Canon EOS 60D

Color & Noise Performance

The Canon 60D did an excellent job in our color test. The camera outperformed most other video-capable DSLRs we've reviewed as far as color accuracy goes, and there are numerous color controls and color presets available on the 60D. Click here to read our full color performance review, including color swatches and crops.

Color Accuracy Performance
Color Test Chart (above), Color Error Map (right)
The Canon 60D produced a color error of 3.17 and a saturation level of 98.08% in our bright light color testing. (The map on the right is a diagram of the color error. The length and direction of each line indicates how the camcorder processed each particular color.)

The noise level for the 60D in bright light was just under 0.65%, which is a good score, but is not among the best we've seen for a camera of its class. Click here to read our full noise performance review, including crops and comparative analysis.
 

Motion & Sharpness

Motion captured by the 60D looked good, although we though the Canon 7D rendered motion that was a bit smoother. Like the 7D, the Canon 60D has 24p or 30p frame rate options when recording 1080p HD video. Click here to read our full motion performance review, including video clips.

Sharpness levels were good on the 60D, but not as high as we've seen from numerous consumer HD camcorders (particularly the high-end models from Panasonic, Canon, JVC, and Sony). Click here to read our full sharpness performance review.

Low Light Performance

Overall low light performance on the 60D was impressive, although the camera's numbers were a notch lower than the 7D in our noise and color tests. As you can see from the chart below, however, the 60D did a great job with low light sensitivity (and had identical numbers to the 7D). Click here to read our full low light sensitivity performance review.

Required Illumination *

* the lower the lux required, the better the performance

As we said previously, the 60D was impressive in all three of our low light tests. The camera managed a color error of 3.12 in our low light evaluation, which was nearly identical to the camera's bright light score. Click here to read our full low light color performance review, including comparative images and analysis.

Auto Low Light Color Performance
Color Test Chart (above), Color Error Map (right)
The Canon 60D produced a color error of 3.12and a saturation level of 102.3% in our low light color testing. (The map on the right is a diagram of the color error. The length and direction of each line indicates how the camcorder processed each particular color.)

Noise levels on the 60D in low light averaged around 1.2%. This is a good score, but we have seen much better from video-capable DSLRs. This is one test where DSLRs routinely outperform traditional consumer camcorders. Click here to read our full low light noise performance review, including crops and comparative images.

Conclusion

With the 60D Canon didn't master the art of creating a perfect video-capable DSLR, but the company did come close. We love the camera's wide range of manual controls in video mode—all of which can be adjusted during recording—and we simply adore the rotatable LCD. However, there are still a few major downsides with the 60D. The lack of a continual autofocus mechanism is the most obvious, although this problem is nothing new for video-capable DSLRs. The only DSLRs to offer this feature are Micro Four Thirds cameras and Sony's new translucent mirror model, the SLT-A55V. The Canon 60D does have a rolling shutter issue that creates a wobble when you pan back and forth, but the problem isn't as bad as we saw on the Canon 7D last year. There is, however, a major problem with the camera's internal components overheating after prolonged use. This is worrisome for people who are planning on using their 60D for full-day video shoots. Video-capable DSLRs have come a long way since they debuted a little over two years ago. The Canon 60D's fantastic performance in our video testing, combined with its excellent manual control options, make it the best video-capable DSLR we've seen overall. The fact that it is slightly cheaper than the Canon 7D gives it a bit of an advantage, as does its rotatable LCD, but we must admit the 7D did produce video that looked a marginally better in our testing.

Exclusive - Read the full review of the Canon 60D at DigitalCameraInfo.com, including complete, comprehensive video testing and analysis by CamcorderInfo.com.