D60 users! What do you think of your camera?

[Sniper]

Hi!

I am currently a G2 user, but I would really love to have a D60. It's a lot of money for me (in Sweden it cost like 3 500 dollars). So I need to know what you users think of this camera. I'm not to happy with my G2's autofocus (not the manual either), so I would like an SLR there I can see what's in focus in the viewfinder before I take the picture. Does this work well with the D60!?

I would like to know what you think of your D60's. Good and bad things. If you have had a G2 before and now own a D60, then you can tell me if you miss something from the G2 that the D60 does not have (like turnable display).

I would be very happy if you could share your experiences from your cameras with me.

---------------------------------------
Anders
http://www.pbase.com/sniper/

[kd6lor]

Went from G2 to D60.

Miss:
1) "live view" on LCD. D-60 LCD shows pictures only after shot.
2) AVI capture. I have two small kids and short AVI's of them running around doing funny things is great.
3) Small size/simplicity Everything smaller. File sizes, weight, CF card sizes wanted, costs, oh yes the camera is smaller too.
Don't Miss:
1) Insanely slow reaction time from click on shutter button to actual picture.
2) Poor autofocus. As much as been said about the D60 autofocus, it is an entirely different beast from the G2.
3) ISO 50, and the noise above ISO 50.
4) The limitations of the G2 lens.
5) Shutter speed limitations.


Don't get me wrong, I loved my G2, but is nothing like DSLR.


Paul

[jmamer]

I'd second almost all of that. I went from G1 to D60

Other things I like:
Acceptably low noise @ ISO 1000
Lots of lens choices
Noticably better resolution than G1.

My only gripes:
Size. It's a real slr, with any kind of lens on it, it's a bit
hard to hide.
L-series lenses are really expensive

[Pat Lepore]

I Love my D60!

I went from using a film based SLR (Canon AE1 Program) to a point and shoot Kodak digital (DC4800) to the D60. Now don't get me wrong, the DC4800 is a great camera, but it is no SLR.

I miss nothing from the Kodak except maybe its size, which is why I still own it. As for the "live view", coming from an SLR I never used it anyhow. The LCD was only there to check images after they were shot which is exactly how I shoot with the D60. Reading many forums I know that many people use the "live view". My brother has a G2 and he shoots using the LCD exclusivly so I can see some people missing this feature on a DSLR.

File size dosn't bother me either. I've just bought a 20Gb Image Tank which is good for at least 2,100 Raw D60 images. Enough for any holiday!

I have been shooting in RAW from the second week I had the D60 and I have encountered the "Thumbnail Bug". For now I am shooting in single frame only and waiting for the Firmware upgrade that will hopefully fix this problem. Thanks to Mike for getting Canon to admit to this bug and for pushing them for a fix.

I cannot coment on the D60 autofocus compared to other EOS camera's but my brother's main complaint about the G2 is its autofocus, a complaint has hasn't made while playing with my D60. Although he might just be being polite. The D60 autofocus does struggle in low light but an EX series flash fixes this. I've used both the 420EX and the 550EX with success.

I an not a professional, just an enthusiastic amatuer. Chances are I will never earn a cent from my D60 (my fault not the camera) but that's not why I bought it! Take the plunge and you will not regret it.

Sweeden is not the only place the D60 is expensive. It will set you back almost $6,000 in Australia.

Pat.

[Dans_D60]

I am extremely delighted that digital photography is advancing so fast that I can finally combine my knowledge of the digital domain along with my passion in photography. But, my logic left-brain personality does struggle a bit with pure creativity and art of great photography. That’s way I tend to lean towards the more controlled environments like studio situations where I can use my understanding of light and control.

What does this have to do with my evaluation of the Canon D60? A lot. The D60 is the first digital camera that answered all my issues with previous digital or film cameras.

I wanted a camera that not only integrated flexible and custom shooting modes, but also provided instant feedback and the freedom to modify final images as far as the imagination could muster.

My amateur studio looks partly like a photo studio and partly like a computer operations center. The D60 is connected to my Novatron 400VR via the PC connection (modified to 6 volt trigger). Four additional slave strobes (light triggered) are used as necessary. A USB connection from camera to a 2 Gigahertz Pentium with a gigabyte of main memory is used as a “Polaroid” test screen with Breeze Systems remote capture software. The USB connection is actually 25’ extended as not to get in my way and the camera computer is one of five network throughout the residence.

So what do I really like about the D60?
1) EOS lens compatibility (I own several USM and L lenses from my film cameras)
2) Custom functions that provide shooting flexibility.
3) External PC flash connect (keep trigger voltage to 6 volts)
4) Sufficient pixels that permit 20X30 enlargements with little deterioration and 16X20 that look like they were made from medium format
5) Shoot RAW and white balance after the shoot
6) Photoshop 7.0 is the final step and sometimes the principal step in obtaining the final image.

