Anyone hanging out for the 60D?

[muzz]

I've been getting ever closer to my decision to buy a 50D and while doing a bit of research stumbled upon the Canon Rumors website which suggested that the 60D may be imminent if Canon stick to the 1 year release cycle (around late August). Obviously rumours are rumours, but I wondered if anyone had followed previous rumours (eg about the 50D) and had an opinion on how close the earlier rumours came to the real thing.

I can hang out for a couple of months and wait for the 60D considering the suggested specs that are presented as possible for this new model which I've posted here from the site:

15.1 megapixels
ISO 100-25600
7 fps
Digic V
Movie-mode: 1080p with 30 and 24fps
build in GPS for geo-tagging
only a SD-card slot (no CF)
148×109x75mm and 738g

Cheers.

[SuperJT]

Canon are going to hurt themselves by releasing models too close together and creating the sort of indecision that you are experiencing now.

I suppose weight up the pros and cons of the two models.

Video might be a positive (not a real feature for me)
SD instead of CF is a negative (I don't believe that SD cards are as fast as CF cards yet).

The GPS tagging is a nice extra but not critical. The higher ISO will be virtually unusable unless the Digic V does something miraculous inside that thing. Slightly higher FPS.

I'm happy with my 50D. I'll replace it when it goes bang or I think that my skill has outgrown its feature set. Many others will say the same about their 40D.

Good luck with your choice.

[Doctor]

Ive read rumours around the place of a 50dmkII, the specs i saw were of a higher mp count and FPS than what you have posted, im about to buy a second 50d and did consider holding off, but the 50d does everything i need to and probably more, so ill settle with a pair of them, unless someone can give me a definitive date on the replacement, and prove that its going to be a big enough step up for me to hold off...

[DaveB]

Consensus is that it will be either August (12-month cycle) or February (18-month cycle). The 40D->50D period was 12 months, but before that it had been an 18-month cycle for a while. This year there's no Photokina in September for the announcement to line up with, but the big PMA is in Feb. We're getting conflicting stories from within Canon as to which date they'll go with.

Either way, I'll be surprised if they bump up the pixel count (and 15 Mp is heaps and is straining the lenses/diffraction/etc in the APS-C format already).

Bottom line, if the 50D works for you now, get it now.

[AJ4WD]

7fps and good, clean high ISO interests me. HD movie mode is moderately useful too.
Makes you wonder what the 1Dmk4 specs will be.

[muzz]

I'm sure I would be quite happy with a 50D but as I'm not in a rush, the possibility of a new release in one form or other interests me. A criticism that pops up of the 50D is noise but I don't know to what extent this is a problem to be concerned about - there are plenty of people who don't seem to have an issue but improvements in noise management would hopefully only be a good thing. I think I would use video but it wouldn't be a priority to hold out for.

The other thing is there may be a price movement of the 50D if there is a newer model released. I have recently noticed a price drop of ~$50 on two sites I have been watching the 50D. I guess I'll wait and see.

[tntman]

THere are 2 things that interest me on the 60D..

1. Video 1080P? If it's as good as 5D MKII, then I'm sold..
2. OMLED screen! Color accuracy and vibrancy is 10x better than LCD!

[gstark]

We might see one at PMA this weekend.

And yes, that was a swine that flu past the window.

[Grev]

I'm not too sure if it's a good time to buy any DSLR bodies at the moment... D:

[Potoroo]

Canon are going to hurt themselves by releasing models too close together and creating the sort of indecision that you are experiencing now.

Quite right. Apparently, 50D sales have been hurt by the fact the 40D is still around, relatively cheap and very capable. This would at least partly explain the internal pressure within Canon to go back to the 18 month release cycle, the general downturn in the global economy being another factor (Canon Japan is trying to encourage 50D sales with a cashback offer).

As a 50D owner I see nothing in the rumoured 60D specs that excites me. That it will supposedly stay at 15.1Mp implies Canon realises they've hit the resolution wall (hooray!), and the new Digic V plus any sensor improvements I imagine would be to further improve noise handling, an area where Nikon has recently been ahead. Digic IV increased image processing speed, amongst other things, so the 50D can take advantage of UDMA-enabled CF cards to get longer bursts in high-speed continuous mode (6.3fps), but as cards haven't got any faster I think any Digic V would therefore have to be focussed on IQ. I personally don't give a rat's about shooting moving images with my DSLR. The only thing that interests me is the GPS tagging, but I won't be upgrading just for that.

