Canon 60D announced

Finally, finally! Canon announced the 60D. There have been rumors about it for months, and it was expected that at some point they'd replace the 50D, so in many respects the announcement of the 60D was as unexpected as the announcement of the iPhone 4.

Still, it's an interesting development for a couple of reasons; the addition of an articulating screen, and the "downgrading" of the XXD series. Previous models (the 10D, 20D...50D) had magnesium bodies, but the 60D switches to polycarbonate like the Rebel T2i. This is unsurprising; the release of the 7D above the XXD line perhaps forced Canon to reposition the 60D. The 60D also seems to be pitched more to consumers than pro-sumers (see the video below.)

Another interesting feature; manual audio control (the 5D Mk II got this with a firmware upgrade, but the 7D, T2i and 1d Mk IV don't offer this feature.)

The switch to SD cards is interesting too, though wouldn't stop me from buying the camera (since I have cameras that use both Compact Flash and SD cards already.)

I had been expecting some other new features for video (auto-focus? better live video out? lower compression?) as there had been hints of this camera adding more video features. The articulating screen certainly will help with shooting video at unusual angles (though I just bought a Zacuto Z-Finder and I don't think it would be much use with that!) and manual audio control is welcome, but there seems to be no significant reason why you should buy this over the T2i or 7D. Sure, the articulating screen and manual audio could make you lean towards it, but if you already have the T2i or 7D I don't think you need to feel like you need to upgrade!

B & H is taking pre-orders for $1,099.
Canon USA: EOS 60D
DPReview: Canon EOS 60D Preview
Gizmodo: Canon 60D Impressions: The Perfect Video DSLR Is Just a Little Bit Closer

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