Anything I would like better on the D60?
• Not much. Maybe faster focusing in low light situations. Not an issue in the studio as modeling lights are more than enough with 2.8 L lenses

What next:
• Hmmm perhaps a 1Ds. Those 11.1 mega pixels are tempting me!

Dan

[henkbos]

Just adding my view: went from EOS to Digital Powershot S10 to D60. Love the fact that no idiot in a lab can ruin my pitures. So far quality is great and my interest for photography is only rising.

As for the price: take a holiday to Singapore, buy a D60 there. It's cheaper even if you calculate the costs of the trip!

[petiot]

Hi Sniper

I got a G2 before. It was really good and i enjoyed it. I got a D30 after that and discovered a new world, the one of taking pics with a SLR

Finally i got a D60, i think that if you are a bit tight on budget, it would be better to go for a D30 and spend the money left into lenses.

The D60 only has a bigger resolution (and few fancy things) compare to the D30 butthat certainly dont justify the difference of price. better to have a d30 with 2 good lenses, two battery , and big storage, rather than a d60 with nothing but a hole in its pocket ;)

Dan

[Sniper]

Thank you all for your answers! They made me want the D60 even more. I will have to eat noodles for six months or so...

In Sweden the D30 are no longer in stock, so it has to be the D60 (and I want a new one).

How easy is it to use the manual focus (to see what's sharp and really in focus in the viewfinder)?

Thanks again and keep posting your opinions and experiences.

Anders

[Mike Medici]

Make sure you can return your camera for a refund if defective, then test camera extensively, return if problem is found!

Canon seems to have a batch that are defective when shooting raw, possibly loosing files too !

Mike

[Longwatcher]

I love it.
About 6 weeks ago I replaced my Kodak DC4800 with the Canon D60 (I noticed someone else on this forum also had the DC4800). I did this because the Kodak, while great for web site photos had a problem with white balance and I would have to do something goofy to get a good telephoto lens for it. Lastly, the company I was taking product pictures for was getting to the point where we wanted to use professional models, so I figured the DC4800 would not make a good impression to a professional model. I consider myself to be a semi-professional, since my photos are used for the company, however, I don't get paid for the photography. Also, for a bit over 20 years I served as an Imagery Analyst for the USAF (if it ain't over 12k x 12k pixels it ain't a real image ;-). Although I had a Canon film camera from before it used the FD series lenses, so I had to essentially start from scratch. I bought the Canon 75-300mm IS lens for telephoto work (I love this lens at the beach) and upon the recommendation of the vendor I got the Tamron 28-80mm lens. I have since replaced this lens with the Canon 28-135 IS lens. I like the Image stabilization, because I tend to anticipate the shot and move my hand; the IS seems to correct for this. I also got the battery grip (sometimes I use, sometimes not). I usually take pictures in high jpeg fine mode mainly to avoid having to swap out the CF cards frequently (I have two 256meg CF and a 340meg IBM microdrive). Although based on my recent purchase and use of a 30 gig Picture Pad, I may start using RAW format more often (my imagery analyst background speaking). BTW I highly recommend the picture pad, saves me from having to travel with a laptop and make frequent visits to the computer. So far the only negatives are; I can't load the batteries into the battery grip, while attached to the tripod quick release, The rubber covering the USB/video ports gets in my way when I go to pull the USB cable off, and I am still trying to remember things I have forgotten from using a point and shoot for so long.

[gsrossano]

Well, for the time I used it, it was a noticible improvement over my D30. It responds a lot faster. The buffer count in the viewfinder is a big help in pacing one's shooting for action photography, but the frame rate is still too slow. All those pixels are great for enlargements.

Two problems.

The white balance behave oddly under some lighting. For the lighting used in some small arenas the color will vary drastically for a quick sequence of frames of the same subject. Some will be nuetral, some will be deeply rose colored and some have a color shift from one edge of the image to the other - nuetral on one side and rose colored on the other. The last case is impossible to color correct in the computer!

Quality control. I used my body for seven days. And on the seventh day the camera died. The shutter totaly broke after about 25,000 frames. Yes, that's over 3,000 frames per day, but my D30 has held up at that rate for over 100,000 frames and my 1V also has handled that heavy duty.

Dealing with Canon to get it fixed has been a nightmare. Their technical support is worse than their quality controol. Just try to find a live person who (a) wants to help you and (b) knows anything to be able to help you. In fact, just try to find a live person. But I digress.

[Mike Medici]

Mine is defective and Canon cannot fixit !

