Nikon Announce D60 and three new lenses

[Canis Vulpes]

Nikon UK correspondence:-

Whether you want the portability and ease of use of a digital compact or the extra creativity of a DSLR with interchangeable lenses, Nikon’s new spring camera and lens line-up has the lot, including:

The D60 – with 10.2 megapixels and a compact, feature-packed design, this outstanding new DSLR offers a small size and big, big performance

Three powerful new lenses – 16-85mm DX zoom, 60mm Micro Nikkor and 24mm perspective control wideangle

Further details here:- http://www.nikonproducts.co.uk/

[Don Hoey]

Also it appears from DPR two more PC lenses later on in the year.
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0801/08...ikkorpce24.asp

Don

[Tannin]

What we are seeing here is a concerted effort by Nikon to deal with the big gaps in the Nikon range that used to make it difficult to take Nikon as a serious alternative.

Let's go back two years. (Two years isn't long!) At that time, if you were serious about photography and considering which brand to go with - and especially if you had a photographic specialty in mind - you had to look at the respective ranges and see those huge gaps:

* High-end, high-res studio camera: NO
* Very fast sport camera: NO
* Full-frame camera: NO
* full range of modern image stabilised super telephoto lenses: NO
* tilt-shift lenses: NO

Nikon still don't have a studio camera in the class of the Canon 1Ds line, nor an affordable semi-pro full-frame camera like the Canon 5D, but they now have (or soon will have) products filling all the other gaps I listed. That's an amazing burst of productivity from the Nikon design department, and probably needs a matching effort from their production engineering team. In just a couple of years - well, let's say three years, as not all of these products are actually available in quantity yet - Nikon have pretty much eliminated the weaknesses that consigned them to also-ran status in many fields.

When I got my first digital SLR, Canon was pretty much the only sensible choice. As a wildlife photographer, I needed to know that the system I was buying into had the ability to grow with me, that (for example) when I wanted to step up from my 100-400 to a 500/4, there was one available. Canon offered that, Nikon didn't. (Minolta and Pentax and Oly didn't even try, at least not to speak of.)

But if I was starting out today, I would have to seriously consider going with the Nikon system. I might wind up going Canon anyway, or might not - the point is, as of now there is a choice.


hmmm .... if Canon would follow suit and make an equivalent to the one Nikon product I really lust after .... I'd be cured of my 200-400 VR envy.

[Vectis Birder]

I'm interested in the D60's noise suppression capabilities - if it has them. It has the Expeed processor, same as the D300, so does this mean noise will be suppressed? Noise is one thing that frustrates me with the D80 (it seems to be worse than with my old D70) and it'd be nice to get a camera with good noise performance (I'm after a second body rather than an upgrade).