Canon Announces EOS 60D

[traveller]

The people that have written about the specs of the 60d showing that Canon repositioning its model line-up are IMHO spot on. Camera launch prices are always ridiculous, they will drop to below the equivalent of what the 50d sold for (remembering to factor inflation and exchange rate differences into the equation). There are plenty of advantages of a 60d over a 550d when you compare the two.

If you don't like the specs of the 60d, then you are probably a 7d customer without realising it: come on, if you're reading this site then photography is your hobby -treat yourself! The real comparison here should be between the 60d and the Nikon D90 (and Sony A5XX series).

The danger seems to be that Canon are two years behind Nikon (D300 -> 7d; D90 -> 60d), rather than leading the market. The trouble I see brewing for Canon, is if Nikon do make the D7000 with the specs that have been rumoured elsewhere. But let's wait and see: can (or will) Nikon really make the D7000, with 7d/D300s like specs, for the price of a D90 (60d)? If they can Canon are truely up a certain creek without a certain implement, if they can't (or won't) then expect to see the howls on this forum repeated at Nikonrumors!

 

[kubelik]

canon seems to be betting that photographers are more well off than ever before and over the next few years will be moving everything one tier up the market ladder.

I don't want to be a pessimist (although I think I share everyone's feelings about the downshifted 60D and the 25% to 50% price increase in next generation lenses, which is far from happy) so I'm trying to figure out where Canon is going with all this...

it seems like Canon is trying to shrink the "semi-pro" level as small as possible, and is moving away from a continuous-tiered system to a two-class structure: consumers vs. professionals, with a wide chasm in between. it seems the former rumor regarding this same setup for canon's lens lineup may not have been so far off the mark after all; the lens releases also seem to be morphing into either EF-S or L-series, with nothing in between. I thought it was unbelievable at the time, but after seeing a fisheye L, and a 70-300 variable aperture L, I'm really not so sure the EF-S/L dichotomy isn't the new hierarchy within Canon.


is surrendering the "middle class" section of the market good? is Canon hoping that by moving its whole professional lineup further upstream it can establish a Leica-like reputation and following? what do you think?

 

[scw]

Just as Canon announces the new 60D DSLR Camera for release in September, FutureShop www.futureshop.ca/en-ca/home.aspx posts a front page ad online for a Canon 60D kit & boasts to be the only retailer in Canada to offer the 18-135mm kit. Now that is gonna frustrate as many people as when we found out the 60D body is now "polycarbonate" PLASTIC! not Magnesium.


Canon 60D by Sweet Cheeks Willie â„¢, on Flickr


scw

 

[daizone88]

I think Canon did intend this to compete with the Nikon D90 level series as the D90 is/was one of Nikon's best selling cameras if I remember correctly. This could be a big hit for people who are looking to move up from the point and shoot world. Because if Nikon does bump up the specs of the D90 then that would leave a pretty large gap in their lineup between the D3100 and the D90 replacement. However if Nikon does bump up the specs of the D90 to where the old Canon XXD line, placing it around the D300s level. I think it would be smart for nikon to release a sub $2000 full frame camera in the form of the D300s successor, especially with their new annoucement of the 28-300 for full frame (which is like the 18-200 super zoom for cropped). Why else would they announce such a lens targeted more towards the prosumer/consumer? I have a feeling it should be an interesting couple of next months until everything for this year is mapped out and everything is out on the table. I think Sony could be the dark horse in this race though with the announcement of their newest cameras, if they can work the quirks out of them in their next refresh. The AF on their video is pretty fast from the demonstration videos I've seen. What will ultimately determine I think is the pricing of this camera and the pricing of what Nikon will have to offer by the end of this year too.

 

[mivaho]

About the presets, the 7d still has the [green=full auto] [P=program] mode and [CA=creative auto] modes. Trust me that those would suffice for her. I've never ventured into the presets as I find they don't do anything special whatsoever. Personally I'd say set it to full auto or program mode with auto iso, done.

