Noise, resolution and sensitivity
With a highly populated sensor it was a wise decision for Canon to limit the sensitivity of the EOS 60D to ISO 6400, with an extended ISO 12,800 option available. When at the maximum ISO 6400 setting, images look very good considering the amount of noise that such images would have suffered just a couple of years ago.
The noise reduction causes a softening of image detail, but even at this sensitivity the EOS 60D is able to reach around 24 on our resolution test chart, which is about on par with most 12-million-pixel DSLRs at ISO 100.Colour noise is visible in images at ISO 1600, and it becomes slightly more apparent as the sensitivity increases.
For the most part it is fairly unobtrusive and comes in the form of very faint patches of green or magenta in shadow areas. It is fairly straightforward to remove in raw-editing software. Luminance noise starts to affect images at ISO 800, but it is not until ISO 3200 that it starts to give images a slightly granular texture.
Image: With an 18MP resolution, the EOS 60D can resolve a great deal of detail, although JPEG files do require sharpening. For best results the raw files are far superior
With the EOS 60D able to reach an impressive 30 in our resolution chart test, the camera has a high resolution that can make a real difference when capturing fine details.
For example, I was able to photograph a wild mushroom on a woodland floor and it was only on inspection afterwards that I noticed a tiny fruit fly was sitting on the top of it. As we have seen before in Canon cameras, JPEG images are soft by default.
Increasing the sharpness by one or two notches in the Picture Style settings can help counter this. For best results shoot raw files and process the images in Canon’s DPP software, which comes with the camera.
The software is very easy to use, and a great deal of detail can be resolved even by just using the default raw conversion settings.Although such high resolutions are something we will begin to see more and more at enthusiast level, for now the Canon EOS 60D is a perfect compromise between resolution, high ISO performance and noise reduction.
Resolution charts: These images show 72ppi (100% on a computer screen) sections of images of a resolution chart, captured using a Sigma 105mm f/2.8 lens. We show the section of the resolution chart where the camera starts to fail to reproduce the lines separately. The higher the number visible in these images, the better the camera’s detail resolution is at the specified sensitivity setting.
