My D60 - great deal, my impressions

I received my D60 kit this morning from Allen's Camera in PA. I'd posted yesterday afternoon about the excellent price I got it for, but then Allen thought it better not to publicly state the price, so I asked Phil to delete that post.

For those looking for a great deal on the D60, give Allen a call at (215)547-2841. He has none in stock right now, of course, and I assume the waiting list is fairly long. However, if you're willing to wait a bit, this might be the best place to buy. Please don't call if you're not serious about getting on his list, I wouldn't want him to be inundated with calls! He is a standup guy, and I've had great service from him. I was number one on his list since I'd told him before PMA to put me down for whatever Canon announced next .

I had my D30 for just under a year, and the D60 is a decent update, especially considering the price. Yes, the focus system from say, an Elan 7, would be nice - let's not debate that. Other than that:

• 6 megapixels, with the same quality and noise-levels as the D30, is awesome - for me, that translates to more freedom to crop as well as larger prints with good detail (especially landscapes).

• Speed - focusing does seem more snappy, the shutter lag (virtually nonexistent) and response is great, and the lit focus points are real nice. The best part is the smart buffering! I was often captive to the "busy" status on the D30, unable to fire off another quick burst until the CF card was written to. The D60 is SO much better, it's awesome to be able to shoot 8 RAW shots, and then keep shooting as soon as there's room for another - very nice, Canon!

• I like the 1-stop exposure latitude with RAW files, which I shoot almost exclusively - now, with the smart buffering, improved RAW+JPEG mode, I can't see needing to shoot JPG at all.

This is an excellent update to the D30, and for being able to upgrade for a few hundred bucks, I am very happy with the D60!

• Mohit

BTW, for those who call Allen and get on the list, please don't post the price here (for the reasons I mentioned in my earlier post). Thanks!

Fair enough, but you would think Allen would want everyone to know his great price!

Ricky

Mohit said:

I received my D60 kit this morning from Allen's Camera in PA. I'd
posted yesterday afternoon about the excellent price I got it for,
but then Allen thought it better not to publicly state the price,
so I asked Phil to delete that post.

For those looking for a great deal on the D60, give Allen a call at
(215)547-2841. He has none in stock right now, of course, and I
assume the waiting list is fairly long. However, if you're willing
to wait a bit, this might be the best place to buy. Please don't
call if you're not serious about getting on his list, I wouldn't
want him to be inundated with calls! He is a standup guy, and I've
had great service from him. I was number one on his list since I'd
told him before PMA to put me down for whatever Canon announced
next .

I had my D30 for just under a year, and the D60 is a decent update,
especially considering the price. Yes, the focus system from say,
an Elan 7, would be nice - let's not debate that. Other than that:

• 6 megapixels, with the same quality and noise-levels as the D30,

is awesome - for me, that translates to more freedom to crop as
well as larger prints with good detail (especially landscapes).

• Speed - focusing does seem more snappy, the shutter lag

(virtually nonexistent) and response is great, and the lit focus
points are real nice. The best part is the smart buffering! I was
often captive to the "busy" status on the D30, unable to fire off
another quick burst until the CF card was written to. The D60 is
SO much better, it's awesome to be able to shoot 8 RAW shots, and
then keep shooting as soon as there's room for another - very nice,
Canon!

• I like the 1-stop exposure latitude with RAW files, which I shoot

almost exclusively - now, with the smart buffering, improved
RAW+JPEG mode, I can't see needing to shoot JPG at all.

This is an excellent update to the D30, and for being able to
upgrade for a few hundred bucks, I am very happy with the D60!

• Mohit

Click to expand...

--Ricky L. JonesCanon Elan II, EOS 3, G1, D60(soon) http://community.webshots.com/user/rljslick

RLJSlick said:

Fair enough, but you would think Allen would want everyone to know
his great price!

Click to expand...

Yes, but it's not fair to other retailers (including the sponsor of this site), and Canon would frown on publicly advertising a price lower than MAP.

I thought I'd post as a heads-up to others looking for a D60 and willing to wait until the next few batches of cameras come in (from some reports, this could be just a few weeks now).