That said, the 50d is a great cam and maybe you can even get it a little cheaper now that the 60d will be coming out. I myself have the 40d and love it.
(ook nederlander btw )

Hi unruled,

Yeah I agree with the mentioned presets on the 7D, but the other consideration was the price Not needing video (they have special hardware for that these days ) and the 50D being half the price of what the 60D will do in September it was a no brainer since seeing the feature list on the 60D today.

Just ordered it an hour ago at konijnenberg should be on its way tomorrow

Looking at the comparing list at dpreview I see no improvements I need on the 60D that makes up for double the euro's

Advised a co-worker today to do the same

They should have made it a 600D

SeeYa,

Michel

 

[gkreis]

Microadjustment is pretty useless and will do more harm than good. So I can understand why they removed it.

Then why is it in the higher priced models? Are you predicting it will be removed from all future Canon models?

Does anyone know if the focus tuning that Canon does when you send in a lens and body (say a 40D) is essentially the same thing as micro focus adjustment in the 7D, 50D, etc.? If it is essentially the same then it is NOT useless. I am amazed at what they tuning of my lenses with my 40D. It went from I didn't want to take pictures to me marveling at their sharpness.

O dear! Why bother reading useless comments and moreover answering those? Of course microadjustment is useless because...hmmm... just because I have a tremendous need just to say something!!!!

This review really dinged Canon for the lack of Microadjustment. I hope these kinds of points in reviews will cause Canon to consider a firmware update to add it...

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/E60D/E60DA.HTM

 

[Mark D5 TEAM II]

It seems like many are getting their panties up in a bunch over this new release. ;D From a purely marketing and product differentiation viewpoint, the 60D specs are actually spot-on. Remember that the previous xxDs all had an MSRP (at time of release) of $1300-$1500. The Rebels were around $800-$900. The 60D has an MSRP of $1100. The 7D was $1700 when it was launched. So the specs are of course between the Rebels and the 7D. It's up to the buyer if there is any 60D feature or set of features that is worth the extra $200 from the Rebel, or if he feels there are some 7D features that aren't worth the extra $600 for his use.

Personally I'm not interested in the xxD line anymore since Canon has decided to reposition it lower to compete more directly with the Nikon Dxx line. Also, those rumored D95/D7000 specs look too good to be true, like a Noink fanboi's wet dream. That spec is stupid since the D300s is a current model, no one would buy that more expensive model if it gets trumped by a camera $700 less (assuming the Dxx line stays at $1100 like the 60D). Heck, they couldn't even get their fantasy specs consistent. For example: the most ardent Noink fanboi on DPR, pandalee, keeps repeating that the D90 successor would have 17-pt. AF, not the 39 as mentioned by some here.

 

[Mark D5 TEAM II]

My personal 60D dealbreakers are: no AF Microadjust, shift to SD cards, keeping the 40D/50D 9-pt. AF sensor, single-axis electronic level, and single Speedlite commander. The first one and the latter two seem like mere deliberate crippling, it's not as if Canon would save any money by doing that. But again, they designed the 60D to a certain price point, and they are successful in that. Seems like a lot of the whining is based on the wish to have a 7D for $600 less . That is as silly as expecting the D95/D7000 to be a better D300s for $700 less.

 

[J]

My personal 60D dealbreakers are: no AF Microadjust, shift to SD cards, keeping the 40D/50D 9-pt. AF sensor, single-axis electronic level, and single Speedlite commander. The first one and the latter two seem like mere deliberate crippling, it's not as if Canon would save any money by doing that.

This hits home with me. AF microadjust doesn't cost them any physical parts. The crippled commander is especially puzzling as it means Canon deliberately deviated from their existing designs to make it. But not only that, but wouldn't supporting more Speedlites encourage more Speedlite buying? You'd think so, right?

 

[Canon 14-24]

My personal 60D dealbreakers are: no AF Microadjust, shift to SD cards, keeping the 40D/50D 9-pt. AF sensor, single-axis electronic level, and single Speedlite commander. The first one and the latter two seem like mere deliberate crippling, it's not as if Canon would save any money by doing that.

