Viewfinder, LCD, live view and video
Although the viewfinder of the Canon EOS 60D offers 96% rather than 100% coverage, it is bright and doesn’t distort at the edges. As you would expect, it is difficult to use the viewfinder to manually focus in dull light. Manually focusing is far easier in bright light, and AF confirmation is available in the viewfinder to double-check the accuracy.
Live View mode has the facility to digitally zoom in to the live image, which allows for much more precise manual focusing. This is particularly true given the 60D’s high-resolution, 1.04-million-dot, 3in screen. It is the same screen as used on the EOS 550D and is one of the best screens we have seen, both in terms of colour rendition and contrast, and resolution.
Automatically focusing in Live View mode is, to say the least, sluggish. The contrast detection is very slow, particularly when compared to the extremely fast contrast-detection AF of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2. We have also recently been spoiled with the Sony Alpha 33, which offers faster phase-detection AF in both Live View and video-capture modes.
Those using the EOS 60D in Live View would be far better focusing manually using the AF confirmation. Obviously, the slow contrast-detection focus is also an issue when using the EOS 60D’s video mode. Once again, manual focus AF is really the only choice if you are tracking a subject or panning with the camera. If you are prepared to focus manually, the quality of the video footage is superb.
Movies can be captured in 1920×1080-pixel resolution, with frame rates of 29.97, 25 or 23.976fps. At the lower 1280×720-pixel resolution, footage can be filmed at an impressive 59.94 or 50fps. Budding videographers will be pleased to hear that the EOS 60D doesn’t suffer from any significant sensor wobble, so faster panning shots are possible. The sound of the AF and the lens zooming is picked up by the in-camera microphone, but thankfully there is an external mic socket for more professional results.
Canon set the standard with the video-capture mode in its DSLRs, but the rest of the market has caught up. While the quality of the footage is great, it no longer stands out quite as far from the crowd.
