Canon 60D Review

The first impression of the camera is very positive, the camera sits nicely in the hand, I learned to manage the basic settings in about five minutes. An optional monochrome display always shows the most needed camera settings.

Canon 60D Camera Review

Canon 60D Camera Review

The Canon 60D is a great camera for amateurs and professionals. Fans will find it’s not very difficult control, and Live View will help to get comfortable after the transition from a conventional digital camera. A professional will be able to quickly control the camera, guided by an additional display and use a huge set of functions in the camera.

Canon 60D sample photo

Canon 60D sample photo

Important Benefits of the Canon 60D Camera:

  1. Whole 18mp. On the one hand, this is a real search for the cropped matrix, on the other hand, a great opportunity to crop the image. For those who are chasing megapixels, Canon 60D is a great choicealthough printing pictures from 6MP and from 18MP to A4 it will be difficult to find differences. Also, to squeeze out their full potential from 18mp, you will need very sharp optics with high resolution. And optics of this quality also cost the corresponding money.
  2. Rotary display. Great thing for the video. For the photo it will be used very rarely, since Live View focusing is much slower than through the viewfinderYes, and it seems to many to be more pleasant to photograph through the viewfinder than through the display. Live View will be useful to those who switch from a soap box to a DSLR to quickly get used to it.
  3. Quick shot in 5,3 frames / sec... In fact, this is just a gadget. As you can see, marketers are chasing every 0.3 frames per second. Fast shooting is rarely used, so you shouldn't pay much attention to this parameter.
  4. Full HD at 30 fps, which means you can shoot 1920 × 1080 pixels videos. True, not all monitors can squeeze out the same 1920 by 1080, this is only needed for those who really want to do video. For amateur shooting 640x480 is quite enough, given that the video just instantly in Full HD mode eats your memory card. I will not write more about the video, as this is a separate story.
  5. Great display on 1040000 points. This is more than enough for normal menu navigation and footage.
  6. ISO 100-12800 (according to the real 100-6400) will help in any poor lighting, and at 3200 you can still take a picture in the editor. But I think many understand that great shots are taken at low ISOs on any cropped camera. Therefore, it is too early to talk about the working ISO 6400 for a cropped camera. I do not advise much to go deep into the pixel-by-pixel comparison of noise at high ISO of different cameras.
  7. The wonderful feature of the "Priority of Lights" ensures that there are no overexposures.
  8. Virtual Horizon Live View. Due to the fact that I almost always shoot through the viewfinder, I rarely use this function. The virtual horizon is really useful when working with a tripod.
  9. The camera has the ability to remotely control external flashes according to a special protocol. Little is written for this feature, but this is a very important point.
  10. Canon 60D has quick sync with external flashes, up to 1/8000, this is very important. More details in my article “how to use flash in the afternoon»
  11. Fast and accurate focus with 9 cross-shaped phase sensors. Of course, always remember that focusing speed is mainly dependent on the lens. I note a convenient focus mode switch.
  12. A million other useful thingssuch as battery charge levels, use of lightweight (small) SD (SDXC) cards, work with any manual optics (which can be attached to the camera) in aperture priority mode.
Canon 60D rear view camera

Canon 60D rear view camera

Of the disadvantages:

  1. A magnesium alloy case could not be spared on such a camera. Instead, the camera is made of plastic, although the supporting elements are made of aluminum.
  2. As for me, the controls are not enough.
  3. Small bufferwhich stores up to 58 frames in JPEG format, 16 frames in RAW format. It seems like almost 60 frames in jpeg is great, but considering serial shooting, the buffer will fill up after 2 seconds of shooting in RAW.
  4. Focus highlight with built-in flash. Very funny thing, the backlight during autofocus works only with the strobe effect from the built-in flash. This backlight takes more energy into the battery and warms the built-in flash more. And the flash itself rises to the working position.
  5. No autofocus in movie mode. No comment, the usual Canon PowerShot S5 IS soap dish even had autofocus for video.
Canon 60D Camera Top View

Canon 60D Camera Top View

Features to watch out for:

The camera has an excellent lock for switching shooting control modes. This means that if the aperture priority mode was set, then it will remain so and it is simply not possible to accidentally change it. To change the mode, you need to press the button on the center of the control wheel. I really miss a button like this on my Nikon cameras. Also, the disk does not have free rotation, but has two endpoints.

Canon 60D sample photo

Canon 60D sample photo

Raw files weigh pretty well, on average, a snapshot weighs from 20 to 30 mb. Before using the camera due to the huge number of useful functions I highly recommend reading the instructions. It may take 2-3 days, but it's worth it. The speed and convenience of working with the camera will greatly depend on this. The resulting image on the Canon 60D depends on the optics used to shoot.