Other rumours about the 60D include a 13-point AF system to replace the 50D's 9-point system (care factor:0; I use the centre point 99% of the time), better weather sealing and a new battery grip. I really like the BG-E2N for the 40/50D, any replacement would have to be pretty special, but maybe the rumoured replacement would be part of the overall weather-proofing. Isn't speculation fun!

In the absence of any confirmation from the manufacturer about an impending model release I regard buying a DSLR like buying any other electronic item: it is obsolete the moment you get it home and out of the box, so just buy the best you can afford at the time that does what you want and enjoy it.

[rmp]

OTOH, there are quite a number of 40D owners who haven't bothered with the 50D, and the improvement from 40D to 60D may be enough to tempt them to upgrade. That would be approx a two year upgrade cycle if the new releases are annual, and you only take every other one, not too dissimilar to upgrading every time on an 18-month cycle.

If indeed you need to upgrade at all.

I think the need to upgrade with each new DSLR is becoming less and less. 10D to 20D and 20D to 30D was greater than say 40D to 50D, and we're at the point where 15Mp is more than sufficient, not like the days of 6 when you could do with a few more.

[DaveB]

Man, looking at the rumour mill can certainly get distracting!
Current rumours are that the 60D is a way off, but that the 7D may be showing up this coming week.

The listed specs for the 7D are pushing many of my buttons for the camera I've been waiting for to replace my 40D and complement the 5DmkII, but we won't know for sure until it's official. But I must admit that in the meantime I've started thinking of which bits of gear I should be selling now to help fund it!

Hmmm... which battery will it use?...

[Potoroo]

Current rumours are... that the 7D may be showing up this coming week.

18MP APS-C?

Why? Just when we were applauding Canon for reducing the pixel count on the G11...

[DaveB]

Current rumours are... that the 7D may be showing up this coming week.

18MP APS-C?

Why? Just when we were applauding Canon for reducing the pixel count on the G11...

Yeah, that's the thing I'm not sure is optimal: I'm not convinced of a benefit of this over something with resolution somewhere between the 40D and 50D. Oh well, we'll see how it turns out.

The consensus seems to be:

• 18 Mp (hmmm....)
• Probably the 45-point AF system brought down from the 1-series (which are presumably going to get something fancier in their next incarnation).
  19 selectable AF points (as per the 1-series) but people are unsure whether the other 26 points are there as "assist" points as per the 1-series or not). Also unclear whether the center point would AF at f/8.
• 8 fps (hmmm... I wonder how many RAW frames will fit in the buffer?)
• 1.6 crop (yay! this means the AF points will cover more of the frame)
• HD video (well, duh!)
• 100% viewfinder (cool. Not essential for me, but nice)
• virtual horizon in viewfinder (ala D3)
• pop-up flash (hopefully with wireless flash master function - something I've been waiting for since the 20D)

But how much of that is coming from wish-lists (that match my own) and how much is real leaked info remains to be seen...

[Photopotamus]

I too have been holding out (now)... I had originally considered the 50D. And was waiting for the "right opportunity" to get one in the door!

However, now that the rumored 7D is on the horizon, perhaps I should wait & see what Santa brings..?

I'm not fussed about the video. Cool feature, but not the deal breaker. That being said, if it's way over the budget, I'd still happily take a 50D.

[DaveB]

On further consideration, 18 Mp on an APS-C sensor does not seem unreasonable.
It may just feed my need for faster telephoto glass though...

[surenj]

I was hanging out for a better than 50D ISO performance + wireless (radio ) flash commander.

18mp is dissapointing. One would need REALLY high quality lenses to use with this camera.

[DaveB]

18mp is dissapointing. One would need REALLY high quality lenses to use with this camera.

Not quite true.

Sure it helps having good glass with high resolving power, but what some people are squealing about is the concept of the impact of diffraction with pixels this small. Many of them are not thinking it through properly.

If you've got a fast lens that you can shoot at something at or wider than f/6.3 and get good quality (some aren't great at f/5.6) then diffraction isn't going to be a problem. And even if you do shoot at a smaller aperture and diffraction starts to come into play, sensible processing of your images (e.g. with sharpening) can minimise the impact. In fact I won't be surprised if the usable detail wider than f/16 will still beat the 40D (just as an example as that's what I'd move from).