Mike

[adamsmith]

I've moved up from the Nikon Coolpix 950 and the Canon Elan IIe. The D60 is the first camera in my affordability range that is good enough for me to give up 35mm entirely. So my Elan is now history, but I've kept the 950 for a few reasons.

Here's what I miss and what I don't:

Miss:
- Wide angles of the Elan. That 1.6x is a really kicker for us landscape folks. The 28mm end of my zoom isn't looking very wide these days. I've shelled out for the 20mm f/2.8 (widest thing I can afford) and it's pretty satisfying for outdoor shots, but I still find my self occasionally longing for a 24mm equivalent I can't afford. The Canon 14mm L lens is out of my price range.

- Eye control focus point selection of the Elan IIe. A nice feature of the Elan IIe, 7e, A2e, etc. that didn't make it to the D30/D60.

- Ability to shoot in infrared. The D60's IR filter is too strong and not removable. it does wonders for accurate color, but it prevents doing any IR work. I'm hanging onto the Nikon 950 just for this ability.

Don't miss:
- Ultra-slow AF and shutter release lag of the E950.

- The 2 second delay between EACH shot on the E950 in fine JPEG mode, more like 12 seconds in TIFF mode.

- The way the E950 EATS batteries. I'm lucky if I can get 100 shots with a set of 4 AA NiMH's before they're dead. Fulltime LCD monitoring is mostly to blame for this.

- Poor low light performance of autofocus on the E950. I hear complaints of the D60 low light performance, but it's WAY better than the coolpix cameras. It's much closer to what I'm used to with the Elan IIe.

- Having to get film developed then scanned. To get shots from the Elan to the web was not worth it.

I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting, but these are the biggies that come to mind first.

-Adam

[David Miller]

Just sold my D60 camera! My studio has been almost 95% digital for the last year. I got my D60 in June of this year and have used it for weddings and senior portraits. It does not focus well at wedding receptions, maybe if I had used the "L" series of lens I would have been happy. The ETTL flash system does not work well with candid wedding reception pictures. The files seem to lack red and lack contrast but can be corrected fairly easily in photoshop. I just tried out the new FujiS2 and except for the batteries and all of the contols on the camera, I like the digital files much better. The D60 still needs some engineering work. I didn't like a new file being opened each time I turned the camera off. I will be much happier with the FujiS2 as we have already shot about 40-45 seniors with the camera.
Respectfully,
David Miller

[Rafael]

David Miller said: "It does not focus well at wedding receptions, maybe if I had used the "L" series of lens I would have been happy. "
David can I ask what lenses were you using?

[David Miller]

Rafael,
I use many different canon lens, as I own several for my 35mm system. My main lens is a Canon 28-105 ultrasonic lens that is tack sharp. I am talking about wedding receptions with the lights turned way down. I did take the D60 to Yellowstone this summer and I got some great files with the camera. I used a Canon 135mm soft-focus lens and got some beautiful flower pictures. This is one lens that is not widely used but it is one that should be used more by photographers. The D60 just isn't a good wedding reception camera or candid photo camera. Maybe the Canon D1 digital would be better with all the focusing points. The 550Ex flash reads off one of the focus points. If the focus point (three in the D60) is not on the subject it will adjust the flash to whatever position the focus point is located. The FEL system is suppose to correct this but it doesn't work conveniently.
Respectfully,
David Miller

[Sniper]

I thought that I had made up my mind, that I really wanted to buy a D60 because it is such a great camera. But now I don´t know. I really hate my G2 for it's poor autofocus and I don´t want to buy a camera for four times the price of the G2 and still have a camera with poor autofocus... (but I realize that there is a huge diference between the G2 and the D60 in this matter).

How well does the manuel focus work?? Is it ok? Easy to see whats in focus? Easy to adjust?

It seems like you have to have a bit of luck when you buy a digital camera. Some works well and some don't, even if it´s the same model. If everybody's G2 had performed like mine, there had not been so many "satisfied" G2 users in the world. My first G2 had a bad autofocus, so I sent it back to Canon. I got a new one after some weeks. That camera too was bad, so I sent it back too. They returned it after a few weeks and they had adjusted the autofocus and upgraded the firmware. But no diference, the camera still autofocus like a "blind monkey". So I have almost given up, and I want a D60. A WORKING D60!! Now I don't know if I dare to buy one. If I get another camera with bad autofocus I will lose my interest in photography and start playing boule or something.

The 1D seem to be an amazing camera, but the price of that is faaaaar beyond my limit. So now what? Am I stuck with my lousy G2 or should I go for the D60? That's the question.

Still not decided

Thanks for all your posts. Please continue!!

