Canon EOS 60D

Handling (9.00)

The Canon 60D is in the middle of the range in terms of size: it is larger than the T2i, but smaller than the 7D. However, the size differences between this and the 7D are small: it has the same hefty feel, especially with the large 18-135mm kit lens. It fits comfortably into the hand, with the large grip and textured coating that makes for a good tight grip.

The overall size and weight is reduced slightly from the EOS 50D, the model the 60D replaces in the line up.

Buttons & Dials (11.00)

There are a lot of buttons, controls and dials on this camera: 21 buttons and 3 dials. These are laid out in a consistent fashion, though, with the most commonly used buttons falling near the fingertips when holding the camera in two hands, so you can easily change the ISO level or drive mode without looking away from the viewfinder. Most of the controls on the back of the camera are designed for use in live view mode or when accessing the menu on the main LCD screen, but the AF-on button is within reach of the thumb. One interesting design touch is the mode dial. To stop this being accidentally turned, Canon has added a button that has to be pressed for the dial to turn, so you can’t accidentally change modes while handling the camera.

Canon also carried over one useful feature from the 50D: an additional scroll wheel on the back of the camera body. In the 60D, this sits around the directional pad, which is a positive move, as it provides for quick scrolling through images and menus, as well as controlling aperture in manual mode and exposure compensation in other modes. It is possible to reach down and turn this with the thumb with the eye to the viewfinder, but it is awkward to turn it more than 45 degrees: you have to turn the dial, move the thumb, turn the dial, etc. This is a bit of a pain when trying to go from a wide to a small aperture.

Despite this, the 60D is overall an extremely easy camera to use and shoot with once you get used to the layout, and 50D users will quickly feel at home here. Canon T2i users should also be able to find their way around after a brief familiarization period.

Most of the controls are on the back of the camera. Of particular note are the live view buttons near the top and the Q and main menu buttons.

More controls are located on the top of the camera, including a group of 5 buttons near the LCD panel and the power switch below the mode dial.

Display(s) (11.11)

The LCD screen is one of the major upgrades from the 50D: the 60D offers a 3-inch, 1004k pixel LCD screen that is very clear and bright, showing a great level of detail for both captured images and the live view preview. This screen is also articulated: a pivot on the side of the LCD screen allows it to flip out to the left of the camera body and to rotate180 degrees up or 90 degrees down. What this means is that it can be flipped and rotated so you can see the screen from in front, above or below the camera for self portraits or shooting from above or below.

This hinged arrangement feels very tough: the LCD hinge and pivot is unlikely to break without severe force. And it also allows the LCD screen to be folded flat against the camera body, where it is protected from damage from bumps and knocks when stored in a camera bag.

Secondary Display

The 60D also offers a secondary LCD screen on the top of the camera body which shows shooting information such as the current mode, aperture and shutter speed, white balance setting, etc. The page from the manual that shows the full information is below.

UPDATE: Due to a production error, a previous version of this review contained incorrect information on the secondary screen. This has been corrected.

Viewfinder (9.75)

Like all SLRs, the 60D offers an optical viewfinder that shows the through the lens image, so you can see exactly what the image sensor will be seeing. At the bottom of the frame is a small LCD strip that show shooting information such as the shutter speed, aperture, ISO setting, etc.

When the 60D is shooting images, the viewfinder goes momentarily blank as the mirror flips up to allow the light to pass through to the image sensor. The 60D also offers a live view mode that shows a live preview of this captured image on the LCD screen (see below).

Image Stabilization (7.39)

The 60D uses Canon’s lens based image stabilization (IS) system, where an element of the lens moves in response to the camera shake detected by the camera body. We have generally found Canons to have effective image stabilization, and the 60D is no exception: we found that it did a good job of correcting for camera shake in our tests, especially at the longer shutter speeds. It is not perfect, though: we found that it sometimes made things a little worse at shutter speeds above 1/60 of a second. Our recommendation would be to leave it turned on if you are shooting indoors or in relatively low light. One thing to bear in mind here: because the IS system is built into the lens, the performance will be different with different lenses than the one we tested with (the 18-135mm kit lens). More on how we test image stabilization.

In the low shake portion of our test (which simulates hand shake while trying to hold the camera steady), you can see that the IS didn’t make much difference at the higher shutter speeds, but it did improve the sharpness of the image at speeds of 1/30 of a second and slower. The high shake (which simulates hand shake while walking) produced quite different results, with the system seemingly struggling to keep up, and it seemed to make things worse at the mid-range shutter speeds.

Image Stabilization Comparison Table			Expand
	Low Shake IS Off	Low Shake IS On	High Shake IS Off	High Shake IS On
1/500
1/250
1/125
1/60
1/30
1/15
1/8