Canon 60D - Equipment Review

Canon EOS 60D

A good little work horse the 60D has been the camera I have primarily shot with since I purchased it in March of 2012. Most of my shooting is in studio for clients that want images smaller then 24”x36” and as such I have not needed the expense of full frame cameras. While I absolutely love the 7D I have been able to save the more expensive body from excessive wear and tear by using less expensive bodies in studio. Prior to the 60D I shoot through three 20D bodies over the last eight years that I have worked professionally.

There are a couple of features introduced to the 60D that are really convenient, the switch to SD memory and the articulated LCD screen. The change to SD format over CF format is just easier since most computers have SD slots built in and Eye-Fi is only availably in SD. This just makes transferring images to computer more convenient. This is a slower format to write to and does limit the cameras burst speeds. The moveable LCD makes shooting at odd angles easer, you no longer need to lay on the floor to get low camera angles and you can see what you are shooting when you are holding the camera above your head (which can be helpful shooting in crowds).

And now for a few things I am disappointed with. The real strike against the 60D as part of the X0D line is the switch to a plastic body instead of the magnesium alloy body from the previous cameras in this line. I still feel that the build of the 60D is superior to the Rebel line but it is still very disappointing to not have the higher quality body that had been a hallmark of the X0D series. It is also disappointing that the 60D will only support 2 flash groups. I believe both of these decisions were made to push the more serious photographers into the more expensive Canon lines.

There are a few other options that are not appealing to me. I would prefer multiple custom setting to the presets for night, landscape, portrait, sports, etc. The 60D only has 1 custom spot on the dial compared to 3 on the 7D. I miss having the one shot RAW option that is available on the 7D, I really believe RAW should be saved for when it is needed, too many shooters rely on it instead of taking an extra moment or two to correct the shot before the shutter is released. Also many other shooting presets are buried in the menus instead of being readily available on the back of the camera as they are with the 7D making changing to adapting shooting needs a longer slower process. 

The 60D also has more “styles” built into the electronics of the camera including conversion of RAW to JPEG. All of this strikes me as a bit gimmicky, these conversion can be done with much more precession on the computer I really do not see a point in them on anything beyond point and shoot cameras. Options that can be fun for people that are not invested in post production software really do not have a place on cameras aimed at people who are.

I know it seems like I had a lot of negative things to say about this camera, but it IS a good work horse and can very easily be an affordable back-up body, or as in my case main body allowing the more expensive body to be saved for when it is needed. At less than $900.00 it can also make a very good entry level DSLR making it much easier to afford some quality glass than the more expensive 7D or 6D bodies.


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