• Mohit

Thanks for the heads up. I should have called before my doctors appointment. I'm number 30 on the list right now. They have 3 to ship so that puts me at number 27 now. Allen said it may a wait.

Maybe I'll sell my motorcycle before that happens and I'll just get a 1D... I know where one of those is for sale right now...

--Teymoor

Mohit said:

Mohit said:

Fair enough, but you would think Allen would want everyone to know
his great price!

Click to expand...

Yes, but it's not fair to other retailers (including the sponsor of
this site), and Canon would frown on publicly advertising a price
lower than MAP.

I thought I'd post as a heads-up to others looking for a D60 and
willing to wait until the next few batches of cameras come in (from
some reports, this could be just a few weeks now).

• Mohit

Click to expand...

-- http://www.pbase.com/teymoor

Hi Mohit,

I got my D60 this morning also.

To me everything about the camera seems faster than my D30, focus, shutter lag, start-up, buffering and I just love those little red squares in the view finder.

Talking about resolution, I can just keep increasing the size in PS and still not see the little squar pixels like I could with the D30, just amazing. I printed a lot of 13X19 inch pictures with my D30 and they were great, I can't wait to see how the D60's will look.

Looks like I will be shooting a lot of Large-Fine JPEGS with this camera, covert a RAW file to 16 bit TIFF and you have a 36MB file.
I agree with you, great upgrade from D30.

Bill

Mohit said:

I received my D60 kit this morning from Allen's Camera in PA. I'd
posted yesterday afternoon about the excellent price I got it for,
but then Allen thought it better not to publicly state the price,
so I asked Phil to delete that post.

For those looking for a great deal on the D60, give Allen a call at
(215)547-2841. He has none in stock right now, of course, and I
assume the waiting list is fairly long. However, if you're willing
to wait a bit, this might be the best place to buy. Please don't
call if you're not serious about getting on his list, I wouldn't
want him to be inundated with calls! He is a standup guy, and I've
had great service from him. I was number one on his list since I'd
told him before PMA to put me down for whatever Canon announced
next .

I had my D30 for just under a year, and the D60 is a decent update,
especially considering the price. Yes, the focus system from say,
an Elan 7, would be nice - let's not debate that. Other than that:

• 6 megapixels, with the same quality and noise-levels as the D30,

is awesome - for me, that translates to more freedom to crop as
well as larger prints with good detail (especially landscapes).

• Speed - focusing does seem more snappy, the shutter lag

(virtually nonexistent) and response is great, and the lit focus
points are real nice. The best part is the smart buffering! I was
often captive to the "busy" status on the D30, unable to fire off
another quick burst until the CF card was written to. The D60 is
SO much better, it's awesome to be able to shoot 8 RAW shots, and
then keep shooting as soon as there's room for another - very nice,
Canon!

• I like the 1-stop exposure latitude with RAW files, which I shoot

almost exclusively - now, with the smart buffering, improved
RAW+JPEG mode, I can't see needing to shoot JPG at all.

This is an excellent update to the D30, and for being able to
upgrade for a few hundred bucks, I am very happy with the D60!

• Mohit

Click to expand...

Mohit...you da man!!

I saw your original post about Allen's but I already have a D60 coming tomorrow at a good price. I ordered a couple of lenses online from adorama and thought I was all set, then got an email back saying they were closed and would not ship till April 4...bummer! B&H, Delta everybody seemed to be shut down, anyway I called Allen, he gave me a great price and even made the UPS guy wait so the lenses could be here by tomorrow...Yeah!!!

Anyway thanks Mohit, this weekend is going to be a lot of fun!!

DJM

Mohit said:

I received my D60 kit this morning from Allen's Camera in PA. I'd
posted yesterday afternoon about the excellent price I got it for,
but then Allen thought it better not to publicly state the price,
so I asked Phil to delete that post.

For those looking for a great deal on the D60, give Allen a call at
(215)547-2841. He has none in stock right now, of course, and I
assume the waiting list is fairly long. However, if you're willing
to wait a bit, this might be the best place to buy. Please don't
call if you're not serious about getting on his list, I wouldn't
want him to be inundated with calls! He is a standup guy, and I've
had great service from him. I was number one on his list since I'd
told him before PMA to put me down for whatever Canon announced
next .