Anders

[Sniper]

Can you post some links to your photos taken by your D 60's!?. I would like to see the pictures that you are happy/not happy with. Like some of your wedding-pictures, David Miller, thats not in focus. That would be great.

Thanks again

Anders

[David Miller]

Dear Anders,
I didn't say that my wedding reception pictures were out of focus, what I meant to say was that in some low light situations, like at my wedding receptions, the D60 would not lock on right away. The camera would tend to hunt back and forth from close-up to infinity. The camera would lock focus but sometimes not when I need the camera to lock focus. Don't get me wrong, I think the D60 is a great camera. It's just not a good low light camera or a candid wedding camera for low-light wedding receptions. I had a lot of trouble with the 550EX flash. About 30-35% of the time I have files that were 1-2 stops underexposed. The FEL system is not practical for weddings which are fast paced. Incidently the FEL system will hold a setting for about 16 seconds. I can post some files in a couple of days but I have been out of my studio taking school pictures and need to catch-up first. I't typing this memo while I'm printing on my Fuji Pictrography 3500 printer.
Respectfully,
David Miller

[Rafael]

Well I guess I know exactly what David is talking about. My D30 is also very slow to auto focus in low light conditions even with my "L" series lenses and it can be very fustrating. Hopefully the next camera that will replace the D60 will have better auto focus and I am sure that Canon is aware of this and will do the right thing.

[adamsmith]

David, I hear what you're saying, and I acknowledge the low-light AF issue with the D60, but have you considered that half of your focusing woes with the 28-105mm are due to the slow (f/3.5-4.5) max aperature? Even my Elan II hunts in low light with the 28-105 attached, but when I switch to my 50 f/1.8 II I can work again.

Granted, this will mean moving to an L lens if you're dead set on having a zoom. I would think the 28-70mm f/2.8L would be pretty ideal, but I'm not a wedding photographer so that's just a guess. If you can work with the limitations of a prime lens, you can overcome the low-light problem even better and at much less expense. The 50 f/1.4, for example, is a full 3 stops faster than the 28-105 at 50mm! On a D30 or D60, either the 28mm f/1.8 or 35mm f/2 would make for decent "standard" lenses too.

I understand that you no longer have the D60, but this may be helpful for someone else to read? Who knows :-)

-Adam

[David Miller]

Dear Adam,
I agree with what you said about using faster lenses in low-light situations. The focus speed can be a problem in low light receptions with both the 28-105 and the 28-135 IS lenses. I am one of three photographers involved in wedding photography in the Springfield, Il area using Canon D60 cameras. The other two both us the IS lens and I use the older 28-105 lens. It seems that the fancy reception halls can't afford lights. the lights are even turned down during the cake-cutting and the boquiet and garder toss. Doesn't make sense-I guess I getting old. The focusing problem is just a minor problem compared to the flash problems with the 550EX flash. I can live with the slow focusing but I can't live with the frequently under-exposed files. The maximum latitude of exposure is -1 to +.5 over using JPEG or TIFF files. I would rather limit my exposures to
-.75 to 0 if I could but that's not practical. Even with Canon RAW files you can't over-expose even thought the RAW software says -2 to +2 latitude. There are some good programs out there to save under-exposed files but over-exposure will kill you. That's about all I know for tonight.
Respectfully,
David Miller

[Rafael]

I have come to think that perhaps we're expecting too much of this camera. Yes, it's $2200 but I don't think it's supposed to be a "real" pro digital camera. Perhaps in a few years from now we can get a D1 type camera for less than $2,000. I for one don't use my D30 for professional use. It's just my hobby. And I think that those of you who need a digital camera to make a living, should consider getting the D1. Just my thought.

[jmamer]

Rafael wrote:
I have come to think that perhaps we're expecting too much of this camera. Yes, it's $2200 but I don't think it's supposed to be a "real" pro digital camera. Perhaps in a few years from now we can get a D1 type camera for less than $2,000. I for one don't use my D30 for professional use. It's just my hobby. And I think that those of you who need a digital camera to make a living, should consider getting the D1. Just my thought.



I think Rafael hits the point well. I have a D60 and love it. But let's look at it objectively. You look throught the lens and you see three focus points, just like my wife's Canon Rebel G, which is a cheap film SLR (which has been an incredibly robust film SLR, given its price). Canon cut lots of corners to get the D60 to the US$2200 price point. For me it makes the difference between being able to buy a really great SLR camera for my hobby and settling for a point-and-shoot.

