Canon EOS 60D digital SLR camera

Canon EOS 60D review: This digital SLR camera is perfect for anyone who's got more than just a passing fancy for photography

PC World Australia (online)

The Canon EOS 60D sits between the Canon EOS 50D and the Canon EOS 7D in Canon's mid-range digital SLR offerings, and it's a mighty beast to shoot with. It's fast, it has a vari-angle LCD screen, it can shoot high-definition video, and it has useful built-in image processing. If you're looking to upgrade from an entry-level digital SLR, or even if you're a current 50D user and don't want to move to a full-frame camera, you will definitely be pleased with the 60D; it's even a great, albeit less powerful, alternative to the 7D.

  • Expert Rating

    4.25 / 5

  • User Rating

    5.00 / 5 (of 1 Review)

Pros

  • Fast burst mode, excellent high ISO performance, hinged LCD screen, Full HD video recording

Cons

  • Its buttons could be better, the 8-way control button feels terrible and doesn't always respond properly

Bottom Line

Canon's EOS 60D digital SLR camera is a joy to use in all photography situations. It's fast, it performs very well in the dark, it takes crisp and vibrant pictures, and it offers plenty of physical improvements over the 50D. In fact, it gives you plenty of reasons not to go for the more expensive EOS 7D! However, we do think that its buttons could be a lot better; they are almost flush with the body and feel too squishy.

Would you buy this?

Specs and image quality

The Canon EOS 60D has the same APS-C sized, 18-megapixel sensor as the EOS 7D and despite not having dual DiG!4 processors like the 7D (the 60D only has one processor), it's still a very fast camera to shoot with. It's rated as being capable of shooting 5.3 frames per second in high-quality JPEG mode (the 7D can do 8fps), but we actually achieved a slightly higher rate of 5.5fps in our burst mode tests. Not only that, but we were able to shoot more than 100 frames in a row before the camera's buffer filled and the rate slowed down. That's pretty good going and it means you'll be able to use this camera for action photography. It's worth noting that the 60D uses one SD card to store images, whereas the 50D uses a CompactFlash slot. We used a Class 4 SD card for our tests.

With its fast burst mode performance, you can use the EOS 60D to capture exploding raindrops, for example. Of course, it's also useful for capturing your pets or kids playing in the park.

But not only is the 60D fast, it also possesses an excellent high ISO capability. You could easily shoot at ISO 6400 without noticing much discolouration and noise in your photos, even if you crop them. This is very handy if you don't have a lens with a very wide aperture for night-time shooting; for our tests, we used Canon's EFS 15-85mm macro lens, which has a maximum wide aperture of f/3.5 and built-in stabilisation.

You can get amazing results in low-light situations when using the camera's highest ISO speed of 6400.

At 100 per cent, the photo's quality is still very high and it is not ruined by discolouration or excessive noise.

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