This hits home with me. AF microadjust doesn't cost them any physical parts. The crippled commander is especially puzzling as it means Canon deliberately deviated from their existing designs to make it. But not only that, but wouldn't supporting more Speedlites encourage more Speedlite buying? You'd think so, right?

Going by the assumption enthusiasts in the Rebel/xxD market have no need for it OR by the assumption that it would take away sales from the 7d and to set the bar between both camera models.

In other thinking I would suppose spec-wise this would be the T3i like others mentioned and the 7d a 60d, but then again doing so wouldn't stop the complaining of people saying it's out of their price ranges.

 

[Shompis]

Microadjustment is pretty useless and will do more harm than good. So I can understand why they removed it.

Then why is it in the higher priced models? Are you predicting it will be removed from all future Canon models?

Does anyone know if the focus tuning that Canon does when you send in a lens and body (say a 40D) is essentially the same thing as micro focus adjustment in the 7D, 50D, etc.? If it is essentially the same then it is NOT useless. I am amazed at what they tuning of my lenses with my 40D. It went from I didn't want to take pictures to me marveling at their sharpness.

Not sure if you are serious. But when you micro adjust, you adjust for one fixed set of focal length, distance to the subject and aperture. Essentially it is for emergency cases when you can't focus properly and you need to make that shot no matter what. But it still has to be professionaly calibrated afterwards. At a service center, they never micro AF adjust. For a zoom lens for example, they adjust 8 control points. A properly calibrated lens does not need any micro AF adjustment, period.

So it will probably be left in the pro models (see emergency cases where there is no service center near you and you need to make the shot now, not tomorrow), but in consumer products such as XX series? No.

 

[canonguy]

The real reason for this release:

"Canon was so jealous of the Nikon D90 sales that they wanted their own crap camera."

"Why not lets make a camera exactly like the D90 then lets add a swivel lcd and embed post processing filter tools... maybe they will sell more than the D90."

 

[J]

Naturally, Canon can spec their cameras however they want. They'll just get an upgrade sale every 6+ years instead of every 3 from the installed base. If that's part of their plan, then fine. But the SLR and SLR-like market is already pretty mature, so how much new blood does Canon seriously think they can attract? And this does target newer buyers, in some weird way that seems to ignore Sony and m4/3. It offers fairly little to their existing customers.

It's not like I'm being melodramatic and claiming that I'm jumping brands. I'm not. Bodies come and go. I'd say every manufacturer intentionally cripples their products in some way, but it's not too often that a company shoves it in your face.

 

[koi]

I'm glad I bought the 7d instead of waiting for the 60d. I would have liked an articulating screen but the downsides of the 60d outweigh the good.

 

[ELK]

The real reason for this release:

"Canon was so jealous of the Nikon D90 sales that they wanted their own crap camera."

"Why not lets make a camera exactly like the D90 then lets add a swivel lcd and embed post processing filter tools... maybe they will sell more than the D90."

Absolutely! But Canon is 2 years behind with that idea. Now the new D95/D7000 will be new Nikon bestseller with incomparably better features. Let me bet... Canon will release it's 70D version 2 years later!

 

[unexposure]

My opinion is, that the 60D just exactly fits the needs of any small-press-photographer/photojournalist in newspapers oder maybe blogs.