I'll take it, warts and all. But, I'm willing to work with it (must by my Linux experience cutting in here). For example, on flash photography, yes it always under exposed when I tried to use my ES420EX flash on fast sync or TTL. But then I got the hint (from this forum, thanks toycollector): set it on manual F8.0 @ 125 and .... wow very sharp, cleanly exposed (at least to my eye) pictures. Shoot RAW and adjust the white balance later.... or manually set to flash. I can put up with this because I have to tweak maybe 5 flash pictures per month. If I were doing weddings, that might be 1500 - 6000 frames per month and this sort of performance would be completely unacceptable.

Just my $0.02.

Have a D60 and loving it...

John

[Sniper]

David Miller.

When you said "It does not focus well at wedding receptions" I thought you ment that it did not focus correctly, but you ment that it focus "very slow". What more exactly is "very slow"? That´s an enormus difference for me, if the D60 gives me a perfect focused shot even if it has to work for it for a second or two in low light condition. My G2 focus in maby one second, but gives me a picture that I will delete cause the focus is too bad. Then one or two seconds waiting is not a problem for me.

So if you tell me that the D60 in your wedding photos accually are focusing well, but it takes a sec or two, then I would love that camera.

I saw a picture that Miro posted in his topic "focusing on moving subjects" and that scared med a bit. That picture looks like my G2 pictures (accually even a little bit worse (it's not only in low light my G2 focus badly)).

I have one question that no one has answered yet:

Is it easy to use the manual focus? To see whats really in focus in the wievfinder!?

Maybe it will be a D60 after all. :)

Thanks again for your posts. They are very helpfull to me.

Anders

[David Miller]

Dear Anders,
I have been a full-time wedding photographer for 23 years! I don't know many weddings that I have photographed but its well in the four figures! The hottest trend today is photojournalism where the photographer tries to capture a split-moment in time. You may only have a special smile for a split second or a very special look the bride gives the groom. You don't have seconds to take a picture-not if you don't want all the pictures to seem posed! Brides and Grooms today want photographic moments to look real-not contrived!
It doesn't look natural when you tell the B&G to re-pose a picture because the camera didn't capture the moment. And yes, so photographers are focusing their cameras manually. It helps to have really good eyes which I don't at 59 years of age. I possible could live with the slower focusing-I could work around this problem. If you have read all of the messages that I have posed you will know my real problem with the D60 is the 550EX flash. See some of the other postings.
Respecfully,
David Miller

[adamsmith]

Rafael wrote:
I have come to think that perhaps we're expecting too much of this camera. Yes, it's $2200 but I don't think it's supposed to be a "real" pro digital camera. Perhaps in a few years from now we can get a D1 type camera for less than $2,000. I for one don't use my D30 for professional use. It's just my hobby. And I think that those of you who need a digital camera to make a living, should consider getting the D1. Just my thought.

A good generalization of this advice would be to simply recommend using whatever camera fits you and your application best. Sometimes trial and error is the only way to know which this is. Every camera-related message board on the internet has seen thousands of "is a professional camera or not?" threads, and quite frankly most of them are pointless. IMHO, the person is the professional, the camera is the tool. If you don't believe me, ask a pro to shoot an event with a Rebel G, and give him a complete newbie with a 1n as an assistant. Then see which pictures you like better ;-)

Consider too, that for every camera model there is someone (and not necessarily a helpful individual) claiming it's not good enough. Guys/gals shooting with a 1n will tell you the Elan's not good enough for weddings, and some high-priced photographers shooting with only a Hasselblad will turn their noses down at anything 35mm. Take all such criticism with a big grain of salt and use what you and your customers are happy with.

-Adam

[gsrossano]

In an earlier post I said that my D60 died after about 25,000 frames. It took about 2 1/2 weeks for Canon to make the repair. They replaced the shutter and installed new firmware. I also asked th3em to look at a problem with the white balance. Since I got it back I have shot about 14,000 frames. The white balance is still a problem and the new firmware seems to have a serious bug in it.

First the color. Under indoor lighting the white balance does not get the correct answer much of the time for certain kinds of lighting. I mostly shoot in ice skating rinks and NHL hockey arenas. More often than not the images come out with an extreme red/pink color shift. Sometimes the whole frame, sometime one half of the frame or the other, sometimes a band running the length of the frame. For shutter speeds faster than 1/250 sec about two-thrids of the images are off in color. For 1/125 sec or faster the color shifts are mostly gone. In between the shifts are reduced as the exposure time gets longer. The folks at Canon in Irvine say the body is adjusted to factory spec. Based on the behavior I would have to say that there is a major engineering defect in the white balance circuit and/or method that prevents the white balance from tracking the color of the lighting on a time scale shorter than about 8 msec. Apparently this is an uncorrectable design flaw that is inherent to the D30/D60 design.

