Digital Camera Review: Canon EOS 60D

Superb for its price


Digital Camera Review: Canon EOS 60D

by Trevor Tan
05:55 AM Nov 26, 2010


DO WE need another digital single lens reflex (DSLR) camera in the market? Canon obviously thinks so when it released its latest EOS 60D ($1,599, body only), successor to the 50D.

Sporting an 18-megapixel APS-C-sized CMOS image sensor (1.6x crop factor), a Digic 4 image processor and 3-inch vari-angle LCD screen, the 60D features nine cross-type auto focus points with a 63-zone metering system. It shoots still images up to 5.3 frames per second (fps) and full high-definition (HD) 1920x1080 videos at 30fps.

Despite its light weight (755g, with battery) and small frame (14.5x10.6x7.9cm), the camera feels stout and offers a good grip. It is pretty durable, surviving a careless drop without any operational hitch. The small built-in pop-up flash gives a surprisingly nice fill-in and delivers respectable results in slow-synchronised flash mode, too.

For those who have used a Canon EOS DSLR, you will be at home with the placement of the controls and buttons. The addition of a dedicated movie button near where your thumb usually rests is a nice touch, as it makes video recording a breeze. However, you can't press the movie button to shoot videos on the fly; you need to switch to video mode first. When the movie mode is not activated, it serves as a Live View toggle button.

Startup and shutdown are instantaneous if you turn off the auto sensor cleaning. If not, it will take up to three seconds. The auto focusing speed is quite good but there are quirks. Using the 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 (28.8-216mm in 35mm equivalent) kit lens, auto focusing can go haywire at times, taking nearly a second to focus, especially in high lighting contrast situations.

The 60D will not auto focus during video recording when you are zooming or panning. You can half-press the shutter release to auto focus again, but it can take more than two seconds to focus. I recommend manual focus during video recording.

The still images shot are gorgeous, with sharp rendering of details and accurate colour reproduction. Noise performance is amazing, with noise artifacts not seen till ISO 3200. Even at ISO 6400, the chromatic noise that surfaced is still acceptable. The full HD videos shot are equally impressive and picked up only slight wind and ambient audio.

Even though the 60D supports in-camera RAW image processing, it is the built-in creative filters, such as "Toy Camera" nostalgic effect and "Miniature" tilt-shift lens effect (my favourite), which will interest most.

However, you can only apply the filters to your pictures after you shoot them. The good thing is you can choose the pictures you want for the different effects and you don't have to wait a few seconds for the camera to process the picture after you shoot it. But you lose the immediacy of seeing the "filtered" pictures. Perhaps, an option to allow users to shoot in the creative filters mode could be added in firmware updates.

Source: www.todayonline.com