Viewfinder

The D60's viewfinder is clear and accurate, it has a comfortable removable rubber eye piece and a dioptre adjustment wheel. Although the view is good anyone who's used an EOS-1D will tell you that the D30/D60's view size isn't as big. With the D60 Canon has used a new laser matte focusing screen which is a little brighter and a little easier to use when manually focusing.

The rubber surround can be removed and the supplied eyepiece cover (on the shoulder strap) can be slipped over to stop stray light from entering the chamber during long exposures. The eyepiece will also take E-series dioptric adjustment lenses to further expand the dioptric correction range.

Viewfinder view

Through the viewfinder you'll see the partial metering circle and three focus points, unlike the D30 the D60 now highlights the selected / in use focus point with a red outline. This also means that the previous three-dot AF point indicator has gone from the status bar LCD which has left some space for a buffer space indicator (number of frames which can be shot in a single burst), this indicator also doubles as the number of frames remaining on the CF card once you get down to just eight frames of space.

Again, as with the top information LCD the status bar also changes its view to show other information such as data being processed, Redeye countdown, errors and "Busy" warnings. Below is an example of what you would see through the viewfinder (shutter release half-pressed). Note the highlighted AF point, displayed exposure, remaining burst frames (8) and focus confirmation.

Notable improvements: New laser matte focusing screen, highlighted AF points and modified status bar LCD display.

Battery Compartment

The battery compartment on the D60 is in the base of the hand grip, behind a simple clip locked door. The door itself is removable (to make way for the optional battery grip). The D60 takes Canon's powerful BP-511 Lithium-Ion battery packs (7.4V 1100mAh, 8.1 Wh). There's a tiny door on the inside edge of the hand grip where the cable from the supplied dummy battery exits (for running the D60 off the AC adapter). There's also the backup battery (CR2025) (circular compartment in the camera base) which keeps the clock running and camera settings when the camera is without a main battery.

Battery Charger / AC Adapter

The supplied CA-PS400 battery charger (100 - 240 V AC) has slots for two batteries and can charge one battery at a time, automatically switching to charging the second battery once the first is charged. A red LED above each battery indicates the current charge status; either one, two, three blinks or steady light to indicate a full charge. A full charge (from completely flat) takes approximately 90 minutes. Also supplied is a dummy battery on a 2 m cable which fits into the battery compartment of the D60 to provide a tethered power supply. Note that when the battery charger is providing DC power for the camera it can not simultaneously charge batteries.

Battery Grip (optional)

The optional BG-ED3 battery grip (the same as for the D30) provides the D60 the capacity to take two BP-511 batteries (the camera automatically switches to the second battery when the first is flat). The grip also provides a portrait (vertical) grip, shutter release, command wheel on the front and AE/AF-lock and focus point buttons on the back. It's attached to the D60 by removing the battery compartment door (simple push of a sprung clip on the hinge), insert the connector into the battery compartment and screw the grip into the cameras tripod mount.

It's worth noting that the grip makes it considerably easier and quicker to change batteries (unless the camera is on a tripod in which case the door won't open fully). One slight oddity is that the tripod mount on the base of the grip doesn't exactly line up with the tripod screw on the top of the grip which means that the lens will be offset on a tripod when using the battery grip.

Adding the grip gives the D60 a more professional look and makes it easy to switch from landscape to portrait shooting. The added bonus is that the normal grip becomes extended and makes that more comfortable. It's well built with a metal (yet lightweight) substructure, a metal tripod mount and a hand strap attachment in the base. The grip and two batteries adds 380 g (13 oz) to the weight of the D60 with one battery.

CompactFlash Compartment

The CompactFlash compartment on the D60 is one the rear corner of the hand grip, the door itself has a small hole at the top through which the red CF activity light shines. Opening the door (pull back and flip open) you immediately notice the metal hinge structure and the fact that there's plenty of room around the CF card once it's ejected (easy to insert and remove). The D60 takes either Type I or Type II CompactFlash cards and supports the IBM Microdrive.

Something nice about the door is how easy it is to close. Pop a new card in, put your hand on the grip as though you're about to hold the camera and the door will clip shut then slide securely to it's fully closed position.

I was disappointed to see that Canon hadn't addressed what is a potentially serious flaw with the operation of the CF door. That is if the camera is still writing to the card (as it may be after a burst of images, especially RAW's) when you open the door the camera will power down the instant you open the door and any images remaining in the cameras internal buffer are lost. I still don't understand why opening the door immediately powers the camera off, better design would be to hold the camera power on until all images have been stored (this is what happens if you turn the power dial to OFF).