Nikon D60 18-55 VR Kit review

The D60 is Nikon's update to the popular D40x.

It's available in three packages: body-only from around £375, with a standard 18-55mm lens from around £450 or with the 18-55mm VR lens reviewed here. VR stands for Vibration Reduction, Nikon's name for optical image stabilisation. This kit is meant to cost around £30 more than the standard lens kit, but at current prices it's cheaper, making it the obvious choice between the two.

We tested the stabilised lens by taking 20 shots with a 1/30s shutter speed at the full telephoto zoom setting and counting how many were sharp, almost sharp and blurred. Thirteen of these were sharp, with the others almost sharp - an excellent result. Continuing into slower shutter speeds, the results were just as good at 1/15s and even 1/8s, and it wasn't until we reached s that the majority of shots were at least a little blurred. We've seen Nikon's VR technology outperform competitors before, but this result is unprecedented.

On the camera itself, hardware improvements over the D40x include a two-part cleaning system for removing dust that enters the camera while changing lenses. There's also a sensor that detects the orientation of the screen and rotates its image accordingly, and another sensor that switches the screen off when the camera is held up to your eye. Strangely, the latter sometimes had no effect.

The only other visible change is that the D40x's largely redundant Info button now accesses a new Active D-Lighting feature. This is taken from Nikon's more expensive digital SLRs. Enabling it decreases the exposure slightly and uses digital processing to boost shadows, effectively increasing the dynamic range of photos. It's a great idea that we've seen work well in other cameras. Here, the benefit is subtle and - inevitably - comes at the expense of increased noise in shadows, but it's still welcome. The menu system has undergone various tweaks, but Nikon has made it even harder to locate the extremely useful configurable auto-ISO mode.

We're not worried that the sensor has remained at 10 megapixels and we're happy to see the same body and viewfinder as on the D40x. However, it's disappointing that there's no internal focus drive motor; this limits which lenses can be used with the camera. Unlike some of its rivals, Nikon still hasn't introduced a live preview on the LCD screen and there are no exposure or white-balance bracketing options.

Our image-quality tests revealed the same sharp detail and vibrant colours we've seen from the D40x. Noise reduction appears to be improved, letting a bit more noise through at high ISO speeds but retaining more detail as a result. The lens's stabilisation helped produce more sharp shots, and we also found that this lens gave significantly improved corner sharpness compared to the D40x's kit lens.

The D40x is an excellent camera, and the D60 is a worthwhile if not particularly exciting update. However, it fails to address the areas where the D40x lags behind its main rival, Canon's EOS 400D. The Canon has lower noise at high ISO speeds, more immediate controls, bracketing options and better RAW-processing software. The D60's optically stabilised lens is great, but the 400D is available with a 18-55mm stabilised lens from www.7dayshop.com for £462 (or just £417 if you factor in Canon's £45 cashback offer, which is available until 30th June).

The D60 will soon have the EOS 450D to compete with. This successor to the 400D has a 12-megapixel sensor, a 3in LCD screen with live view and a claimed 3.5fps continuous mode. The 450D is expected to cost around £530 with a stabilised 18-55mm lens when it launches in the next month or two. As such, Nikon might have to drop the price of the D60 18-55 VR Kit if it wants to grab customers' attention away from such a tantalising adversary.