cameras. After many test shots, I finally chose the D60 for the following reasons: it felt more compact and less heavy than the Sony, I liked the way the lens felt when I was zooming, its LCD menu system was much clearer and more intuitive, and the Nikkor family of lenses is unbeatable. With a dSLR, it really gets down to which line you want to commit to for future lens purchases. I wasn't sure I wanted to go with Sony, when Nikon is well-known for quality optics. I ordered the D60 from Amazon and I'm glad I did, since they have a 30-day price match policy. If the price of the camera decreases within 30 days of your purchase, all you have to do is email Amazon, and they'll credit you with the difference. The price of the D60 went down three times after my purchase (it's even lower now, but I've passed my 30 days), and Amazon was fast to process the refund for each decrease. Please note that it's your responsibility to check on the current price. Amazon will not notify you that the price has gone down, and why should they? So if you do buy this from Amazon, be sure to check every couple of days to see what the current price is. As for the camera and the lens, I couldn't be happier. I love how it feels and how easy it is to use, at least for basic shots. Of course it won't fit in my pocket the way my point-and-shoot did, but it's not nearly as huge or heavy as I'd expected. The kit lens has VR (vibration reduction) which is a good thing to have, and it's well balanced with the compact body of this camera. In other words, the camera doesn't point down under the weight of the lens. Everyone who has tried out my new camera has commented on how compact and ergonomic it feels. The camera works extremely well in low-light settings, with or without flash (you can defeat the flash if you want, and I find that in many situations, I get better results that way). The flash is a lot more powerful than what you get on a compact camera, and the coverage is more even. So far, I've mainly used the "auto" mode, but I've taken some pictures in macro mode. It's graat to be able to take pictures in rapid succession, without having to wait the way you do with a point-and-shoot. Most important of all, the image quality is outstanding. The difference is noticeable and consistently better than what I was getting with my point-and-shoot. The LCD menu is intuitive and visually appealing. That was one of the reasons I went with the Nikon in the first place, and I haven't been disappointed. By pressing the right button as you move the mode dial, you can see a description of what each mode does, which is very helpful. It's sort of like having a "help" system built into the camera, without having to carry around the instructions. Having said that, the instruction manual is really quite good. It won't teach you everything you need to know about digital SLRs, but it does a good job of explaining the camera's features. Nevertheless, I recommend buying a more extensive guide book which is specific to the Nikon D60 (there is one by David Busch which is currently available, and several more are scheduled to appear within the next couple of months). So, I love this camera, especially at the very reasonable price point. However, there are some things that you should consider before making a final decision. First, the D60 will only provide auto-focus with Nikkor AF-S lenses. That means that most Nikon "prime" lenses will require manual focusing. That wasn't a big deal for me, but it is a limitation. Second, the D60's 3 focus points put it at the low end for this feature. Third, the D60 uses SD cards, while the Sony uses Compact Flash cards, as do many higher-end dSLRS. This isn't really a plus or minus, since SD cards are generally less expensive than Compact Flash, but some users say that Compact Flash cards may be more durable in the long run (they're larger and thicker). Finally, unlike the Sony, the D60 does not provide live preview. In other words, you don't see the image on the LCD until after you have taken it. With all of that, I'm very pleased with my decision and I am having a lot of fun with my Nikon D60. If you're ready to move up from your point-and-shoot to a dSLR, you cannot go wrong with the D60.

