I’ve had a lot of people ask me about my Canon 60D and my camera opinions, but I didn’t want to post until I had the opportunity to be very thorough. I have owned the Canon 60D since its release because I pre-ordered it so, it’s been in my possession for well over half a year now. I’ve used it extensively for photography and for my videos and for clients’ videos so, here we go (please, don’t slaughter me for my opinions, but PLEASE voice your own for everyone!):
The camera itself:
You can look all this up for yourself, but quick highlights; 18 megapixel crop sensor (APS-C), full 1080p HD video at 30p or 24p and 720p downres gets you 60p, flippy-whippy-to-shoot-from-the-hippy screen (articulating LCD), full manual audio and exposure controls, 5.3 fps.
I have to separate the apples from the oranges so, first up is photography (video below):
I’ve read hundreds of forums, and I know what they say… But I just cannot give my 60D a good ISO performance star. I’m a stickler for low noise, and I only allow it to go to 1600 ISO when there is no other alternative, and I simply don’t even think about taking it higher. The Canon 5D Mark II can handle it but the 60D just can’t… It doesn’t have the guts. However, if you have the right lenses, this is rarely a problem (good lenses are going to be a recurring theme here). Of course, you can go higher to capture your dog asking for a tummy rub, but for professional photography, going over 1600 means you’d better have some beefy noise reduction software skillz and be prepared to accept your loss of sharpness, and really, if I had to be a major fuddy duddy, I’d say don’t go over 800 (my personal goal is trying to always find a way to not go over 400).
The quality of the picture when you aren’t battling extreme low light is exemplary. I have no complaints. I do think the Canon 7D tends to have slightly richer saturation, but if you customize your picture style, you can get so close that you’d be splitting hairs to decide between the two cameras solely on that basis. And really, the issue is more of a combo of saturation and contrast. In other words, it’s so close that it’s nothing a little Adobe medicine won’t cure.
It’s autofocus (which I don’t really use, but my wife does) has mixed results. It’s a 9-point cross-type system, and while it’s better than your Coolpix purse camera, it seems to have some difficulty every now and then… Specifically, it loves trees more than faces (I guess I do too though). The 7D’s 19-points autofocus is like having a personal Director of Photography frame every shot for you… It might as well be a scary-smart android assistant.
And while the bokeh, is not quite as creamy as a 5D Mark II (what is?), just like any great camera, you’re mostly going to control that by what lens you choose, and a beautiful lens will make for a beautiful Canon 60D picture.
Ergonomically, since I shoot full manual, having EVERYTHING laid out in my right hand is a blessing in the skies; shutter, aperture, ISO, drive… It’s all there at my fingertips! Click, click, boom, and I’m there! Even a cute little light bulb button for the top LCD backlight… Thank you, Canon.
On to what I’m excited about; VIDEO:
Mmmmm… Dangerous 60D vs. 7D vs. 5D Mark II territory here… Very dangerous… But I’ll be brave (deep breaths)…
Firstly, a small point; Turn off the AGC and leave it that way forever, but if you can record external audio, then you don’t have to deal with the camera’s noise level. External is, duh, always the way to go for sound, but the Canon 60D seems to pride itself on a boisterous noise floor. Even with the famed run and gunner Rode Videomic mounted on top, I spend far too long processing a silencer in Logic Pro. It’s noisy… just plain noisy.
Just like the 7D, the 60D is capable of cinematically (see what I did there?) melting your face. Turn OFF the Auto Lighting Optimizer and turn OFF the Peripheral Illumination Correction. Adjust your shutter speed to double your frame rate (180 degree rule) and viola! Your face is melted. But even with the 28-135mm IS USM, your movements won’t look fluid without a good rig… besides the IS degrades the image sharpness and that lens has the build quality feel of a Power Rangers action figure. I use the Redrock Micro eyespy configuration, and it makes a big difference (please, don’t buy a cheap rig that could snap in half and take your camera to the ground with it) viagra cheapest price. Just like Transformers, you can’t beat the primes in video, and with the Canon 50mm 1.4 USM, the image becomes a cinematic masterpiece of shallow DoF, sharp focus, and buttery bokeh. The articulating LCD screen does actually help in certain situations so, I can’t knock the inclusion of it in the design. As far as ISO performance… well… we all know that junk increases noise, right? After Effects CS5 has a decent noise reduction plugin (decent enough to hold off on a third-party plugin purchase for awhile… but allow a LONG time to let it process). If you must increase ISO during video (I shutter at the thought), you can handle 400, but if you go to 800, I can’t be held responsible for the late night infomercial look you will get. I remind you, I’m speaking from a strictly professional standpoint so, if you’re just wanting to do fun YouTube videos or whatever, it’s totally fine; have fun, my friend. But remember to just go on and set your video ISO on “1 stop” increments so that you won’t end up using 1/3 stops that use a calculated 1 stop ISO exposure adjustment (meaning, 640 could look worse than 800).
It’s a fantastic camera for pictures and for video. I still think the 5D MarkII looks better, judging from the bokeh and the saturation, but it isn’t as functional for video and quite frankly should be in a different budget category in your mind. Between the 7D and the 60D, someone FAR more experienced than I at DSLR video shooting said that he could tell a difference in the compression between the two. He said, although very slight, he likes the 7D better. I took his word for it because his stuff looks ridiculously amazing (here is one of his: http://youtu.be/BuRuwR2JSXI ). But whether he is right or not, and whether everything I’ve said is right or not, it is indeed a great camera, and I think you would be very happy with it. It all boils down to lenses and lights anyway… Learn from my mistakes; save up. buy L series. buy nice lights.
I have two more random points:
- The build quality: Many say that it has a “plastic” body. It is a polycarbonite resin body. Look that up. It’s not the same thing. The t2i is plastic and feels toy-like. The 60D feels like a truck, despite the fact that it is not magnesium-alloy like the 7D. Trust me, if you dropped the 7D at a velocity that would crack the body of the 60D upon impact, you would have a busted mirror anyway. Where the 7D actually does win out in build quality is its weather sealing, which is superior to the 60D… But the 60D is no slouch in that department either. Pretty landscapes and some wet weather; 60D. Safari in Africa or Amazon rainforest; take the 7D.
- I recently learned that the 7D outputs 1080p through its HDMI port to an external monitor, but the 60D will downres to 480p when you hit record. Why did Canon make their first DSLR that was specifically designed to assist videographers impractical for external monitor use? Because they want to make more money (they care about profit, not our happiness). Just watch; when they update to a new version, guess what feature will suddenly appear… Do you think they couldn’t have made an articulating LCD screen when they made the 7D or the t2i? Oh, hello there, t3i, now with an articulating screen!
Bottom line though: With the right lenses, they’re all 3 great cameras. Make a choice and don’t get into the gear wars! Just learn to have fun creating with what you chose!
Edit: On Canon DSLR cameras, you are supposed to only use multiples of 160 for ISO. These numbers have the lowest amount of noise. However, they also ever-so slightly decrease the dynamic range performance of the sensor, as opposed to using multiples of 100. It’s an aesthetic choice that I make in this regard. But just know that if low noise is what you’re after, you need to stick to ISO multiples of 160.