Canon EOS D60

I still have the Canon EOS D60 Digital SLR camera. It is a back-up to my 20D. I think its photos are almost as good as the ones from the 20D, but it is just not as fast on focus and start-up.

Just a good camera.

While this camera can produce great images it is disappointing that Canon chose to use such a low-end body. The metering and focus technology are the same as in a $300 Canon Rebel but the D60 costs $2200. In low light conditions the camera can't focus. Metering lacks center spot and does a poor job in backlit conditions. Many owners, including myself, have had problems with a one-stop underexposure when using a Canon 550ex flash. I wish the camera startd up faster. I would also like to see faster ISO settings like 1600 or 3200.

We'll all have to wait and see what Canon brings out at the PMA in March '03.

Well, they said be specific so here goes . . try not to doze off. I have owned a D30 for nearly 18 months and decided to go fully digital with the onset of our new studio so we have full backup and interchangeabitlity of lenses. We use the D30 and the new D60 for commercial work and that alone should shout volumes about their ability, albeit just in our opinion. The details merely confirm what you may suspect - we love them both ! Here's an example - for the average magazine or brochure layout, it will be printed at about a real world 300dpi. Although the reprographic (print) film that it comes from can be upwards of 3000 dpi, what it then goes on to print is much much less fine. Therefore, for all intents & purposes, what you see is very rarely more than that level of detail and our D60 and even the D30 have always exceeded that that can be printed in an A4/A3 page in a brochure or a tabloid layout in newsprint. So theres proof of suitablitiy from a commercial angle.

The quality of your camera is second only in importance to the lenses - and they have the final say in picture performance. We use L series lenses from Canon with the exception of the 50mm F1.4 which is a cracker. The 16-35, 28-70 & 70-200 are all F2.8 'L' series - which we think stands for Luvverly, because they are just that.

Next, you have to compare this to the alternatives . . and film is the only alternartive. By it's nature it has to go through at least 3 analogue conversions before reaching the same page - the film processing - the film print - the scan - with your digital camera it's file to plate or print film and you halve the chance of cock-ups and degradation because of this. Using the D60 is a pleasure and the results are instantly available through the small but effective screen on the rear. It is an improvement on the D30 but both are good in any case. The metering and colour balance are very impressive and accurate. The results ? well, they easily exceed every other 'ordinary' 35mm film camera we have ever used on both counts - despite not wanting to believe that at first. We are now total converts ! Take your pix, import them into Photoshop (natch), and you can confidently send to press a photo with a level of confidence that you rarely enjoyed in the analogue world. For studio output we use an A4 dye-sub P-400 from Olympus and large format HP Designjets. We have blown up these prints to 8' x 4' and you would be amazed at the details & quality. Buy a D30 if the budget is tight, and a D60 if it's not. I did both and don't regret a penny. Right at the top of the Must Have list. Overall rating is only 9 stars because it would be short sighted to leave no room for marking the D90 ? ? ? next year . . .

This camera is a good enough replacement for all my SLR's, and I can still re-use all the lenses. It is still not truely 35 mm aspect ratio, but hey I don't take pictures for a living. I find it performs above average under most conditions, and is only limited by the owner's ability. The built in JPEG compressor does a good job of squeezing the size of the files down to under 4M from a raw size of 15M, but if you want to post it on line, it is worth re-compressing it with a good image editing package to bring the size down to under 2M (you can't tell the difference with the naked eyes, and it reduces the upload bandwidth a lot). The rechargeable lithium ion battery is a blessing compared to NiMH, but make sure you pack a few spares as with preview and servo shots, you will find it does not last very long. Throw away your 35mm films, as you will never need them again. a 1GB microdrive is equivalent to 40 rolls of film, and you can erase all the imperfect pictures, so it lasts even longer.