I should preface this with a little history, this is my third digital camera but my first digital SLR. I have and still own several quality 35mm SLR but fell for the instant gratification and cost of digital several years ago. I was almost to the point of going back to film due to the drawbacks (slow shutter, quality of enlargements, limited versatility etc.) of my past digital cameras. I then read a review of the new Nikon D60 and for just a little more than I paid for my last 35mm SLR (inflation adjusted) thought I would give it a try. I have finally gotten thru the manual of my new Nikon D60 camera, it really has more in common with a 35mm SLR than any digital camera I have ever used. Except for the fact that that I can take 2K pictures at max resolution on the 8 gig SD card I bought. It also has more options than any single person can ever use, I assume this is to appeal to varied users who have different priorities. I have decided to use it much like my old auto 35mm SLRs in Shutter Priority mode most of the time. I now should know enough to take some decent pics if something important comes up, say a wedding or something. It will be some time before I feel I am using all this camera has to offer. The shutter is super quick, again just like a 35mm film camera, no delay. I need to try some action shots now to verify this but at 3 frames a second it should be great. As much as I like it this camera is not for everybody, sure you can put it in auto and use it like a point and shoot but if that is all you want save a few hundred and buy a point and shoot. It is also missing two features that some people would like. The 2.5" screen shows you the picture after you take it but can not be used to take pictures, you have to use the viewfinder. I assume this is to save battery power, or maybe they figure real photographers would use the viewfinder anyway. With an SLR you do get exactly what you see in the viewfinder on the picture, plus there is all the other info you would need there, shutter speed, aperture, focus point etc etc. The other feature casual picture takers would miss is the capability to take movies. You can use the continuous mode at 3 frames per second and then you can stitch them together into a MPEG right on the camera. But again this camera is aimed at the serious photographer and if you are serious about movies you would use a video camera anyway. Bottom line for me anyway, this camera has everything I loved about my 35mm SLRs, without any of the drawbacks, it is way lighter, cheap to use, (no film), fully adjustable for every exposure criteria, (f-stop, shutter speed, lighting color, white balance, etc. etc), plus I get the instant gratification of digital photography. I can't wait to take some great photos and blow them up as I used to with film. I highly recommend to anyone who wants a good quality, reasonably priced camera. Now I need to pick-up the 70 to 200 zoom lens and remote control, there's this humming bird on the feeder that I would love to capture of "film".

Purchased for my granddaughter but it didn’t work. Seller immediately provided a refund.

If you are used to a compact point-and-shoot and want to overcome the shortcomings of these cameras, then consider the Nikon D60. This camera is designed for newcomers to DSLRs and Nikon wants you to feel at home with this camera. The size and weight is just slightly more than a deluxe point-and-shoot with lots more options for those who want to take photography more seriously. Among the major reasons for buying this camera is its sharp pictures due to Nikon's lens technology which now includes a vibration reduction lens to keep your photos steady. The sensor cleaner is a big plus to keep those images clear. You have the option of using the camera on automatic or trying out many of Nikon's built-in options for editing your shots. There are very few negatives. If you are used to the pricing with a point-and-shoot, a DSLR camera looks like sticker shock. But when you realize all the benefits you are getting, it makes sense. Only other negative is that with more and more cameras raising the bar with mega-pixels, one wonders why Nikon couldn't have gone to a 12MP resolution in the D60. But for most of us, 10MP should be fine. All-in-all this is one great camera value. You get the lightweight small configuration of a point-and-shoot in a DSLR with all the benefits that the D60 offers.

