Canon EOS-D60 Review, Phil Askey, March 2002

Review based on a production EOS-D60, Firmware Version 1.0.0

Canon announced the EOS-D60 two days before PMA 2002. That's exactly two years since the EOS-D30 was first announced, although that seems like a long time ago the D30 didn't hit the streets until the end of 2000 (early 2001 in some countries) and so remained a tempting enigma for most of 2000. The D60's launch was mostly anticipated by D30 owners (and those who follow sites like ours) and most appear to be relatively happy with the majority of improvements made.

The biggest and most obvious difference of course being the new six megapixel sensor, and that drags the D30 'system' into the major league as far as digital SLR resolution is concerned (at the time of writing this review). Although the D60 made an impact at PMA it wasn't the only new kid on the block, just a day before Canon's announcement of the EOS-D60 Nikon announced their consumer level D100 six megapixel digital SLR, with a slightly better feature set and otherwise a similar market target the D100 and EOS-D60 are set to go head to head this year.

The battle started early, with neither manufacturer announcing an official price for the cameras at PMA, instead began a game of poker with many rumours and price changes for almost two weeks after the show. Things, though have both calmed down and taken a very attractive turn. Canon announced that the new EOS-D60 would be priced (in the US) at US$2,199 for the full kit (includes battery, charger, DC kit) and just US$1,999 for the basic body (no battery etc.). This appears to have undercut the rumoured US$2,500 for the D100. Nikon haven't as yet announced their official pricing.

At this stage we don't have a D100, it looks like it will definitely be more than a month away and thus at this time I'm not in a position to use it for comparison in this review. HOWEVER, when I review the D100 I'll definitely use a D60 for comparison purposes, and that will serve to be the head to head between the two cameras.

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If you're new to digital photography you may wish to read the Digital Photography Glossary before diving into this review (it may help you understand some of the terms used).

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This review is Copyright 2002 Phil Askey and the review in part or in whole may NOT be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission from the author. For information on reproducing any part of this review (or any images) please contact: Phil Askey.