Second the file numbering. Since the new firmware was installed the body no longer numbers the images and files correctly. Every time I change the compact flash card it creates a file name that may or may not have anything to do with the actual image number it should be using or the numbers that came before. I got the body back at file 879canon. Over the next 14,000 frames is counted up to file 898canon, then instead of going to 899 it created file 900canon follwed by 100, 101, 893 through 898 again, 900, 100 and 101 a few more times and so on. Eventually it settled in on 100canon through 149 canon followed by a jump to files numbers in the 880's. These counted up to 898canon followed by more random numbering of 900, 100 and 101 etc. Then it jumped down to 891canon through 898 canon where I left off last night. Either the folks in Irvine damaged the camera brains in some way, screwed up the firmware installation, or verions 1.0.2 was never tested fully and is sick. I suspect the latter.

[FredT]

What do I think of the D60? I'm very disappointed. I've owned it for two weeks and it is already dead and I've had to send it off for repair. This is the most expensive camera I've owned and the first that I've had a major problem with. Aside from getting used to the focus, I was enjoying learning how to use it. Now I'll find out whether I like Canon sevice or not!

Fred

[David Miller]

Dear gsrossmoso,
When I first got my D60 I to had trouble with the white balance. The default setting for the white balance is AWB or "auto white balance". I quickly learned at my weddings that you don't leave the camera or AWB. Sometimes I would get really great pictures and sometimes I wouldn't. I didn't understand this because I was using two Calumet Travel-lites in umbrellas. I thought I was using consistant light at each wedding but the white balance can shift, depending upon the color of the surounding areas. Once I started using different white balance settings my pictures really started to improve. With the studio strobes I use the "daylight" setting and outdoors in the shade I would use the "cloudy" setting. When you purchase film you either buy daylight film or tungsten film. The digital cameras may be more sensitive to the color temperature of the light but they still work the same as film cameras when it comes to color temperature of light. On AWB many of the files were almost impossible to correct. I used to think, when I first started using digital, that I would just take the file and then correct it in photoshop. I soon found out that this is a lot of work so I tried to do most of the correcting in the camera. Most digital cameras will allow you to set a "custom" white balance if you really want to be correct. The only time I would us the AWB setting would be outdoors in bright light.
Respecfully,
David Miller

[jpbeale]

I guess the stadium lighting is based on metal-arc lights for which total light output as well as color temperature is constantly fluctuating at 120 Hz (double the powerline frequency of 60 Hz). I know that video cameras often have problems with this type of lighting and I would expect any camera at short shutter speeds to have the problem too. I'm curious, have you tried using any other cameras in this lighting, with fast shutter speeds? How does it look if you shoot film there, at 1/250 sec?

[gsrossano]

jpbeale wrote:
I guess the stadium lighting is based on metal-arc lights for which total light output as well as color temperature is constantly fluctuating at 120 Hz (double the powerline frequency of 60 Hz). I know that video cameras often have problems with this type of lighting and I would expect any camera at short shutter speeds to have the problem too. I'm curious, have you tried using any other cameras in this lighting, with fast shutter speeds? How does it look if you shoot film there, at 1/250 sec?


The D30 does it too, so I think the white balance problem is a design "feature" of these cameras. Up until about a year ago I shot film with a 1V. In many years of shooting film I have seen this only once with film (typically shooting at 1/500 to 1/250 sec).

Does anyone know a QUICK and EASY way to color correct images where the color shift varies with position in the frame in a way that differs from frame to frame?

[gsrossano]

David Miller wrote:
Dear gsrossmoso,
When I first got my D60 I to had trouble with the white balance. The default setting for the white balance is AWB or "auto white balance". I quickly learned at my weddings that you don't leave the camera or AWB. Sometimes I would get really great pictures and sometimes I wouldn't. I didn't understand this because I was using two Calumet Travel-lites in umbrellas. I thought I was using consistant light at each wedding but the white balance can shift, depending upon the color of the surounding areas. Once I started using different white balance settings my pictures really started to improve. With the studio strobes I use the "daylight" setting and outdoors in the shade I would use the "cloudy" setting. When you purchase film you either buy daylight film or tungsten film. The digital cameras may be more sensitive to the color temperature of the light but they still work the same as film cameras when it comes to color temperature of light. On AWB many of the files were almost impossible to correct. I used to think, when I first started using digital, that I would just take the file and then correct it in photoshop. I soon found out that this is a lot of work so I tried to do most of the correcting in the camera. Most digital cameras will allow you to set a "custom" white balance if you really want to be correct. The only time I would us the AWB setting would be outdoors in bright light.
Respecfully,
David Miller

