Canon EOS D60

Opinion: I am still on the waiting list, but I got my hands on a D60 so I thought I'd get this thread going.

Camera is well thought out. Dread shutter lag is OVER! 6mp images & low noise, what can I say? Smart buffering shines once you move auto focus off the shutter release and over to the AE lock button. The ability to take clean, very long exposures really puts film on notice (rumor is that D100 won't cut it here). Computer controlled time lapse, nice feature (I've only used it on the G1 so far, and will the D100 charge us the $200 price difference for it?).

Now for the real issues. No D100 to compare, so do I wait? Not me. I just got the dealer to let me play iwith the N80, which uses the same Multi-CAM900 autofocus system. The N80 focuses easily twice as fast (and the D1H twice as fast as that!), with a snap that makes it seem like it knows where its going. The D60 was half as fast, but not as bad as the complaints I read about the D30. In low light, it was no speed demon, but got the job done. Strangely, the N80 lost focus radically, hunted and refocused on more occasions than the D60, but still, only occasionally. Neither camera has split prisms or assistance other than matt screens for manual focus. One feature not spoken much about is the EX420 (or higher) speedlight's ability to add its red (or is it infra-red?) focus assist lamp. With my G1 not using this, I forget this feature was even available. It certainly speed up focusing in low light scenarios. I did not read of such a feature in the new Nikon speedlight (which is VERY expensive), although I did read a lot of user complaints about their last offering. Further, Canon lenses do allow manual focus during autofocus sessions, the Nikkors did not. Nikkors I used did have better macro ability than the canon lenses. Again, in macro mode, the N80 snaps into focus. I took about 100 shots in various indoor light with the D60, and the only images that were out of focus were those I messed up on; the camera gets it done. It's faster with verticle contrast subjects, faster lenses, and the EX420 speedlight. For sports, though I could not test, I would likely use a focus lock anyway, and from my testing in low light, I doubt I will have trouble finding an accurate focal distance with the D60. If I find otherwise, I will post here.

The N80 was a lot lighter than the D60, but this will be less so with the D100. That the N80/D100 can't meter with my old AI Nikkor collection irks me, and opens the door to Canon glass (hello Ebay). From what I see at photodo.com, the Canons rate a bit higher.

Of real concern to me are the repeated complaints of dust in the CCD SLRs, and the obvious lack of such with Canon's CMOS sensors. This issue has killed film scanning for me, so I am wary.

So, I am out of the D100 wait, and am waiting for a D60 delivery (let's see how long that will be).

Opinion: The D60 was well worth the $2199 I spent. Now I can take picture of kids without worrying missing any action. There was virtually no lag between the push doen the shutter to image capture. And the availbility of add-ons are endless.

Opinion: Finally a digital camera that in my opinion will replace my trusty 35mm. I have had 4 digital cameras since they first came on the market, the Sony Mavica FD91, big, bulky, and only fair image quality. The Canon Pro90 IS,good camera, but forget about any action shots, the shutter lag makes any action shot all but impossible. My wife's Canon S40, great camera for a point and shoot, and now my D60. This has the feel of a true 35mm pro camera, image quality is excellent, little or no appreciable shutter lag and 6.5Megapixel resolution, what else can we ask for with current technology. Still, my only complaint is the raw conversion software. Each image when converted from CRW to TIFF takes 41.5 seconds on a Pentium 4, 1.3GHz box. Canon needs to streamline their SDK for faster conversion, other than that, I cannot begin to find anything to complain about

Opinion: piss poor