I've had my D60 for two months now, and only have just gotten familiar enough with it to feel that I can competently write a *useful* review for it. "Right Out Of The Box" reviews cannot really stand in for a good, solid understanding of what you're holding. I quite like it. I now know what IT likes, doesn't like, and how to fix its mistakes. Pros: 1. Quite lightweight 2. Sturdy 3. Very quick boot-up time. 4. Battery lasts a flabbergasting amount of time (camera on all day? No problem!) because of its chary use of power. A word to the wise: Either have it on or have it off. Do not toggle back and forth. "On" and in its powersaver mode saves more power than turning it off when sporadically taking photos. This might be due to the sensor cleaner (it cleans on start up and shut down). 5. It thinks about as fast as you do. 6. Acceptable buffer space for taking multiple shots 'on the go'. 7. Most controls are intuitive (still SOME menu-hunting, though. Some important crap is just plain buried in the menus). 8. Does *amazing* things with grey/blue lighting. Its favorite situation seems to be a cloudy or partly cloudy/overcast day. 9. Noise levels are acceptable at least up to 800 ISO, which is nice. Past that, though, you're pushing it. The result is still workable, though, which is an achievement. 10. SDHC Compatable -- I use a 16gb card. 11. Active D-Lighting mode is nice if you're still going to insist on shooting in jpg. Almost completely useless if using RAW. Be prepared to make use of your buffer and shoot multiple pictures of the same thing for redundancy; it tends to not always choose the place you wish to focus. *Especially* when using Dynamic Area mode with Autofocus. It's sometimes seems to me like all I'm managing is blurry pictures, faster than ever. If I take more, it's more likely I get one that's usable. Cons: 1. Often picks strange/insane exposures, ISO levels, etc, if left on Automatic Mode. I had it once, in full daylight, choose 760 ISO. WHY? God knows. It will generally err by underexposing a photo. This is at least more 'fixable' than overexposing, so that's your silver lining. 2. Over-saturates the yellow/orange spectrum, and consistently creates photos that are too 'warm'. 3. Hunts a lot in low lighting, no matter the ISO. When you've gotten so frustrated as to set it at "HI" (3200), give up. That said, when it DOES find its target, it captures it well. 4. The flash is not impressive (except impressively BRIGHT) especially with the limitations it creates with external flash (and with how it jumps to the conclusion that you need it even in full daylight), but generally you do absolutely fine without it. If it tries to pop up the flash, just hold it down. That's what I do. LOL. 5. The Nikon Transfer software has issues at times; it locks up and freezes often when transferring things off of HDHC cards of the size I use. I suggest buying a card reader (8-15 dollars depending how multifunctional you want it to be. Targus Digital TGR-CRD25 Universal 25-in-1 Memory Card Reader/Writer possibly) for less general frustration. If you DO NOT have a card reader, you cannot access the card through the camera. This means if you DO have a problem, there's no way to get your information off the card. You CANNOT bypass Nikon Transfer if it screws up. Information transfers only one way -- from the camera to the computer. The camera does not show up as a drive on either a Mac OR a PC, and not only THAT, your virus software might pop up thinking that Nikon Transfer is a trojan (it boots immediately upon plugging in the camera or a card reader with NEFs on it. This makes a Windows virus scanner wig out). 6. It makes it very hard to trust that what you see in the camera's preview mode will be what you see on your computer. This is mainly because it IS untrustworthy. With that in mind, I can't recommend that you trust the in-camera editing software either. Take a pass on this feature. - Be prepared to shoot in RAW and learn how to use a digital darkroom. I use Adobe Camera Raw, tho I suspect that in some instances, Nikon's own software would translate the information better. It just depends on how you want your finished product to look. Unfortunately, if you let the camera create your photo as a jpg, you're stuck with whatever fool choices it has made, unable to 'fix' the error. Don't trust this camera's color rendering! :P It's *so* much better to just clean it up in post-processing. - With all that out of the way: IF you shoot in RAW, and IF you take the time to post-process your photos, the work it does is simply jaw-dropping. This little camera can do some AMAZING work, if only you devote the time to nurturing your photos after the fact. Fortunately, once you have yourself a digital darkroom (Nikon's own, Adobe's, or other third-party programs that can process a NEF file), you'll find it very easy to get into the swing of things. You'll not want to go back once you experience the freedom that RAW brings. Don't worry; it only sounds complicated. This camera, for the price, is a gem. I might seem to be smacking it around, but I'm only pointing out the places where it means MORE WORK FOR YOU. If you're willing to put in the work, it's just an astounding little go-anywhere friend.

After doing much reading and going back and forth trying to decide which camera was the one for me I went for the Nikon D60 - Price wise the Nikon is a little less than the Canon but if you are looking for an SLR camera you can spend a few bucks more to get the better quallity item, in my case after much web surfing I learned that the Canon has issues with service and the equipment itself, more than Nikon. As a customer I should be able to buy something and get what I paid for, if such item doesn't work 100% out of the box I should be able to get a new one and not have it sent for repair (then what is their quallity control good for?) - I barely found any issues with the Nikon brand, I found more praises that anything else. The picture quallity is stunning, easy to use (I'm one that plays first then reads the manual) - colors are superv - the only thing I did not like is that it doesnt have "live view", meaning that you can't see on the screen what you are getting ready to shoot at, you have to use the viewfinder. But even then, after using it and seing the results I don't care for that feature any more, I rather have a camera that is going to give me great pictures and a warranty that is going to cover it as well, the camera itself comes with a one year but the lens comes with a 5 year warranty from Nikon. It also has a feature that allows you to add filters after you have taken the picture, keeping the original intact. The viewfinder is very brigh and of good size. I also looked for a good and convinient bag for it and the best I found was the Mytho Swiss Gear (model GA-7865-02F00) that you can find for 49.00 bucks at your local electronics store. And as a last note, I love buying from Amazon, they have good prices and good customer service.