Reasons:
- To fill half a newspaper-site with one photo, it has to measure about 2000x1500 pixel. common newspaper printing is done in 130 to 180 dpi. But having 18MP to work with gives you a lot more freedom in taking the shots. Shoot at 6400ISO, getting heavy denoise filter on it in postprocessing, resharpen, scale down to what your current need is, resharpen again. Result: Picture will be fine for release.
- Articulating display is great to have. There are so many times where you just can't step on your ladder (if you carry one around with you) to take a picture. Another example is to do unusual perspectives where architecture is the barrier to overcome - either you take a special lens for that (maybe t/s) or you just cannot do it without articulating/flip-screen. For those reasons I allways take my old finepix9600 in bag for situations that simply can't be handled that good with a 50d.
- Eye-Fi is pretty cool stuff. When the production needs the pics as fast as possible, my workflow is: taking the pictures, pluggin in the cable to connect to a netbook, send em via umts. Eye-Fi enables you practically realtime-stream the pics to your note-/netbook, which may save some time. Other thing is, espacially in studio-situations, you get rid of the annoying cable when using your computer to display the results instead of the tiny camera-display, what really makes sense to me. Only thing, thats a little pity here, is that they could have made the wireless option a direct part of the cam instead of just making it ready for wireless-usage.
- the wireless flash trigger is more a "nice to have". beeing able to do unchained lighting with "on board"-tools is pretty fine i think. but would even be better being able to controll more than one speedlite.
- last but not least, I really appreciate the wheight-and sizereduction compared with 50d/70d which makes it for me easier to handle (i've got no super-sized hands) an less to carry. i don't really miss the mg-body either. it's just look and feel to me - i really can go without.

 

[drummstikk]

I don't know what you guys or surprised about. That a less expensive product than the 7D isn't way better than the 7D?

Truth spoken here.

I come to eat my words because I was one who said "There will be no 60D." However, if I had only rephrased to say, "There will not be the 60D that everyone on this forum is expecting," the posts here seem to acknowledge I was right.

This camera has been the target of unrealistic expectations from day one. "I want the 7D but I only want it to cost $999.00" (Cue the crying baby.) Of course, this is mostly Canon's fault, because the 50D was underpriced by at least $200.00 and they had fostered the expectation of a better camera for 100 bucks less every year and a half since the 20D.

Dumb marketing by Canon led to dumb expectations on the part of the customers. Kinda sad all around. Literally the most interesting annoucement of the day for me was the Final Cut video plug-in. I could get excited that the new revs of the 300mm 2.8 and 400mm 2.8 might drive down prices on used copies of the current models, but I assume Canon will continue their recent practice of jacking up the prices on the new versions, which will prop up used prices at the same time.

70-300 4.0/5.6? What were they thinking? Have they seriously put the zoom ring out in front of the focus ring? Hey, Canon! If you have to design lenses, don't drink. If you have to drink, don't design lenses.

Fisheye zoom? Sounds kind of ridiculous, but I'll reserve judgment until I see what people post from that lens on Flikr.

 

[ELK]

Some interesting details. As far as I know 1D Mark III-IV, 5D mark II, 7D and 50D have AF microadjustment. Interestingly that detail was mentioned in press releases of 1D Mark III , 5D mark II and 50D only.
I contacted Canon USA and asked if there is a chance that Canon will implement AF microadjustment in production model. Here's their response:

"There is currently no information regarding whether the 60D will have AF
microadjustment. The pre-production version does not, but we do not
know if the production model will. The camera was just announced today,
so there is very limited information. We will have more information in
a few weeks."

Who knows how to contact Canon CEO?

 

[Tusker]

Literally the most interesting annoucement of the day for me was the Final Cut video plug-in.

Excuse me for my ignorance but what is video plug in? and how does that effect?

Thanks for your help.

 

[c.d.embrey]

I don't know what you guys or surprised about. That a less expensive product than the 7D isn't way better than the 7D?

Truth spoken here.

This camera has been the target of unrealistic expectations from day one. "I want the 7D but I only want it to cost $999.00" (Cue the crying baby.) Of course, this is mostly Canon's fault, because the 50D was underpriced by at least $200.00 and they had fostered the expectation of a better camera for 100 bucks less every year and a half since the 20D.

Dumb marketing by Canon led to dumb expectations on the part of the customers. Kinda sad all around ...

What I was expecting was an up-graded EOS 50D with an 18mp sensor and video selling for $1,300.00 at the release. And I would have ordered that 18mp w/video 50D for $1,300.00 yesterday. But Canon released a Rebel in an xxD body, so I didn't order a 60D.

So why don't I just buy a 7D? Because it is NOT what I want or need, if it was I'd have ordered it the day it was released. I'm not a fanboy who's jonesing for a new Canon.