I have also tried the other white balance choices and the custom white balance, and the problem still shows up. You are right about variations from place to place. In many arenas you can see with your eyes that each light is a slightly different color and the color shifts from one place on the ice to another. But even in the same location in the course of a few seconds you can get totally different colors from frame to frame. Although I don't fully understand how the color can change so drasticaly in such a short time I do believe that the problem is that the lights and color really are fluctuating at high frequency and the white balance can't keep up at high shutter speeds, while at slower speeds it can average it out over the exposure time. If you use a fixed white balance setting the problem doesn't go away because the white balance you set is only correct for the one instant in time you set it and not necessarily for any other time. Since I am shooting sports and have to use a fast shutter speed the only option I see is to live with it and correct what I can after the fact - unfortunately not always possible. I am told that the 1D also has this problem. Since that camera was designed for sports photographers I am kind of surprised Canon didn't come up with a white balance system that could track the color under conditions that actually exist in sports arenas. Another post says that arc lights will fluctuate at 120 Hz which means you need at least 8 msec to average out the variation from one cycle. That agrees with my experiance that speeds longer that 1/125 sec are needed to get a correct color balance. Also, I don't find this under flourescent lights.

[larryvt]

There are 16 images taken with the D-60, L series lenses at this address- http://members.shaw.ca/larryvt
The D-60 is alot of fun! So far the camera has been trouble free. The auto focus issue isn't one for me,I seldom if ever use it with any of my cameras (1V,EOS-1).
Good luck...Larry...

[robertwgross]

I've had my D60 for six weeks or so.

(1) It is not lightweight.
(2) I assumed that it would fit into a camera holster that my film camera fitted. Not so.
(3) Make sure you have a fairly serious computer to post-process the images.

Suggestions:
(1) Read the manual, cover to cover.
(2) Try the camera out with the manual open.
(3) Go re-read the manual.
(4) Purchase plenty of CF cards.

It is not trivial. It is not the same as film photography.

---Bob Gross---

[Fat Guy]

Is anybody out there using a D60 for food photography or other similar close-up, composed image capture? I'm in the final stages of contemplating an upgrade from DC4800 to D60. I'm thinking a couple of 550EX Speedlites with 30" umbrellas and the ST-E2 wireless controller. I'm not all that concerned about the low power of the 550EX because I'll almost always be able to position my lights very close to the subject, and slow autofocus also isn't an issue with non-moving inanimate objects (I'd probably focus manually anyway, since I own several Leica R lenses and would purchase an adapter). Is the above likely to be an adequate setup for pretty-good-quality food shots?

[Ralph Wagner]

Used a D30 for about year before upgrading to the D60 a few months ago. It was hard letting the D30 go, but the increase in pixels did it. Love the D60. Auto focus is not a problem, although I mainly use fast primes. This camera I will probably keep when I am ready to upgrade, to use for a back up camera.

Regards,
Ralph

[grobyn]

I love it. Had it for about 7 months now and shoot about 300 shots a day using my IBM microdrive, in the studio, outdoors in the cold, heat, wind, rain, whatever, and have never had a problem with it.

Some feedback about how I am doing things:

I read all of these people talking about problems with the 550EX flash, and how their pictures are too dark, well I found a simple solution, set the flash to ETTL and +2 stops in the High speed mode. Works in M and AV mode. Never have to change setting at all.

Those with AutoWhite Balance problems in the studio and with flash, set it as Sunlight and you will get the right balance all of the time.

And the "higher than F11" issue. I am shooting at f11/f13 in the studio and I am blowing up images to 30x40 and not having any problems with output whatsoever. The pictures are crisp, clean, and very sharp. Nothing blured that I don't want blured. I don't know what all of that technical mumbo-jumbo is about, but I have been doing these large images without any problems.

Complaints about the tiny widow to view your images as you shoot, do what I do. I have a 19" color TV set up on it's side on a cart (I shoot mostly vertical) plugged into my camera with a long cord so as I shoot I can just look to the side and see what I am getting when I want. Much easier to see things on a 19" screen than on a 1.5" one. Of course I am working in a studio and have the room, but it's a suggestion for those that do the same thing.

When I walk into the studio I turn on my lights, format my microdrive, plug in the camera, and start shooting. No playing with settings, just concentrating with what my client wants.

That's it. I do this full time, it pays my bills, works for me, and I am having a good time doing it. Shooting digital has saved me so much time, expense, and aggrevation.

So stop reading about all of the "flaws" people seem to having, and read about all of the good things they do. The D30 included. (had one over a year) With some time, practice, and some common sense, you can come up with a configuration that works for you.