In fact for me the major use for the 7D would be as a wildlife camera and I'm likely to be shooting with relatively wide apertures. While I'd continue to use the 5DmkII for landscape/macro shots with smaller apertures, I don't think I'd be afraid to use the 7D for those if it's what I happened to have in my hand at the time...

Of course the rumour mills are still throwing up curve balls such as the possibility of the sensor being slightly larger than 1.6x ("APS-C" is not clearly defined) and thus the final pixel size might be not much smaller than the 50D. We won't know the final specs for sure until the camera is offically announced.
Maybe we'll hear something TuePM/WedAM after the Canon press briefings which everyone's expecting the 7D to feature in...

[surenj]

Dave, that's reassuring.

I am looking for a nice body that I can use for >5 years. [like I have done with my 350D] Unfortunately I am used to shooting in high apertures [due to the average lenses I have]. Due to weight [and price] etc, I am planning to stay at constant f4 lenses. [17-40 or 24-105 and perhaps 70-200 f4] I doubt that I will notice anything different at the mostly screen and occational print sort of level.

Just hope that the ISO 12800 [or at least the 6400] usable. I hear that the 50D doesn't really have good ISO performance which is dissapointing.

Now to wait for the price... [also a price for IR conversion of my 350D ]. You might know this but, how do I figure out the shutter count on my 350D to figure out whether it's worth converting it?

[DaveB]

I believe with the 350D the only way is to use the Canon diagnostic software which doesn't exist outside Canon.

It's possible with the cameras that use DiG!C III or later (free Windows software available) but not the 350D.

[Photopotamus]

Just hope that the ISO 12800 [or at least the 6400] usable. I hear that the 50D doesn't really have good ISO performance which is dissapointing.?

I may be wrong on this one... But everything I've read suggests that it's at least as "usable" as it's nearest competitor. I guess some might argue whether that a D90 or D300.

[Potoroo]

Just hope that the ISO 12800 [or at least the 6400] usable. I hear that the 50D doesn't really have good ISO performance which is dissapointing.?

I may be wrong on this one... But everything I've read suggests that it's at least as "usable" as it's nearest competitor. I guess some might argue whether that a D90 or D300.

With the advent of the 7D it's clearly the D90.

[surenj]

Just hope that the ISO 12800 [or at least the 6400] usable. I hear that the 50D doesn't really have good ISO performance which is dissapointing.?

I may be wrong on this one... But everything I've read suggests that it's at least as "usable" as it's nearest competitor. I guess some might argue whether that a D90 or D300.

With the advent of the 7D it's clearly the D90.

I am glad that Canon has decided that they will compete with old nikon products!

[Potoroo]

I may be wrong on this one... But everything I've read suggests that it's at least as "usable" as it's nearest competitor. I guess some might argue whether that a D90 or D300.

With the advent of the 7D it's clearly the D90.

I am glad that Canon has decided that they will compete with old nikon products!

[DaveB]

Just hope that the ISO 12800 [or at least the 6400] usable. I hear that the 50D doesn't really have good ISO performance which is dissapointing.?

I may be wrong on this one... But everything I've read suggests that it's at least as "usable" as it's nearest competitor. I guess some might argue whether that a D90 or D300.

With the advent of the 7D it's clearly the D90.

I am glad that Canon has decided that they will compete with old nikon products!

Huh? The D90 and the 50D were introduced at the same time!

Those are the models this conversation seems to be comparing (with the related assertion being made that the 7D is being matched against the D300s).

[surenj]

My mistake DaveB. I confused myself with the 18 month old D300.

[surenj]

Finally it has arrived. Somewhat dissapointing specs but lets see what the most important spec is like; Image quality.

Bit of a let down interms of Viewfinder, AF, body plastic and the 18MP. Still has a flash commander though.

[zafra52]

I hadn't realised it had arrived already as Canon Australia hasn't
got a price in its website.

The Digital Camera Warehouse has the Canon 60D D-SLR Body
for $1499.

Within a couple of weeks I have to make a decision which one is
going to be the 5D, 7D or 60D if I want to claim the tax return on
the purchase.

[surenj]

Within a couple of weeks I have to make a decision which one

Good luck with that!