I had my D30 for just under a year, and the D60 is a decent update,
especially considering the price. Yes, the focus system from say,
an Elan 7, would be nice - let's not debate that. Other than that:

• 6 megapixels, with the same quality and noise-levels as the D30,

is awesome - for me, that translates to more freedom to crop as
well as larger prints with good detail (especially landscapes).

• Speed - focusing does seem more snappy, the shutter lag

(virtually nonexistent) and response is great, and the lit focus
points are real nice. The best part is the smart buffering! I was
often captive to the "busy" status on the D30, unable to fire off
another quick burst until the CF card was written to. The D60 is
SO much better, it's awesome to be able to shoot 8 RAW shots, and
then keep shooting as soon as there's room for another - very nice,
Canon!

• I like the 1-stop exposure latitude with RAW files, which I shoot

almost exclusively - now, with the smart buffering, improved
RAW+JPEG mode, I can't see needing to shoot JPG at all.

This is an excellent update to the D30, and for being able to
upgrade for a few hundred bucks, I am very happy with the D60!

• Mohit

Click to expand...

Bill,

WBill said:

To me everything about the camera seems faster than my D30, focus,
shutter lag, start-up, buffering and I just love those little red
squares in the view finder.

Click to expand...

Yes, everything is a little "snappier". The buffering is the most notable to me, and even the focus seems plenty quick. The illuminated focus points do help, even if you only select the center one, because you don't have to look for the focus "circle" as in the D30, and the beep can be hard to hear in noisy environments.

WBill said:

Looks like I will be shooting a lot of Large-Fine JPEGS with this
camera, covert a RAW file to 16 bit TIFF and you have a 36MB file.

Click to expand...

These files are going to put a huge demand on your computer resources. I'm ok for disk space and speed for a while, and like the flexibility of RAW (the 1-stop exposure latitude can be very handy!).

WBill said:

I agree with you, great upgrade from D30.

Click to expand...

No question, and the low price just about seals it.

• Mohit

David,

Awesome, glad I could help! Allen provides really good service, and for a small, local-type camera store, he sure seems to stock a lot of the "good" stuff (I've never been down there, I'm in CT). He can pretty much always match B&H/Adorama, and often beat them on price.

What lenses did you get?

Did you mention my name when you called? I'm wondering how many calls he's gotten, and if he's going to thank me or blame me after the next few days

• Mohit

djm80364 said:

Mohit...you da man!!

I saw your original post about Allen's but I already have a D60
coming tomorrow at a good price. I ordered a couple of lenses
online from adorama and thought I was all set, then got an email
back saying they were closed and would not ship till April
4...bummer! B&H, Delta everybody seemed to be shut down, anyway I
called Allen, he gave me a great price and even made the UPS guy
wait so the lenses could be here by tomorrow...Yeah!!!

Anyway thanks Mohit, this weekend is going to be a lot of fun!!

Click to expand...

I got my D60 from Newtonville camera this morning. I agree--there is a "crispness" about all operations with the D60 that was absent in the D30. I too had no problems with 24x19s with the D30, and can't wait to see what the D60 can do. I downloaded one of the Canon D60 samples, cropped out about 2/3 of the image and printed the remainder at 13x19, and itstill looked like a medium format shot!!!! They probably used a better lens than I have, though (I have no L series at the moment).

Stan

Mohit said:

Mohit said:

To me everything about the camera seems faster than my D30, focus,
shutter lag, start-up, buffering and I just love those little red
squares in the view finder.

Click to expand...

Yes, everything is a little "snappier". The buffering is the most
notable to me, and even the focus seems plenty quick. The
illuminated focus points do help, even if you only select the
center one, because you don't have to look for the focus "circle"
as in the D30, and the beep can be hard to hear in noisy
environments.

Mohit said:

Looks like I will be shooting a lot of Large-Fine JPEGS with this
camera, covert a RAW file to 16 bit TIFF and you have a 36MB file.

Click to expand...

These files are going to put a huge demand on your computer
resources. I'm ok for disk space and speed for a while, and like
the flexibility of RAW (the 1-stop exposure latitude can be very
handy!).

