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

mmm Interesting thread, considering I've just purchased a 2nd hand D60. To my joy, I discovered CF 15, so I can use the camera and test it without a compactflash card in it!

After playing with it, I'll note a few things:

1. Super quiet shutter (I'm using to the eos1n shutter, which is considerably noisier). Makes me wonder why people are complaining about how noisy the 20D shutter is!

2. Poor autofocus in dim light? From my limited experience, I'd disagree. It focussed quickly, and accurately for me in dim lighting. Of course, I was using the AF assist beam (using a CF so that it emits but doesn't fire). I guess, a lot of it depends on how you define 'dim light'. I suspect many are looking at dim light being pitch black! And dim light is most certainly NOT pitch black. Testing so far, between my eos1n and D60 doesn't show much of a difference in speed/accuracy of autofocusing in general use, both indoors and outdoors. Sure, if you're shooting theatre/band shots, you might have some issues. Basically, after using my D60 for an hour in what I consider dim light, I can't see what the fuss was all about, and why the D60 has been bagged for this!

3. Buffer speed. Tell me now, and this is what really ires me, how many 35mm film SLRs had a motor drive (as default)? Not that many. Sure, the last few years of 35mm film SLR development showed cameras have a 2fps motor drive, and yes, you could hold the shutter button down and zoom thru a film, but let's consider a few things.

a. What's quicker - waiting for the D60 buffer to clear, or changing a film cartridge? I know which is quicker.

b. How often do you really really really need to be just holding the shutter button down and take shots in quick succession? Most photographers don't need this function/feature, so it's a very moot point continually bashing the D60 because the buffer is smaller than the 20D's. Sure, if you absolutely need that buffer speed because you're a sports photographer etc, yes, the 20D is better. But, for most people, the D60 is fine I reckon.

The startup times can be a bit of a nuisance, but I've set my camera to 8 mins for power off. Sure, it might drain the battery faster, that's why you have the Canon dual charger and two or more batteries

It seems that there's a lot of "there's a newer model out there, we MUST upgrade to keep up with the joneses" attitude out there. The D60 is a fine camera, most of the 'upgrades' for the 10D or 20D are minimal in my eyes. For most users, it'll be fine. Sure, the 10D and 20D are better. There's no argument there from me. I just don't think that bagging the poor old D60 to death is warranted.

As someone else pointed out, everyone raved about the D60 when it came out! Suddenly, because there's a new kid on the block, it's suddenly crap? What gives? Either you really didn't use the D60 when it was current range model, or you're suffering from the must upgrade syndrome.

Depending on what you're shooting, maybe consider selling the D60 to somewhere like keh.com, and upgrading to a 10D (the price differential won't be that much, most certainly less than upgrading to the 20D). I would definitely buy more quality glass for it though

Dave

funny thing about my D60...I just got a 5D...sold 2 20D's...but still have the D60.....will never ever sell that camera........

I took some band pictures with the 350D and my D60 and it seems like the D60 took better pictures, when viewing on the LCD. I'll know how they look in a bit as soon as I transfer the images. and I bought the D60 due to the cost, couldn't afford a 10D or 20D and didn't want a DRebel.

Two points to note:

First, used D60 bodies are now going for around $450 USD - if you got one for $185 "plus a variety of lenses" then you got one heck of a deal !

Second. as you've already heard, most people are keeping their D60s even after upgrading to 20D or better cameras.

While the D60 does have its limitations, it is a perfectly servicable camera. And looking back, I paid more than 10 times what you paid when I bought mine.

And that was just for the body...

Tom (I'll give you $200 for it ) Pierce

i own 2 d60 and who ever thinks its not good for sports i say go to my web site i have 1000s of pics you can view www.superchargedphotos​.com

I have a D60 and a 20D. I wouldn't say the D60 is no good for sports, but I will say the 20D is much better. With the D60 I missed many shots because the camera had gone into sleep mode and took so long to wake up. With the D60 I had to shoot JPEG, but with the 20D I shoot RAW if I don't need more that 6 pictures in quick succession. I had good success shooting JPEG with the D60, but there were a few pictures that could have been made better if I could have processed from RAW. For fast action, the 20D can fire more frames per second. The D60 has 3 AF sensors in a row. If I am shooting a cyclist or skier I want to focus on the face that is above the horizontal centre line and either right or left of centre. The 20D has sensors in those positions.

If you couldn't get good sports pictures with a D60 you wouldn't be able to get them with a 20D either. The advantage of the 20D is that you will get a higher number of keepers.

The D60 is a fine camera. It has most of the control features of the 10D and 20D and will give you a quality capture. It's not the latest generation of Canon DSLR's by any means, but it is by no means obsolete as a tool either. It's a great starter camera and will serve you well as you become familiar with the idiosyncrasies of digital photography. It's a great studio camera and works well for landscapes and nature as well. It is indeed usable for sports, but not as capable as other cameras in the Canon line-up for this field of photography.

I found the low-light AF capability to be adequate, but the 10D is better and the 20D is far better. That's not a slam on the D60, but just indicative of the improvements Canon made in the later generation DSLR's.

Will you eventually want to upgrade? I believe so, but try to learn the camera controls and features well and upgrade when you feel that the camera is restricting you from achieving your photographic goals.

Mark

Yes, I will eventually upgrade. Either to the 10D when I get laid off in just over a month and a bits time (due to the improved AF and subtle enhancement/improvemen​t of features, plus the support of 2gb + memory cards). After reading some posts, I'm toying with the 20D but it'll be a real stretch to afford it. I'm gonna do a separate post shortly with my first impressions of the D60 in general usage (I only found out this morning that I can still use the camera even without a CF card - since I'm very strapped for cash, I haven't yet gotten a memory card).

Dave