Enjoy a New Perspective with the Canon EOS60D

The tagline above is used by Canon to aptly describe their latest product. I was pretty thrilled when I found out I was one of the lucky 21 to review the Canon EOS 60D which wasn’t even out in the market yet!

The review was held in One World Hotel on 19 September and I must say that the Canon people really did a great job organising the briefing event as it was informal, informative and loads of fun.

We were warmly welcomed by Tee Ngin Yen from Canon and she explained to us that the review programme involved only a few simple steps. We are to review the product for 2 weeks and are free to comment on anything at anytime! Thereafter, the Canon product guru, Xavier Chan, patiently explained the product details to us.

There were 3 kits available for the review, namely the EOS 60D (18-55mm), (18-135mm) or (18-200mm) and we took lucky draws to determine who will receive what! I ended up getting the 18-200mm lens with image stabilizer. This was pretty interesting for me as my existing set-up is a Canon EOS 450D with a 10-22mm, 17-55mm and 50mm lens. As you can see from the photo below, it is a real beauty.

The first impression..

My Canon EOS 450D is an entry-level DSLR so the Canon EOS 60D was a really different experience as the buttons were placed differently. First of all, there is a quick control dial and 8 direction keys centered within the control dial for greater convenience.

I took some time to adjust myself to the new control dials but soon enough, I was able to twiddle my thumb and twist it accordingly. Having almost all the buttons on the right hand side allows you to use only one hand for control. Overall, it has been designed to allow photographers to change settings quickly and this is crucial during events as you do not want to miss any important shots!

Another new feature for me was the mode-dial lock, where it can only be turned by pushing the button. However, I thought the camera could have done without the lock because I wouldn’t need

to push an extra button to change my camera mode.

As a female photographer, I always get questions on whether it is heavy to carry the camera! Well, if you like taking photos, sometimes you don’t mind carrying the extra weight!  So comparing with my EOS 450D which is 475g, the EOS 60D is 675g which is still bearable! Its size is between the EOS50D and the EOS 550D.

What are the outstanding features of the Canon EOS60D?

1) This is the Canon DSLR with an articulating LCD!

So what’s so great about having an articulating LCD you may ask. Well for one thing, you can twist and flip the LCD to view it from various angles. Personally, I like to shoot at different angles which give me more creative shots and a new perspective of my subject.

This 3 inch Vari-Angle Clear View LCD monitor lets you take photos above people’s heads who are blocking you and ground-level photography, similar to how a child or animal would view the world. Also, this will allow me to take shots from below without having to kiss the floor! And yes, you also can leave the guesswork out when you want to take photos of yourself because the articulating LCD allows you to look at yourself at the screen and position yourself correctly. Perfect for those who enjoy cam-whoring =p Below are 2 shots which I took by experimenting with the LCD.

2) Superb Image Quality

This baby has an 18-megapixel CMOS (APS-C) sensor with a DIGIC 4 imaging processor. What this means is that you are able to produce high quality images that you can proudly print and hang up on your wall as a feature poster! Yes, you can impress people visiting your house and tell them that you snapped that gorgeous pic!

3) High ISO

Believe it or not, you can crank the ISO on the EOS 60D to 6400! This is a major leap from my EOS 450D which is only up to ISO 1600. This is definitely useful when you are in a nice restaurant or club and you would like to capture the nice ambient light without much noise.

I remembered being in Shanghai with an amazing night view and wishing I had higher ISO to capture the street lights without any blurry shots as my hands were not steady! Below are photos which I took during the review inside the hall where i didn't use any flash but simply cranked up the ISO from 800 and above to suit my settings. As you can see, the images are pretty sharp. They were also taken with the 18-200mm lens.

4) Continuous Shooting

I love catching human emotions on camera and I use continuous shooting a lot because I will compile all the photos and put them side by side to display the different angles. The EOS60D allows continuous shooting of 5.3 fps which is fantastic for capturing action and sports shots. And yes, I do pet photography sometimes and trust me, pets don’t often stay still so this is really useful!

5) Creative filters

This is a fun feature which allows you to enjoy soft focus, grainy black and white, toy camera and miniature effects. I love black and white photographs and I was definitely eager to test this feature out. This turned out to be really easy and I was even able to adjust the contrast and save it immediately as a new file!

6) EOS Movie

Once upon a time, I had dreamt of becoming a movie director. No, I kid you not because I always felt that making movies are an amazing way of telling a story to anybody who would care to watch. Maybe that explains my obsession with movies and music videos! My EOS 450D did not have this function and I have yet to test this out and will definitely be posting my review on this feature soon.

7) Integrated Speedlite Transmitter

I haven’t tried its built-in wireless flash control but I’m sure this will be useful as I sometimes like to take photos with an external flash placed to the side of my subject for more dramatic lighting.

8) In-camera Raw Processing

For those who often groan about having to process raw images, this feature allows you to process raw images in the camera and save it as JPEGs. You can even apply different picture styles at the same time!

Overall, it is still early days and there are still many more functions which I need to explore and above is just a quick snapshot of the Canon EOS60D to date. Here is a brief overview on the features as highlighted in dpreview:-


• 18 MP APS-C CMOS sensor

• Advanced creative features with Basic +

• Vari-angle 7.7cm (3.0”) 3:2 ratio LCD

• Full HD movies with manual control

• DIGIC 4

• ISO 100-6400, H:12800

• 5.3fps shooting for up to 58 JPEGs

• 9-point cross type AF System

• iFCL metering with 63-zone Dual-layer Sensor

• Integrated Speedlite transmitter

• In-camera RAW processing


I will certainly be taking more photos and updating all soon! Before i end this post, below are photos of Xavier Chan and Ngin Yen in action!

Please find below the links for the body and the lenses as well.



EOS 60D Microsite:

www.canon-asia.com/eos60d/


EOS 60D Body:

http://www.canon.com.my/p/EN/114-Digital-Cameras/200-EOS/1733-EOS-60D/


EOS 60D (18-55):

http://www.canon.com.my/p/EN/114-Digital-Cameras/200-EOS/1741-EOS-60D-Kit-EF-S18-55/


EOS 60D (18-135):

http://www.canon.com.my/p/EN/114-Digital-Cameras/200-EOS/1742-EOS-60D-Kit-II-EF-S18-135/


EOS 60D (18-200):

http://www.canon.com.my/p/EN/114-Digital-Cameras/200-EOS/1743-EOS-60D-Kit-III-EF-S18-200/