My biggest problem with this camera is that in normal room light performance (without flash) is sub par, even worse than my Fuji A700 compact. The camera fails to freeze even the slightest motion without flash under normal room light. IT behaves better with 1/80s shutter spped at iso 1600 at normal room light (6, 65W floodlight bulbs in a 11x20 room). But at iso 1600 and shutter speed 1/80, the picture quality is not acceptable, pretty dark and grainy. Surprsingly my compact Fuji A700 does a better job in the same light (it also beat canon sd1000 compact) in the same test. I was hoping that I would get good normal light performance from a DSLR (espacially D60 with its good reviews) but I was wrong. Pros: Good auto focussing, 3 points is more than enough for a normal user. Single point is even more predictable. Good shoe to shot time and flash recycle time. Update: After 3 more months of use and reading the manual 3 more times I have concluded this is just a 2 star camera & not worth the money at all. The problem continues to be its low light sensitivity (or the lack of it). It keeps manifesting itself in different ways. Lately I have been having problems with its low light sensitivity when I use high Fstop numbers like F10-F16 indoors with flash. At those values I am forced to use ISO800 so that the picture will not be dark and even then the picture is not great. I am now convinced that Ken Rockwell was right in his review about the low light issue with the sensor in this camera... Only if I had read his review before buying mine.. Instead I went by then 4.5 star rating on this site & ended up wasting my money... In my view this camera is good only for brigthly lit outdoor conditions or just indoor potraits with flash. In those conditions a good point & shoot can do as good a job!!! If you want to use the D60 indoors with flash for groups pictures where some subjects are 4 feet behind the focus point, you will be utterly dissapointed because that require F10-F16 to preserve details of people in the background & this camera sucks indoors at F10-F16 even with flash & good living room light. Now Ken rockwell seems to think D40 is much better under such low light conditions, if Nikon would wanted to make me happy I would be more than willing to exchange this with a D40... As it is is near useless to me right now.... Save your money & stay away from the D60....

Review for the Nikon D60 with 18-55mm VR Nikkor lens Cons: -No live preview (fine if you were a film SLR user like I was, but not so fine for point and shoot step-ups) -Lens must be AF-S to autofocus (Lens must have inner moter to autofocus) -Autofocus is considerably slow -Alot of grain present at 1600 ISO -Only 3 Autofocus points -Uses unique .NEF raw format (so not many programs can edit it) -Included lens it not that high end, (it does not smoothly blend out the BG at times) Pros: -Very well priced on behalf of Amazon -Excellent VR system -Sensor Cleaning -Ergonomic Design -Ease of use ++ -Lightweight -Sharp pictures -In-camera Retouch -Vibrant colors -Simple GUI (Graphic User Interface) -Its a NIKON!!! I did my homework comparing this camera to its predecessor, the Nikon D40. I took about 2 weeks going to local photo shops, comparing various cameras side by side, as well as quality, and for the price, the D60 took the gold I heard alot of reviews recommending the D40 over the D60, but I decided to go against the flow and purchase the D60. Purchased it from Amazon for a staggering $517 (~125 $$ cheaper than a local photography store), very prompt shipping on their part FEDEX :)/USPS :(. I got this camera today, and I am pleased to say this is an awesome camera for its price. First of all, you are going to get a quality product from Nikon, (in my opinion, one of the best camera brands), along with an excellent 18-55mm VR Nikkor lens. You also get the nice camera neck strap (which was an extra back in the '70s :)). This camera takes amazing pictures! I went outside to my garden and shot a couple of flower test shots, very satisfying! The quality is very sharp, even at a 100%. The colors are also very vibrant and lively. The camera is also relatively light, as compared to the Nikon FM-2 we already own. It is also nice to know that this camera comes with the VR lens, allowing you to take pictures with 3X slower shutter speed, as claimed by Nikon. Another plus of this camera is the fact that it has the sensor cleaning, which if you own 4 lens like I do, comes in very handy, to keep your pictures "dust free". It is also nice to know, it cleans the sensor everytime you turn it on and off. It also features an orientation sensative LCD screen, which if you rotate the camera, the screen rotates as well. However, Nikon could have made more autofocus points (9 + would have been fine). They also could have added the shaft to the lens mount, to autofocus AF lenses. I would definately recommend this camera to others for its simplicity of use. It has intuitive LCD menus, easy to navigate through, and perfect for the beginning DSLR user! *Please do not base your purchase off of this sole review, as some of the above info may be slightly off. :)