Brad,
I can't speak to Pentax or Canon, but I did recently purchase an F60 (N60
to me!), and I'd be happy to share my experiences with it so far. Overall,
I'm very happy with this camera--it is meeting and exceeding the needs that
I have for it, in spite of a couple of issues that for me are major, and a
couple that are minor.
Before I go into any more detail about this, let me give a little
background. I've always enjoyed photography, but in recent years I have
spent very little time with it. My 20-year-old Minolta SRT200 served me
well, but I got tired of fiddling with manual controls when I wanted to
take candids. I had been wanting to get a camera body with more automatic
features, but was not very knowledgeable about this area, and so I put it
off for years.
Recently, I discovered that an acquaintance of mine was shooting some very
nice candids with a simple point-and-shoot zoom camera, and it got me
itching to start photographing again. I decided I wanted a true 35mm for
convenience and because this format's popularity has a plethora of
resources, equipment, support, etc. Also, I wanted to do candids, so I
didn't feel that I needed anything *too* fancy, but I did want
interchangeable lenses for travel/wildlife photography. Although I didn't
want anything too *fancy*, I am pretty picky about *quality*--I'm willing
to pay extra for better-quality equipment, even though I admittedly won't
need the extra quality a lot of the time. Finally, I wanted to make sure
that I bought into a good system, just in case I wanted to go beyond simple
candids and travel shots to something a little more advanced.
After a little research, I concluded that Nikon had better quality overall
than the other brands, and that I could get an N60 in my price range. With
the body, I purchased the inexpensive 35-80 f4-5.6D lens. At first, I was
a little overwhelmed by all the controls, the LCD panel, and all the info
in the viewfinder, but it didn't take but a roll or two until I felt
comfortable with it. The camera feels nice in my hand, and I really
appreciate the hand grip. In fact, of all the advances, this simple yet
obvious feature may be my favorite! The built-in speedlight, while not
very powerful, is very handy and easy to use for candids, and is also more
than adquate for this purpose. The red-eye reduction feature does just
that--it *reduces* red-eye. I've concluded the *real* solution to the
problem of red-eye is to use an external flash.
When I got the results from my first roll of print film, I was *very*
happy. Each frame was perfectly focused and exposed, as far as I was
concerned. There was one equipment-related flaw (which I have not seen
since), that being a dark, narrow band across the top of one of the frames.
I'm assuming that this is due to some kind of problem with sync'ing the
shutter and flash. I was also very impressed with the sharpness and color
of these photos, although I have learned since that most modern cameras
produce reasonably sharp 4x6 prints.
Four subsequent rolls of film have produced similarly impressive results.
I have noticed only two equipment-related problems in these four rolls,
both being over-exposures. In the first, the subject was wearing mostly
black clothing, was positioned outside in front of a large glass window,
and it was an overcast day, about an hour before sunset, and so flash was
required. It seems pretty understandable to me that this photograph was
over-exposed. The second seems less understandable. It was just after
sunset, so I decided to try the "night-time" program. The subject was
wearing a black sweatshirt, and the rest of the frame was much lighter.
This over-exposure was not as bad as the first, but it was a bit too much
for my taste. I took both of these photos back to the lab and asked them
to correct the over-exposure if possible. To my surprise, they came back
looking *beautiful*--in fact, they are a couple of my favorite photos with
this new camera. Note, though, that I was using print film--I have no idea
what the results would have been with slide film. Needless to say, I'll be
using the N60's exposure compensation feature for bracketing in other
similar tricky lighting situations.
I figure these things are par for the course, so now on to some issues that
really bug me. First, although you can attach just about any Nikkor AF
lens to the N60, it turns out that some of them won't autofocus on it.
Fortunately, I've learned this due to research, and not acutal experience!
It's my understanding that the AF-I and AF-S lenses are the ones that won't
autofocus on the N60 (I hope that folks on the list will correct me on this
if I'm wrong). This doesn't mean that you can't use them, it just means
you have to manually focus them. Personally, I find it hard to justify
spending money on an autofocus lens that won't autofocus! The second thing
that bugs me is that it is not possible to set the film speed on the N60.
It reads the DX-encoded film cartridge, and sets the speed itself. While
this is nice and convenient, it makes it hard to push film. I suppose I
could achieve the same effect with the exposure compensation feature, but
that would give me less lattitude for *real* exposure compensation. Would
letting the user set the film speed have made the N60 *that* much more
expensive? I can do it on my poor old manual camera!
Those two items are fairly serious issues for me, these next are less so
(although again, they are missing features that I have on my poor old
manual). I knew when I purchased the camera that it did not have
depth-of-field preview. It seemed that getting this feature with another
body from any manufacturer was going to cost me more, and I wanted to keep
the cost of my initial entry into this hobby low, so I opted to purchase
the N60 anyway. Still, it would be nice to have sometimes. The other
thing that kind of bugs me is that I can see no way to attach any kind of
cable release tothe N60, and I don't see anything in the manual about it.
While this isn't a major problem for me, I do occasionally like to take
extended exposure shots (Christmas lights and such), and it would be a nice
addition.
Well, this post is getting pretty long, so I'll wrap it up. If you can put
up with the caveats I've mentioned, I'd say the N60 will do nicely for
family photos and such that you mention in your query. With regard to
macro photography, I'm afraid I don't know much about that subject, so I
don't know how much help I can be. A quick perusal of Nikon's web site
leads me to believe that you could autofocus with the Micro-Nikkor 60mm,
105mm, and 70-180mm, but not the 200mm. I do wonder, however, how
important depth-of-field preview would be to you in your macro photography.
Hope this helps,
Barton Stanley
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