Canon 60D sample photo

Canon 60D sample photo

Competitors:

mainly competitors include Canon 50D - but the outdated model lacks the ability to shoot video and slightly different ergonomics The Canon 7D is a more advanced professional grade camera (albeit cropped).  Canon 7D can be considered as an upgrade with the Canon 60D. Canon 550D and newer Canon 600D ergonomic controls and are simpler models than the Canon 60D. In general, working as a photographer, I noticed that a lot of pros and amateurs give their money precisely for the Canon EOS 60D, as there are great opportunities for photo and video shooting. And the video operators who shoot video on DSLR APS-C cameras most often use the Canon 60D and Canon 7D.

Photo on Canon 60D

Photo on Canon 60D

About the matrix:

Matrix has crop factor 1.6 (standard for Canon DSLR APS-C digital SLRs), and to calculate the effective focal length with a conventional Canon EF lens, you need to multiply the focal length by 1.6. Regarding noise, you can view the original 18MP footage taken at ISO 1600 and ISO 3200.

Sample photos on a Canon 60D

Sample photos on a Canon 60D

UPDATE 1

Examples of photos on a Canon EOS 60D paired with a Soviet fifty dollars MS HELIOS-77M-4 1,8 / 50 shared a photographer Ulyana Bukanova (Mizinova):

UPDATE 2

Examples of photos on a Canon EOS 60D paired with a Soviet lens Helios-44-2 2/58 shared a photographer Andreeva Elena:

Results

the camera is quite pleasant to operate, has as much as 18mp and an excellent extended set of important functions for professionals, such as remote flash control, quick sync, additional display, etc. The camera is perfect for both amateur and professional.

Material prepared Arkady Shapoval. Training/Consultations | Youtube | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Telegram

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Comments: 232, on the subject: Canon 60D review

  • a lion

    If anyone has experience using Canon 40D and Canon 60D - can you tell me if we discard video shooting and a rotating screen, which is not important for me, is it worth changing 40D to 60D? I mean, bother selling one and buying another?

    • Arkady Shapoval

      If you already change, then for something more worthwhile, at least 5d mark 2 / 7d, 70d. In the 60s there is nothing fundamentally new, since the cameras are practically in the same line.

      • a lion

        Thanks for the advice! I’ll pick one of them.

  • Andrei

    I noticed an interesting feature of this camera, I am engaged in professional repairs of this technique, so 60 has features, the first how many of them I had had not one focus was always short of two or three book lines at 15 in the frame, 550 by the way is always in focus, the second feature, metering that in the video to the searcher what is the same in life but 550 is different and most importantly the range is wider in 60, I see it with my eye. I compare on an example 550 because the matrix and the percentage are the same. Who do I prefer the quality of the picture? Not to anyone. One has a back or front has another metering curve. Not successful models. About the redness in low light, I generally keep quiet.

    • Vadim

      I always listened to the opinion of professionals and masters, when choosing a particular technique. Andrey Your review, as well as the review of the author of this site Arkady.Sh. for me (beginner) is very useful. A lot of controversy and comparisons about choosing a camera. I am also interested in this issue. I want to ask you. Which model of camera do you use, or are there any preferences for the reliability and quality of the models that you, as a repairman, could recommend to a beginner in this matter, so that you would not regret it later and not carry it to the service) Thank you!

  • Mr. Boggy

    I have experience with this camera, mine is unstable with full-frame optics. On a soapy 18-55 (non-IC) II, the picture is better, but 400 d in general on it is almost a razor. I think the 60d is equipped with a very thick AA filter or similar. And I have Elki, but the picture of the seams is strange, the focus is on the spot, but everything somehow comes out soapy. It would be necessary to adjust but far from me. (((Yes, and still 17-55 2.8 I would have to take my own, but given that I have 5d and 1ds to pay a lot for a crop vacuum cleaner ... I didn't like 60d in general, there are too many pixels and a direct dependence on the adjustment service, but I in the village it’s just go nuts like, yeah ...

    • Michael

      It is supplied not very good. By a successful matrix, yes the filter, you are right, with this resolution it already strongly affects

  • Mr. Boggy

    And frankly, the current crop is a grandmother’s scam, all the time you’ll be unsure of the lenses and there will be a desire to change the lens. The native 17-55 2.8 without dust and moisture is too expensive, it’s easier to switch to ff even with a fifty dollars and a bag, but immediately a new level seemed to have removed soap glasses from plexiglass at last.

    • anonym

      exactly.
      buying a crochet crochet with a mirror in 2019 makes no sense from the word at all.
      at such ridiculous prices for an old full frame.

      • Roman

        So for myself and did not reveal this secret of the covet of the full frame. Well, that is, of course, yes, there are advantages, but one cannot reach ecstasy.

