Review on Canon EOS 60D: 18MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera Body - Your Next Photography Companion by Hien Kent ᠌

Name: Canon EOS 60D: 18MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera Body - Your Next Photography Companion
Item: Canon EOS 60D: 18MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera Body - Your Next Photography Companion
Rating: 5

September 13, 2022

A really necessary purchase, glad I found this product.

So what do we have left? An excellent camera, one of the best on the market and perhaps the best in its segment for the needs of semi-professionals. Competitors are the older Sony and Pentax models with their own "features", as well as the magnificent Nikon D7000 (the newer D7100 is much more expensive - it's harder to compare).

In short, Nikon will give you slightly better colors for landscape photography out of the box, it has less noise and a wider dynamic range, but serious problems with skin tones (and a lot, a lot of photoshop does not completely remove them). If you are not interested in portrait photography as such (not reportage), take Nikon. For atmospheric, aesthetic portraits, Canon is much better suited. Overall, both cameras are great and the choice is always up to the photographer.

Let's comment on some features of 60D. The quick menu (called by the Q button) has a strange flaw - both disks change the value of the currently selected setting, and we choose what to configure with the joystick buttons (it would be better to use one of the disks for this - there are two of them, as in the main menu).

The noise level of the latest Nikon and Sony cameras is really lower (in the case of Sony, thanks to really cool noise reduction). But the colors are a little less natural. The problem of chromatic noise (if you notice it at all) is solved in two clicks in the same Lightroom. At the same time, there is a big difference in terms of noise from the "younger" 600D - keep in mind, the latter gives more color noise (maybe the camera processor works differently). The noises of the 60D (if you remove the color component) are quite harmonious and somewhat reminiscent of film grain.

For a more comfortable work with the landscape, I recommend setting up a custom Picture Style through the proprietary utility (slightly reduce the saturation of warm colors, increase the saturation of cold colors, lighten the greens, but make the blues darker).

Pros

- The most affordable serious Canon camera - Large, with a comfortable grip, all the necessary places are rubberized, and the control dials are in place - General ergonomics for 5 points (almost everything from quick settings changes to thoughtful digging in the menu is done very quickly - see comments) - The viewfinder is bright, informative enough in terms of getting into focus (plus the focusing screen can be changed) - Swivel screen - Histogram on the screen in "live view" mode - 9 autofocus sensors in their places in the center, along the edges and at the points of the golden ratio (switch in one click, 50 points in the center are much more convenient) - All AF sensors are cross-type, with a suitable lens, AF is very fast and very accurate (also in tracking mode) - In live view mode, the camera can raise the mirror for half a second to focus as quickly and accurately as possible with phase sensors - Intense yet natural colors and GREAT skin tones (a major selling point for Canon models) - "Standard" color profile is really universal (but it is better to increase the sharpness to a value of 4-5) - High detail images when using high-quality optics - Precise white balance (preserves harmony between accurate color reproduction and lighting atmosphere) - There is a mode for manually entering the color temperature in K (say, if you know the color temperature of the lamps) - Four useful and accurate metering modes - The widest ability to adjust colors and tonal curve using a proprietary program, as a result we can get any desired picture and save it in cameras as a color profile - The 5D Mark II's huge battery holds over 1,000 shots, or three not-too-intense shooting days - Naturally hot shoe and generally compatible with a bunch of lenses and accessories - The working length of the camera (the distance from the lens mount to the matrix) allows you to put a whole huge park of old optics without "dancing with a tambourine"

Cons

- The viewfinder does not have a grid (it can be solved by changing the focusing screen) and does not provide 100% frame coverage, plus I would like a bigger and denser eyecup - Buttons on the back and top panels and inside the rear control dial are pressed without clicking, there is no confirmation of pressing - The buttons on the rear panel (Q, Menu, Play) are recessed into the case, they are difficult to find and press blindly - The button for previewing the depth of field under the bayonet mount is hard to press (but it is) - The screen is cruelly "blind" in the sun - No in-camera autofocus fine-tuning - Noise level at medium ISO values, especially chromatic (color) noise - Dynamic range (the ability to reproduce shades in highlights and shadows) is narrower than competitive products - Slightly "warm" color rendering by default (may become very "warm" under some shooting conditions) - Red colors can "knock out" (the nuances of shades disappear in bright light) - White balance shift is entered only for all presets at once (someone will find it inconvenient, and for good reason) - Color profiles other than "Standard" and "Neutral" seem slightly odd and lean towards reddish hues - In the proprietary program, you can not fine-tune the "monochrome" profile (sadness for a hipster) - In-camera conversion from RAW to JPEG is painful compared to Nikon's similar functionality (see comments) - The camera "likes" to collect dust particles on the mirror (subjectively) - The body plastic (polycarbonate) subjectively looks cheaper and is more easily soiled compared to Nikon's textured plastic - Big weight (for someone)