Canon 60D Specs & Features
Size
The 60D is actually a bit smaller than the 50D and 7D, and slightly larger than the Canon T2i. Thanks to the polycarbonate body, the 60D is also a bit lighter than the 50D.
Build Quality
The 60D is made of polycarbonate resin, reinforced with glass fiber and housed on an aluminum structure.
LCD Screen
The 3-inch LCD screen found on the 60D can flip and rotate for better viewing angles when composing your shot low to the ground or above your head.
The resolution of the screen is very high for todays standards and the refresh rate is high enough for fast subject movement. You can also enable Live View mode, which will turn your 60D into a compact camera…allowing you to compose your shot using the LCD instead of the viewfinder.
Optical Viewfinder
The viewfinder on the 60D is very similar to the one found in the 50D. It offers 96% frame coverage with a magnification of 0.95x. It’s not as large and roomy as the viewfinder on the 7D, but it does offer a slighty larger magnification when compared to the 50D.
Built-in Flash
The built-in flash offers decent coverage with a recycling time of 3 seconds before you can take the next shot.
Image Sensor
The 60D comes with an 18 megapixel CMOS sensor, the same sensor found in the Canon 7D. Image quality between both cameras is practically identical. The sensor also comes with a self-cleaning filter that’ll shake off dust automatically everytime you turn the camera on.
Processor
The 60D is equipped with the Digic 4 processor, the same processor found in the 50D. So what does this mean? Performance and speed are very similar between both cameras.
In case you’re wondering…the 7D has a dual Digic 4 processor which is slightly faster than the single Digic 4 processor found on the 60D.
ISO Range
The 60D has an ISO (digital film speed) range of 100 to 12800. The higher ISO numbers will allow you to get faster shutter speeds which will freeze fast moving subjects in low light situations.
Shutter Speed Range
The shutter speed range on the 60D is 30 seconds to 1/8000 of a second. Slower shutter speeds will allow you to capture movement or night scenes and faster shutter speeds will allow you to freeze fast moving subjects.
The fastest shutter speed you can use with flash is 1/250 of a second.
Auto-Focus System
The 60D comes with the same 9-point cross-type AF system found in the 50D. In case you’re wondering…the 7D has 19 cross-type AF points, which can increase the accuracy of the autofocus for fast moving subjects.
Metering
The TTL full aperture 63-zone metering system found in the 60D is the same metering system found in the 7D.
Burst Mode
Continuous shooting has actually slowed down to 5.3 frames per second, when comparing it to the 50D at 6.3 frames per second. The maximum amount of images you can capture in a single burst is 58 images (16 RAW images).
In case you’re wondering…the 7D has a burst rate of 8 frames per second, thanks to the dual Digic 4 processor.
White Balance
The 60D has the normal white balance settings (Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, etc…) which will allow you to get correct color hues in different lighting situations.
Picture styles
You’ll find all the normal picture style settings that will allow you to control the saturation, contrast and sharpness for different shooting modes. This setting also allows you to enable sepia or black and white image capture.
Video Recording
The 60D comes equipped with 1080p HD video recording. The only bummer is that the built-in mic can only record mono sound. In order to get stereo quality audio, you need to purchase an external mic and attach it to your 60D.
Videos are saved in .MOV format and the maximum clip length for each video segment is 12 minutes or 4GB of data…whichever comes first.
Editing
The 60D comes with an array of editing controls for resizing, colorizing and processing images. It also comes equipped with a basic video editor that will allow you trim movies. If you shoot in RAW, you can process images in-camera and transfer the final jpeg to your computer.
Lens Compatability
The Canon 60D is compatible with EF and EF-S lenses. So when you’re out shopping for lenses, look for the EF or EF-S label.
Crop Factor
Due to the image sensor size, the 60D comes with a 1.6x crop factor. This means that a kit 18-135mm lens is effectively a 28-216mm lens. Be mindful of this when selecting lenses.
External Flash Compatability
The 60D is compatible with EX-series Speedlites. The 270EX is a simple and portable flash. The 430EX II has more features and a faster recycling time. The 580EX II is more powerful than the 270EX or 430EX II and is recommended for advanced users.
Memory Card Compatability
The 60D is compatible with SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards. If you plan on shooting video, I highly recommend a Class 10 memory card to keep up with the HD 1080p video buffer rate.
Power
The 60D uses a rechargeable LP-E6 lithium-ion battery, charged with a LC-E6 battery charger. In use, I’ve been able to get around 800 to 900 shots per charge.