Features
As you would expect in a £1,000 camera, the Canon EOS 60D inherits much of its technology from the ‘prosumer’ EOS 7D, starting with the 18-million-effective pixel, APS-C-size CMOS sensor.
This sensor outputs 3:2 ratio, 5184×3456-pixel images, which, at 17.9 million pixels, is actually slightly smaller than 18 million. These images can be saved in both raw and JPEG format and, like other Canon DSLRs, you can select the size of the raw files.
At the heart of the EOS 60D is a Canon Digic 4 processor, which is used in all the current generation of EOS DSLRs.
Just as in a computer, the processor runs the camera’s operating system and enables the processing and running of features, including in-camera conversion of raw files and video capture. Speaking of video capabilities, the EOS 60D is the first ‘double-digit’ EOS camera to have this feature, and users will be pleased to know that once again the EOS 60D inherits much of its video technology from the EOS 7D.
One feature that used to be lacking from Canon EOS digital cameras was wireless flash control. On older EOS cameras, controlling a flash wirelessly requires another Canon flash or external transmitter. This is in contrast to enthusiast Nikon and Sony cameras, which have wireless flash control built into the camera.
Canon addressed this by adding wireless flash control to the in-built flash of the EOS 7D and, again, this feature has filtered down to the EOS 60D.The ability to process raw images in-camera has been around for a few years, but the Canon EOS 60D takes the processing and management of these images a stage further. As well as being able to make basic adjustments to the colour, contrast, noise reduction and sharpness of raw images, a number of filter effects can also be applied.
The Soft Focus, Toy Camera, Miniature and Grainy B/W effects can be applied to raw images, as well as JPEG files. Although not particularly groundbreaking, they do offer a way to visualise how images may look when more advanced adjustments are applied via a computer.
More of a benefit than the ability to perform basic image edits in-camera is the EOS 60D’s unique ability to rate images using a 1-5 star rating system. This enables photographers to quickly sort the good images from the bad while out in the field, saving time later. For more on this new addition see Features in use below.Another example of how Canon has repositioned the EOS 60D is the fact that it uses SD cards rather than CompactFlash cards.
Despite the costs of both types of memory rapidly decreasing and storage capacities increasing, it is still a factor in separating professional cameras from entry-level and enthusiast models. CompactFlash cards typically have faster reading and writing speeds, and offer professional photographers and videographers an advantage when shooting long bursts of images or when capturing lengthy footage. However, as the shooting rate of the EOS 60D is only 5.3fps, compared to 6.8fps in the EOS 50D, most enthusiast photographers should not be concerned with the use of the SD format unless, of course, they have already invested in expensive high-performance CF cards.