        • Mr. Boggy

          And I didn’t say that ff is just a panacea and buzz. But in the presence of native ff glasses, the pictures work better, there is less marriage, and the norms for wide angles such as 24-28 are exactly wide, and not cropping like on a crop. Yes, and in poor light, ff does not spoil the picture on high ISO, worse on crop. And finally, I was upset by the modern crop with too many megapixels, which the amateur and not only the amateur nafig did not resist. A healthy ceiling for a 10MP crop, sharp pictures at 24-105l, and at 18MP even by hand and live view soap. I don't like sigma and tamrons, the color is different and the quality of focus they have ... Now I have 1d μ2 as a crop, I do not crop anything, there is no such habit at all, 8mp of fatty ones is just enough.

          • Novel

            Native and cheap 10-18 (16-28 equivalent) not wide enough? There are 8-16 more. There is a fish-eye 8-15 (10 mm on the crop works like a diagonal).

            Less noise at high ISO is yes, but everything else is extremely controversial.

            You still have to crop sometimes. Naturally, not cutting out the very center of the image, but cutting 2-3 percent for symmetry is sometimes very necessary.

          • Novel

            That is, it’s not that I give up the full frame, if there is one. But if it is not there or there is no money for it, nothing will prevent you from making good shots for crop.

            • Andrei

              And if you don’t take good shots on crop, then someone will do it for you with a smartphone. Yeah, bold 8 megapixels, of course.

              • Mr. Boggy

                Go ahead, I'll look at your smartphones with crazy noise cancellation, oversharp and shitty lenses. Do not forget, a good picture and an old one can be taken on a Nokia 6300, only it will not be accepted for publication, because this is an amateur instinct. 8 megapixels at 7 microns per pixel work fine with old lenses, which have such a pattern that at 20 megapixels crops for ... you need to select from sigma, tampons and others, and then it turns out you still need to adjust this collective farm, where for web pages they squeeze up to 2 -5 megapixels later. And so that your smartphone so actively drowned would shoot like a top-end soap dish from the norms. matrix, then the smartphone itself should be at a price like a crop 80d plus a 17-55 lens, something from top iPhones, Samsung, well, any cool ones, in short, I'm not fond of them.

            • Mr. Boggy

              Just with the current market. Crop design technologies, when buying it, you should immediately have money for a native staff of type 17-55, because beginners do not all have experience in selecting a sigma or tamron in a store, they immediately buy and start filming. And the regular 18-55 and 18-135 are much worse in the picture than 28-105 on the FF. The current crop is very capricious to the lenses, it is easier to catch the shake. It seems like he should lure a newbie, but here is the muddle with the lenses. It was at 5d that I finally felt the process of shooting, and not a hassle with a fear of not getting into sharpness.

              • Oleg

                Do you use manual lenses on 5D?

          • Oleg

            I did not understand what was wrong with the crop edges, I understand ISO, shallow depth of field, but where the edges are full of wide-angle lenses from 10-18 to fixes. If you are an amateur and like to travel 15 kilometers from the city for great, then a set of 10-18 plus 55-250 is just a gift, both in price and in weight. Try to overlap the focal lengths from 16 to 400mm on a full frame, how much will it cost and weigh? For me, a full frame is smoother transitions from sharpness to blur, with everything else you can live on crop. And one more drawback of the mirror crop 7Artisan does not produce anything for him, but there are inexpensive sweets, so it is better to look at the bzk

            • Oleg

              Wrote on the phone

            • Novel

              Yes, these are two ideal travel lenses for ridiculous money - compact, with good image quality and with a stub. You can put anything in the middle - 24, 35, 50, just to fill the focal set.

            • Mr. Boggy

              In general, the crop for most amateurs is very good, what is needed from a reasonable sufficiency. But the distance must be multiplied by this very crop, which is 1,6 diagonal from the ff diagonal itself, and 16 mm there will be 25 mm, and that 16 mm distortions are noticeable on a crop of more than 24 on FF. 16mm will always be
              with a more drunk geometry, and even the edges of the crop will grab it. I agree that the crop is compact and lighter, its special lenses are lighter. It just so happened that when hunting for relatives 17-55, its price jumped up to obscenity, and when there was no money then it was made lower, it was not really lucky. Sigma fear that the spread of copies is not always stable. And here's what - there is a software emulation of the ef-s of the lens, it is stitched into the chip, so the carcasses of Kenon sometimes “reject” this emulation, because Kenon also hunts to warm himself from his native lenses, he deliberately prescribes a conflict that occurs in the form of glitches and “lense error ”. Even here, the comments described a contemporary sigma glitch.

              • Novel

                I was lucky to buy a used 17-55 for a cheap price. But there are fewer and fewer reasons to use it; it is ill-suited for walking. Although for a creative photo shoot, when you need a good result at any angle, without the need to jump, choosing a good angle is the most it.