Mohit said:

I agree with you, great upgrade from D30.

Click to expand...

No question, and the low price just about seals it.

• Mohit

Click to expand...

I bought a 50 1.4 and a 70-200 4 and they were USA at very close to grey prices. I told him Mo-heet sent me!!

Thanks!

DJM

Mohit said:

Awesome, glad I could help! Allen provides really good service,
and for a small, local-type camera store, he sure seems to stock a
lot of the "good" stuff (I've never been down there, I'm in CT).
He can pretty much always match B&H/Adorama, and often beat them on
price.

What lenses did you get?

Did you mention my name when you called? I'm wondering how many
calls he's gotten, and if he's going to thank me or blame me after
the next few days

• Mohit

Mohit said:

Mohit...you da man!!

I saw your original post about Allen's but I already have a D60
coming tomorrow at a good price. I ordered a couple of lenses
online from adorama and thought I was all set, then got an email
back saying they were closed and would not ship till April
4...bummer! B&H, Delta everybody seemed to be shut down, anyway I
called Allen, he gave me a great price and even made the UPS guy
wait so the lenses could be here by tomorrow...Yeah!!!

Anyway thanks Mohit, this weekend is going to be a lot of fun!!

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip....I spoke to Douglas, and he was very professonal in taking yet another order....

What a way for a person that has never owned a digital camera to go digital. Just start at the top, I guess.

And Learn, learn, learn...lol

Best Wishes,

Traveller

Thought I'd update my views after having played (though not for quite as long as I'd like to!) with my D60 over the weekend. While the focus does appear "snappier" as I initially mentioned, it's the lit focus points that really help in allowing you to take a quicker picture - I left all three points active instead of just the center one as was typical with my D30, and it worked surprisingly well. However, I feel the AF system has not changed - I don't use the camera's built-in assist lamp, if needed, an ST-E2 or 550EX is utilized for that. The focus still hunts in low light, just like the D30.

I did find manual focusing easier with the D60's screen; I could never quite get a sharp manual focus on the D30 (yes, I tried the diopter adjustment), and was pretty successful with manual focusing this weekend - shot a gull through a double cage and the lens kept trying to lock on the bars of the cage, so I tweaked the focus manually to the bird's eye and it came out tack sharp - couldn't get that with my D30 (that's my deficiency, I guess - but the D60 does seem to make it easier).

I had a problem - popping up the built-in flash for fill during daylight kept giving me an Error 5! I had to power off the camera, even pop the batteries out sometimes, try to have the flash already out when switching modes, etc. Just playing around trying to get it to work, which it did occasionally. But something's wrong with the circuitry. I'm glad I tried this, since I rarely use the built-in.

I absolutely love the buffering - it is SO much better!

I could exchange it for a new one, but who knows when the next batch of D60's will arrive? I think I'll send it down to the Canon Service Center in NJ and have them check it out - they estimate a turnaround of 5 business days.

• Mohit

For those concerned abou disk sapce for the D60 take heart FRYS are offerrring a 80g drive for 89.99. That is roughly space for 40.000 D60 images on hard disk!, That is 1/3 of a cent per image.

Mohit said:

Mohit said:

To me everything about the camera seems faster than my D30, focus,
shutter lag, start-up, buffering and I just love those little red
squares in the view finder.

Click to expand...

Yes, everything is a little "snappier". The buffering is the most
notable to me, and even the focus seems plenty quick. The
illuminated focus points do help, even if you only select the
center one, because you don't have to look for the focus "circle"
as in the D30, and the beep can be hard to hear in noisy
environments.

Mohit said:

Looks like I will be shooting a lot of Large-Fine JPEGS with this
camera, covert a RAW file to 16 bit TIFF and you have a 36MB file.

Click to expand...

These files are going to put a huge demand on your computer
resources. I'm ok for disk space and speed for a while, and like
the flexibility of RAW (the 1-stop exposure latitude can be very
handy!).

Mohit said:

I agree with you, great upgrade from D30.

Click to expand...

No question, and the low price just about seals it.

• Mohit

Click to expand...

--Pips