Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The camera you carry can almost define your personality.

Are you an avid shooter or a casual shutterbug? If you're somewhere in between, go for an entry-level digital single-lens reflex camera. It combines professional-level features, such as fairly fast shooting speed, great picture quality and a good deal of creative control, with the relative simplicity of a point-and-shoot camera. It's the kind of camera that can grow with you. One option is the new D60 from Tokyo-based Nikon Corp.

Nikon's D60, introduced last week, joins an expanding market of entry-level digital SLRs, competing with Canon Inc.'s EOS Rebel series, Sony Corp.'s new A200 and others. The D60, at $749 including a zoom lens, will replace the D40x in Nikon's product line, landing it between the less-expensive D40 and the pricier D80 model.

The D60 features a 10-megapixel image sensor, built-in flash, a SecureDigital card slot, a rechargeable battery with a charger and the usual ports, USB and video out. It's also inherited features from Nikon's professional models, including an automatic dust-cleaning function.

The standard starter kit I tested came with an 18-55 millimeter lens with Nikon's VR vibration-reduction technology, which reduces blur if the camera moves during a shot. This is a new lens for Nikon, and is an improvement over the 18-55mm zoom that's bundled with the D40 and D40x. The D60 can use most of Nikon's other lenses, including those from older film cameras -- an advantage for someone making the jump to digital media.

Based on my informal tests, the D60 was quite capable and fun to use. It powered up within 0.2 second and was capable of shooting as fast as 3 frames per second in manual and shutter- priority modes. Although it wasn't the fastest digital SLR I've ever tested, it was fine for its category and certainly faster than any point-and-shoot camera I've seen.

Low Lighting

It handled low-lighting conditions pretty well, thanks to a feature called Active D-Lighting, an image-enhancement function that can automatically adjust exposure and bring out details in shadows. My images showed some improvement, with decent dynamic range and fairly balanced exposure. Overall, photos turned out great, with good color and detail.

The D60 offers a few enhancements that aren't available in the D40 and D40x models. For example, the D60's 2.5-inch LCD display screen automatically shuts off when you place your eye over the viewfinder, saving battery power. It turns back on when you move away from the viewfinder.

Alas, you can't use the screen to frame shots on a digital SLR the way you can with most point-and-shoot cameras. The screen can be used to view pictures, look over shooting details such as aperture and shutter speed, and change settings.

Dust-Cleaning

Similar to a few competing digital SLRs, including Canon's EOS Rebel XSi (available in April for $900 including an 18-55mm lens), and Sony's A200 ($700 including an 18-70mm lens), the Nikon D60 features a cleaning system that shakes dust particles away from the image sensor. The D60 adds an airflow system that's designed to direct dust away from the sensor.

The cleaning functions ran when I turned the camera on or off. While a few days of testing won't prove whether the dust- removal systems really work, I did appreciate the peace of mind.

Another unique feature is stop-motion video. According to Nikon, the D60 is the only digital SLR that can string together a series of still images and convert them into stop-motion animation (think of the Wallace and Gromit movies).

Stop-Motion Animation

The camera should allow you to take up to 100 shots to put together a 30-second animation, Nikon says. I tried it with a dozen shots and the result was so-so, partly due to the images I had to work with. The setup was easy: I selected the start and end shots and the camera figures out the in-between shots. The more images you have, of course, the more fluid your animation should look.

The D60 also adds editing features that have been available on some point-and-shoot models for some time. For example, the quick retouch feature slightly enhanced the contrast and saturation of my selected shots.

The camera will be available in the U.S. this month, including the 18-55mm lens. The $749 price compares with $549 for the 6-megapixel D40 model, which comes with an 18-55mm zoom that doesn't feature vibration reduction; and $1,049 for the 10- megapixel D80 with the VR version of the 18-55mm lens.

Nikon says the D60 should be available in many other countries by March.

For more information: http://www.nikon.com Rating: 7/10

To contact the writer of this column: Grace Aquino at aquinograce@gmail.com

Last Updated: February 7, 2008 00:02 EST