[defordphoto]

I've had my D60 for two months and am in love. I have been a amateur photographer for years...Like 30-plus years and have had various SLR's though that time then I got a EOS-650 and loved that until I got the D60 for my birthday in September (took delivery 10/08 ) and I tell ya this camera is the cat's meow.

In spite of all the whining and crying and technical complaints you read here and on other forums, IMO this camera is worth all the $2k I spent on it. I never thought I'd spend that much $$$ on a camera but this thing opens a whole new world.

I also have a 2.1mp camera that I have had for almost two years and never have enjoyed it other than a point and shoot.

The D60 changed all that. You get SLR performance in a digital camera. Like Canon says: It's an SLR that just happens to be digital.

I have also been very impressed with the performance of the D60. The incredible accuracy of the colors and how easy it is to capture what you saw with it. And then when you shoot RAW (which I almost ALWAYS do) you have so, so much leeway in post-processing. That in itself is just amazing to me the power you have AFTER you take the shot in RAW mode.

The D60 have revived the photographer in me that had been lost for several years. The juices are flowing and I look at most everything with a 'how can I capture that' attitude that I have not had in a long time.

The only problem is that I wish I had two. ;)

[yavor73]

Greetings-
Let me add this about the D60-
Since 97' I've owned the Oly D600, Oly C-2020, Nikon990, Oly E-10, Sony DCS-F707 and now the D60. What is strange with the D60 -is that it is- for all intents and purposes, equivelent to a film SLR. No longer can you say, isn't it a great shot for a digital camera?
Nope, it's just a camera...so you can stop amazing yourself -and just go out and take pictures. It's sort of a let-down, and a giant step up.

Buy one and enjoy.

Bob

[Jerry White]

I've got to agree with Jim, Bob and a bunch of the others. I've had my D60 for about 6 months. I've shot location, studio, single portraiture and volume daycare.

After the fall season I can only say "I love my D60, anybody want to buy a like new ProTL system?"

I doubt I would ever go back to film. I do some contract work for a fellow who has S1s and S2s for volume school work. I like my D60 better.

I have yet to do a 30x40 but am looking forward to it. I routinely turn out 11x14s on my 2200 and the response is usually "WOW! You did this yourself?" My clients have never once uttered a complaint.

I still want to do some tweaking with white balance, and the custom parameters but so far, I've been happy with the camera just the way it came out of the box. The 550ex has functioned perfectly (ok, so I had to adjust for a bit of underexposure ) and since it's only 1 fstop under my metz ct4, the metz is heading for ebay and I'll get another 550 and the slave transmitter.

Needless to say...I'm a happy camper :)

[BobS]

Hi All

I'm new here. Great to see this forum and all your accumulated knowledge. I photograph my events with the D60 (started with the D30). It is a problem in low even with the L lenes. When that white light goes off, good bye candid!
My main issue is also with the TTL flash. So I have developed a few techniques. If I use the flash (550) on auto, I focus on the face and then recompose. This seems to work, giving a good exposure. However, if I'm working fast and think I won't have the time to recompose, I set the the flash on manual and set an f-stop. (Talk about stepping back 20 years in technique). That way I don't worry about losing a key shot because of bad exposure. As for color balance, I set it to daylight when using the ex550. Under no circumstance do I ever use AWB.
About the TTL exposure problem, does anyone know if the 1D react better or the same as the D60?

[D60DIETER]

Hello Andreas,

go for it. The problem with the autofocus under low light conditions is not a killing criteria. Get yourself some highly opend lenses and it will work. I have the 1,4/85 L USM and the 2,0/135 L USM for portrait work and for standards I use the 2,8/16-35 L USM and the 2,8/28-70 L USM and it works. Concerning the flashlight problems I can agree. Most pictures are 1 to 2 stops to dark. I use a Metz 54MZ3. Set the flash exposure control to plus 1 and it works fine.

[donb]

It amazes me how many people say the D60 surprised/disappointed them - given the tons of information and reviews it has received. I read them all before I decided to buy.

Personally, I am thrilled. It completely meets - and even exceeds - my expectations. No, it is not perfect, yes it can't AF well in low light. AE, AF, and IS are remarkable to me, that they even work at all.

I got my hands on my first camera about 40 years ago. I remember when there was no such thing as AF or auto exposure - and when film took several minutes of fiddling with a roll of paper when loading/unloading.

Man, the D60 is fantastic. Not perfect, fantastic. I never had it so good. What's more, someday there will be another Canon in my hands. It will make the 1Ds look like tintype.

That's what's so great about photography. It gets better and better.

The D60 is/was not the pinnacle, just one great stopover along the way. I look forward to the children and grand children of it. I don't have time to gripe about the imperfections. When I compare to that old Kodak Junior and the Pocket Instamatic, I've died and gone to photographic heaven.