Canon Camera Malaysia was grateful enough to have given me the opportunity to review one of their unreleased (till this day) unit of Canon EOS 60D. In this review I would cover the new function I discover and at the same time briefly explain from my point of view how this could or may help us photographer to take and organize our pictures.

The Canon EOS 60D is categorized to be in the advance amateur/semi professional line of camera together with the Canon 50D, but please do not compare or expect it to be the replacement of its predecessor the 50D. In my opinion this camera is more of a line up of an in between of the Canon 7D and the Canon 550D.

Technical Spesification

• 18 Megapixel CMOS sensor (APS-C) Digic 4 image processor
• ISO 100-6400 (expandable to iso 12800)
• maxinum shutter speed at 1/8000
• flash sync at 1/250
• 96% viewfinder coverage with a 0.95x magnification
• 63 zone dual layer  metering sensor  (iFCL)
• 9 point all cross-type sensor with a f2.8 AF support for the center focus point
• 5.3 frames per second (fps) JPEG/JPG + RAW
• Storage type : SD/SDHC/SDXC

for more technical specification do check out dpreview

Official new features

Multi control dial
the first thing you would notice when you look back at the control of the camera is that the little joy stick is missing, now the controls are in between the quick dial control and the SET button. The multi control dial is a 8 way directional key which is pretty easy to get use to once you get the hang of it. It also a lot faster and accurate in terms of menu/option selection.  The neat thing about this is when you have a battery grip attached to your camera and your camera is side ways you could now use this multi control dial to scroll around your camera options whereas the old joystick button was too high on top.

one button per function
Most of the buttons near the top LCD are now one function per button, compared to the 30/40/50D which had 2 functions per button. The allocation of the light button is also smartly allocated now, which is near the shutter dial.

Quick setting button
Right on top of the quick selection dial there is a button called the quick setting button, this allows you to change your settings easily when you have a battery grip attached and holding your camera  side ways.

Mode-dial lock
The mode dial on the top left of the camera now comes with a locking feature, to change the camera from M to AV or to any other mode press and turn the button in the middle and turn the dial. This helps avoid the user from accidentally changing mode when carrying their camera around.

3 inch vary-angel LCD
The new 3 inch wide panel at a aspect ratio of 3:2   can be swirl and adjusted to help take pictures at a high or low angle at ease. The LCD is also better then most of the canon EOS series as it has now 1,040,000 dots compared to 920,000 dots on the 5D mark II, 50D, 7D and 550D. With this LCD shooting macro would also be easier and would not require one to be laying his/her head on the ground.

Creative filters
Canon has now incorporate creative filters in the EOS 60D which is very much like post processing with a preset.

Grainy black and white

Soft Focus

Toy Camera Effect

Minature Effect

These effect are non destructive to the original picture, you would be allowed to save the “edited” picture as a new copy and could also stack or mix and match effects.

Movie Cropping
There is a new mode in the movie menu where you could do 640×480 at 50fps(PAL) with a crop option. This gives you a telephoto effect at about x7 at the center of the screen. This helps by giving you a chance to have a zoom without having to use a teleconverter and lose out on the f-stops.

Electronic level

Finally it’s here in canon, the electronic level helps landscape photographers in making sure that their horizon are straight and do not need to buy an additional level meter. This works for both vertical and horizontal shots. I find this pretty useful cos at night it would be hard to rely on the old water bubble meter thingy and not have lights around. This electronic version which appears on the top LCD or back LCD solves that problem.

In-camera RAW processing

As the name says it, this is a really awesome feature. I can see  users now shoot JPG alone then later do the post processing to raw later to save up space on their SD card. Although it may be a little slower but I guess it’s an option not a must for people who don’t want to use it. I personally like this feature and would like to see how could other people make use of this feature to improve productivity during their idle time during shoots.

Aspect ratio
Pictures can now be taken in 4 different aspect ratio, 4:3, 16:9, 3:2 and 1:1. I love this feature as it allows us to be more creative with our shots and composition, now I could take square pictures without having to crop then during post processing.  To get a better and clearer idea on how the picture will turn up, the use of live view is encourage to get an idea on how the shots will turn up.

Image rating

There’s an option to rate your images now too! This could and would save time on my wedding assignment as I could do my ratings at my free time then when I’m back home to do my same day edit I could just pop in the card download the pictures and then use lightroom or any other softwares to filter out the 3 star or 4 star rating pics.

Resizing
Just when you think you could do all you need to do with your pictures on camera, Canon has given a resizing option. What more can I say…this is good and useful to some people.

Integrated Speedlite transmitter
This is the 2nd unit from all Canon EOS series to have a wireless connectivity from the body to the flash without needing to use a wireless transmitter. I love this and would wish they would incorporate this in all upcoming dslr. Wireless flash can be done now without having to pay extra for a radio transmitter and receiver.

My Verdict

I love the 63 zone dual layer metering sensor, it makes focusing so much faster, in fact a lot faster then the 5D mark II and faster then the 50D. I could even focus at places which doesn’t too much contrast or texture and still get to lock on focus.

I also love that we could have the movie mode in 50fps or 60fps depending on PAL or NTSC

I would say even though the buttons are re-allocated and there are a number of new features in this camera, I was able to get a hang of it within a matter of hours. From a canon user point of view this camera doesn’t require a lot of time to understand or re-learn. I was able to bring this camera for an assignment with confidence and able to just make the best of out it.

Videography is very new to me and I was able to just get the hang of it in a short time, this shows that the learning curve to a different skill set on this camera isn’t too hight. Talking about build…there was a load of comments, or rants on forums about the material used to make this Canon EOS 60D, yes it may not be aluminum but it doesn’t feel like one of those cheap plastic and in fact it feels pretty solid and I doubt it will break when it’s being dropped. With this it also makes the body a little lighter and I think a lot of females photographers/enthusiast will like it.

On the photography side I was able to get my images as I wanted them to be..the fast focusing and accurate auto white balance and accurate metering really did a good job in assisting me to get my images. Now I could do wireless flash shots without having to buy an expensive pocket wizards! I would be posting another video on how I use it. Added the new in camera features; rating, in-camera RAW processing and resizing, my workflow has certainly been a tad faster as I could screen through my pictures then rate them and edit them if needed to.

Here’s a video review if you’re too lazy to read those stuff above 🙂

Stay tune for more reviews coming up….

For more information about the product in Malaysia and Asia, check out these links.

Canon EOS 60D
http://www.canon-asia.com/eos60d

EOS 60D Body:
http://www.canon.com.my/p/EN/114-Digital-Cameras/200-EOS/1733-EOS-60D/

EOS 60D (18-55):
http://www.canon.com.my/p/EN/114-Digital-Cameras/200-EOS/1741-EOS-60D-Kit-EF-S18-55/

EOS 60D (18-135):

http://www.canon.com.my/p/EN/114-Digital-Cameras/200-EOS/1742-EOS-60D-Kit-II-EF-S18-135/

EOS 60D (18-200):
http://www.canon.com.my/p/EN/114-Digital-Cameras/200-EOS/1743-EOS-60D-Kit-III-EF-S18-200/