Canon XSi vs Nikon D60

[Moreboost]

Hello to everyone.

I need some advice. I am looking to purchase my first dSLR. I was originally looking into the canon T1i and D90 but realized i really had no need for either of them. I plan on shooting anything and everything. Family, outdoor landscape and scenery, and any type of motor sports. I am a big car guy thus the user name haha Now i have been reading a lot and try to do my research but i seem to come up with no decisive answer. Which one should i go with? I can get both for roughly the same price so it comes down to which one is better and why. I have used both the D90 and T1i but i have never used either of the ones I'm looking at. I plan on going to the stores and checking out the cameras in person but would like to get some feed back as to which people prefer.

TIA

[Franglais]

Did you check out the User Reviews section in this site?

I have the D60, plus a D300 which is rather similar to the D90.

I use the D60 when I'm out travelling because it's small and light and not too expensive. I also use it when I need to be discreet - it's very quiet (the D300 is not noisy but it's a surprise when I go back to it).

The D60 only has 3 focussing zones but that doesn't bother me too much because I don't do much action with it. I'm surprised you haven't mentioned the D3000 which has the same 11-point focussing system as the D90 and is only slightly more expensive than the D60. (Like the D60 it doesn't have a focussing motor in the body..)

The viewfinder is much smaller than on the D300 and that's a nuisance - I find I'm straining to see the expression on people's faces to catch the right moment when I'm out in a crowd.

The D60 only does 10Mpix but that's more than enough. It only goes up to 3200ISO (D300/D90 goes up to 6400 ISO) but the image quality at 3200 ISO is very good.

The biggest drawback on the D60 is the simplified user interface:

- On the D300/D90 you have two knurled wheels, front and back, one to control the aperture, one to control the shutter speed. On the D60 you have just one and and to change what parameter it controls you have to go into a menu
- On the D300/D90 you have a switch to control if the camera is going to do an instant focus when you press the shutter release or focus continuously. On the D60 the only way to get continuous focussing is to use Sport program

The D60 doesn't have an autofocus motor so I have to focus manually when I use non AF-S lenses. I don't recommend this because I tend to forget to focus but it doesn't happen often.

If you have the Canon XSi and the D60 for the same price then the XSi is a better buy (except for the 18-55 lens). However as your brother has a D90 I would stick with the Nikon system.