Hands On: Canon EOS 60D DSLR

Inner Beauty
If you’re wondering why the 60D will cost less than the 7D, look to their respective innards. Both have 18MP CMOS sensors capable of capturing 14-bits of color data per channel in RAW mode—as does the T2i. But the 60D, also like the T2i, has a fourchannel readout and a single Digic 4 processor; the 7D’s eightchannel readout lets it move data faster to increase processing speeds and support a pair of Digic 4 processors.

As a result, the 60D shoots in bursts at a top rate of 5.3 frames per second, compared with the 8 fps of the 7D. Still, 5.3 fps is quite fast—Nikon’s two-year-old D90 captures at a maximum of 4.5 fps. And further, Canon states that the 60D can capture a very respectable 58 Large/Fine JPEGs, 16 RAW, or 7 RAW + JPEG shots per burst.

Why would you want to pay more for the 60D than the T2i? Consider the 60D’s wireless flash control. Like the 7D, it can both trigger and control the output of Canon EX-series Speedlites through the pop-up flash. The 60D also gives a top shutter speed of 1/8000 sec, one stop faster than the T2i’s maximum, to freeze very fast action or limit depth of field in very bright light.