Are there any upgrades or "hacks" for the D60?

I saw in the stickied thread that there was one for the 300D/Rebel, but is there anything I can do to up the performance of my D60?

anybody?

I upgraded my D60 with a 20D.

It was worth the money to me.

Scott

There is no firmware hack for the D60.

I got the camera as a gift, kinda. The flash on it wasn't synchronized with the shutter, and I kept getting Err99's. I sent it back into canon, and paid $185 to fix it.

I'm just getting into all of this, so I don't need any upgrades... For $185 I got a perfectly working D60 with a bunch of lenses

For a hobbyist, I think it's fine

neonerd wrote:
I'm just getting into all of this, so I don't need any upgrades... For $185 I got a perfectly working D60 with a bunch of lenses

For a hobbyist, I think it's fine

I give you a year before you upgrade!

As mentioned there is no hack for the D60. The reason there is a hack for the 300D is that it was a crippled 10D, so the hack brings back those features that Canon removed from the 10D to make the 300D that are software related, however there are some hardware limitations which the hack can not bring in. In the case of the D60 there is nothing that can really be done to improve the camera from a software point of view that can't also be done in PS.

Just my experience and opinion,

Why?

Unless your willing to upgrade to the 1D MK II, there is not enough difference to justify the costs. Biggest is the 1.3 crop and buffer ability.

If your thinking of the 20D, your further ahead buying good glass and upgrading your PS skills and working with RAW.

As a hobbyist, put the money into glass.

I doubt there was anything to "hack" out since the D60 isn't a knock down of a better camera.

Sorry Jazz, I strongly disagree with your post.

There is much less difference between the capabilities of the 1D Mk I and the 20D than there is between the D60 and the 20D. I used the 60D for years and it is very frustrating for the poor autofocus, long delays on start up or wake up, frames per second for action photos, slow buffer clearing time during which the camera is disabled, etc. In all of these the 20D is a far better camera. The 1D Mk 2 is better again on some of them, but not that much better.

Also, the 1D Mk II cannot use EF-S lenses, so it cannot use lenses like the 10-22 EF-S. The widest zoom available is the 16-35/2.8 which won't even get as wide as 20 mm equivalent on a full frame camera. On a 20D the 10-22 gives the equivalent framing of a 16-35 on a full frame. It won't fit the D60 either, since that camera is not EF-S compatible.

If you need telephoto lenses, the 1.6x factor of the 20D is an advantage over the 1.3x factor of the 1D Mk II. A Sigma 50-500 has the equivalent framing of an 80-800 on a 20D (or on a D60). On a 1D Mk II it is only the equivalent of a 65-650.

Using available lenses, the 20D has the 1D Mk II beat on both the wide angle and telephoto ends of the lens range.

Especially when you consider the cost of the camera, the one camera I do not recommend to a hobbyist is the 1D Mk II.

The one thing I do agree with is that it is best to put more money in lenses.

Scott

Yeah.. D60 is nice..

But the 20D is light years ahead of the D60.. and I agree .. the difference in use between 20D and 1D mkII less significant than the differnces in use between the D60 & 20D.

As a beginner hobbyist, how is the D60 for me?

With the camera, I was given quite a varaety of good lenses. Macro, Telephoto, etc.
Also, just curious...are these lenses only compatible with the D60, or are the interchangable among the EOS Digital cameras?

all EF lenses are compatable with D60, but EF-s lenses won't be.

A D60 is an excellent camera for a camera enthusiest, although a 20D would be better. As someone mentioned the camera start up and buffer write times are really slow compared to 20D, but think of it as a manual wind 35mm film camera and that is about the speed you will go at. I usually recommend the D60 over 300D, but the 350XT is probably an overall better value as an alternative to 20D. On the flip side if you are trying to learn all you can, the D60 will be a better value in that case.

Just my opinion,

The D60 is a very nice camera to learn from because of some of the limitations. Why is a camera a piece of slow crap as soon as something else/better (10D then 20D) comes out?? The camera was considered great when it first hit the shelves. Now that everyone is spoiled it's not worth much! As a gift for nearly zero dollars you better make love to that camera and learn all you can with it.

I used the D60 and it's limitations help me understand what I can and can't do the proper way instead of the camera doing everything such as composing partly due to the slow focusing, it forced me to learn how to understand manual flash because ETTL on it was not reliable, and the ISO above 400 made me understand lighting. These seem like negative things but they all allowed me to learn. We forget that others before us did not have it so easy. All this will help you appreciate things once you advance and get into better gear.

Oh yeah, no hack. There is really nothing to hack because it will do what you make it do in most situations.

Good luck

How the D60 is for you depends on what type of photography you are doing. For many types of photography it will be just as good as the more recent models. The limitations are mainly noticeable if you do action photography and need faster auto focus and the ability to shoot more frames per second. The other disadvantage comes if you need to turn your camera on and take a picture in a hurry. The D60 takes a little longer to warm up, so the shot can be gone before the camera is ready.

Other than that, the D60 will take great pictures. I even took a ski race picture that was used as the centre fold in a magazine with my D60. You can learn to work around the camera's limitations.

As for the lenses, keep them. They can be used on any Canon EOS film or digital camera. You are lucky to have a selection of lenses to learn on. Just don't spend so much time flipping lenses that you don't take the time to master each one.

Scott