                As for the incompatibility, the fact of intent must be proven. Officially, the protocols are closed, they are quite complex - it is not at all easy to ensure compatibility in two directions. Canon can afford to finish every new glass, checking it on all previous carcasses and every new carcass - checking it on all previous glasses. But the sigma-tokens are no longer there, so jambs are quite possible.

              • Victor

                "Distortion of 16 mm is noticeable on a crop of more than 24 on FF"

                Yeah, and 10mm on an inch soap dish is generally impossible to watch, and 6..7mm on smartphones generally die-do not get up, yeah yeah.

                Do not fantasize, in general.

              • Oleg

                I looked at Vlador's distortion tests: 24-70-2,7%, 17-40-3,7%, 28-105-4%, 17-55-2,7% normal distortion for a zoom lens, 10-18 distortion well fixed, 24-105 distortion was always great. So the distortion of the crop certainly does not lose.

  • Vladislav

    Hello.
    Arkady, and who is close, the question is: is it possible to take a Canon 150D 60-18is or a Canon 55D 650-18is for 55 bucks (the price is the same). Both are in excellent condition. What to choose, advise me as an advanced amateur. I do not earn a camera. The 650d video function is much better than the 60d video so that this function will overcome and make a choice. And what experience tells you to take. I ask, because I did not hold it in my hands, I can only listen to your advice.

  • Alexandra

    Tell me, the question is burning, Canon 60d and 3 lenses shirik, 50 mm 1.4 and 18 - 125 or Canon 5d Mark ll with 50mm lens, but 1.8?

    • Michael

      What for? 5d is more interesting, especially if you buy more lenses later

    • 1Ds_mk3

      Look - the second Pyatak is definitely more interesting. He will be stronger.
      Look at the AutoFocus operation on the second Pyatak - it may not suit you, especially at dusk.
      The option is a bit more expensive and with good Autofocus - 6D.
      The second Pyatak will definitely be stronger than all of them.
      Pay attention to the mileage of the cameras.
      Under the second Pyatak, over time you will have to buy 24-105 / 4L, or according to your taste and needs.
      In short, I'm for Fivedvak.

      • Mr. Boggy

        5d mk2 is handsome, 21 megapixels as a good stock for cropping - you can always make a crop from ff, the color of the dimes is good, I compared the first and the second, the second tone color is a little colder, the blue shades are pleasant, but this gives a lot in processing on a computer ... autofocus, the extreme points are rather weak on the machine, only the central one. In general, pennies before the third mark were more studio-staged middle peasants, like a second camera for a pro, or for a leisurely creative shooting for wealthy amateurs. Good cameras, I have the first version ...

    • Seladir

      What are you going to shoot?

  • Seladir

    I discovered a partial incompatibility of the Canon 60D with the Sigma 17-70mm 2.8-4 Contemporary, plus on the forums I found an identical story in the case of the Sigma 17-50 2.8.
    The bottom line is that when the auto focus point selection is on, the lens scours endlessly and never focuses. If you choose any specific point, it works flawlessly. On Canon 50D, 550D this problem was not observed.

  • Nicholas

    Canon 60D and Tamron 17-50 vs d2 or Nikon D5300 and 18-140 vr at the same price, mileage is similar. What to choose? Taking into account that for the future to buy fixes 35/50.

    • B. R. P.

      Canon and Tamron. Although Sigma is better)

  • Nicholas

    Yes, Nikon also has Yongnuo 35 2.0 attached.

  • Mr. boggy

    As for the video - 24 frames / sec 1920x1080p, the original format for the camera from Rav video, which the camera can do, all the rest are software processed. At first, the 60d video struck me in some way by its “resemblance” to the cinema, and then I saw that from video cameras it might not be so artistic, but it is stable, normal, and does not break off at the wrong moment.

  • Novel

    Hello, tell me, does it make sense to change nikon d90 to canon 60d?
    I’ve been using Nikon for a year, everything suits me, but shutter speed and a rotary screen captivate Canon (sometimes it’s not enough)
    thanks for answers.

    • B. R. P.

      You will also have to change the optics) You are unlikely to use this shutter speed often. Finally, a typical question, when the owner of the camera does not fully understand what he needs and the torment begins with the purchase / sale, etc. No one will decide for you what specifically makes sense for you.

    • Mr. boggy

      Dear friend, Nikon is a very good system, and if you have a lot of lenses, then it’s better to switch to ff d610, or if you’re already walking, then strain up to 750, after 90d it will be space! If you want to change to Kenon, then crop to crop will not work either. If you want a real increase - take 5d mk3, there are focus points, the shooting speed is already class!

  • VK

    Question.
    Are there any memory card size restrictions for this camera?

    • Arkady Shapoval

      The volume is limited by the SDXC protocol, and therefore any volume available on the market will do.

      • VK

        Thank you for information.

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