Upgrade from G1 to D60 - should I go for it?

[ccaruso1]

Hello,

I have been using the G1 for a year now, fairly satisfied but I am very interested in the D60. I am very impressed with the high-quality and sharpness of much of the work I have seen produced via the D60. Seems to be much less noise produced than the G1. Plus, I need to produce larger sized prints which the D60 will allow.

I have someone who wants to buy my G1 for a very good price, which is pushing me further towards the D60 investment.

My concern, however is that I still have not mastered all the functionality of the G1 and perhaps the D60 will be really a huge learning curve. Can anyone comment that may have experience using both of these cameras? For example, I see there is no built-in macro lens in the D60 that exists in the G1, any other differences you could comment on?

thank you for any thoughts,
cc

[lazoj]

Learning curve aside, the D60 has auto modes like your G1 that can be used as you learn, the price of a TOTAL system can get up there. Take a look around the lens site that I set up for D60 newbies. Remember you are buying into a Canon system with a DSLR, you much purchase lenses for different uses, wide, macro, telephoto, a 28-300 type lens won't produce the quality that the D60 is capable of capturing. Take a look around and let me know if you have any questions.

[ccaruso1]

lazoj wrote:
Learning curve aside, the D60 has auto modes like your G1 that can be used as you learn, the price of a TOTAL system can get up there. Take a look around the lens site that I set up for D60 newbies. Remember you are buying into a Canon system with a DSLR, you much purchase lenses for different uses, wide, macro, telephoto, a 28-300 type lens won't produce the quality that the D60 is capable of capturing. Take a look around and let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks for your response. I will check out your Lens site, thank you. I understand what you mean, it seems I will need to get at least 2 lensese in the near future. I use the macro option a lot on the G1 for flower work. This doesn't exist on the D60 does it? Also, is there a flash on the D60 for auto flash if I wish?

carol

[lazoj]

ccaruso1 wrote:

Thanks for your response. I will check out your Lens site, thank you. I understand what you mean, it seems I will need to get at least 2 lensese in the near future. I use the macro option a lot on the G1 for flower work. This doesn't exist on the D60 does it? Also, is there a flash on the D60 for auto flash if I wish?

carol


Yes, there is a flash built in to the D60. It however has very limited uses. For example it work well for candid flash shots and the occasional fil flash outdoors. It will however not work with larger lens or as a macro flash. The lens will shadow the flash. For macro work you can use a macro flash mounted to the end of the lens, ($$$) or a show mount flash (420ex or 550ex) on a cable.

The camera does not have a macro mode. You have to control the depth of field with the aperture adjustment. To obtain full 1:1 macro the Canon 50mm Macro + the extension tube, Canon 100mm Macro, Sigma 105mm macro or Tamron 90mm macro can be used. With this much magnification a tripod is necesary to avoid camera shake. This is due to the fact of the increase DOF results in a slower shutter speed.

Macro use set-up:
D60- 2199.00
Canon 100mm Macro- 499.00
or
Sigma 105mm Macro- 359.00
Canon 550ex flash- 339.00
flash extension cable- 45.00
General lens, Canon 24-85mm- 359.00
1 gig Micro-drive- 250.00
Bag- 50.00

Roughly-3800.00

[Phil Hall]

By the time you master any camera it is time to move on. I moved from Nikon 990 digitals (before that I had a number of film SLRs.

I bought a Tamron 28-300 because I had had good luck with a 70-210. I also bought a Sigma 17-35. I have not been happy with either. Then I checked out various websites and bought a Canon 70-200 IS 2.8 and a EF ex II 2x. I was going to buy the 100-400 but Samys convinced this was a better way to go. The cost was around $2400 after CA taxes. The difference in picture quality is unbelivable. I hardley ever use a tripod now. My pictures are mainly of wildlife, deer, birds and horses+ cowboys. I intend to get more Canon lenses and probably get a 1D.

[Kbone]

I recently stepped up from a G2 to a D60. I already had a pretty extensive background shooting with film SLRs, so the transition was simple for me. My situation was similar to yours in that a family member was waiting in the wings to buy my G2, so that made purchasing the D60 a bit easier.
In my opinion, there is no comparison between the cameras. The D60 is much more to my liking. I seem to get less noise at ISO 1000 with the D60 than I did at ISO 200 with the G2. The autofocus (using a 50mm 1:1.8 lens) is so much faster than the G2 that any comparison is just ridiculous. When combined with the infrared AF assist of the 420EX flash unit (you can set the flash unit to emit the assist beam without firing if you want to use available light via a custom function on the camera) the AF is superb.
If you are worried about the learning curve I would suggest simply buying and reading a good book on basic photography technique. If you can grasp the basics of DOF control and motion stopping via aperture/shutter speed variations and the basic differences between the different light metering options you shouldn't have much trouble. Like anything else, if you don't know the basics the advanced stuff will seem totally incomprehensible to you because you won't have a foundation to build on. This would hold true with your G1 as well. Do some reading and swear off the "Program" mode on the camera and you will grasp what you need to know very quickly.
Finally, the increased image quality of the D60 over the G2 makes the camera worth every penny of its price to me. Not that the G2 was bad by any stretch of the imagination, it's just that the D60 is GREAT!
I seriously doubt you will regret buying a D60. If you do, there is always Ebay. Lots of folks will be willing to take it off your hands.
Let us know what you decide to do.
-Kevin