Thoughts on the Canon 60D? Pro body or not?

[AmberAtLoveAndInk]

I see many different opinions of everyone's gear, and of course the never ending battle of the Nikonians & Canonians. What is your thought on the Canon 60D? I have been selling my "skills" as a photographer since March and use only a 60D, I personally bought it with 3 things in mind:

More bang for the buck- I'm on a budget, like a stay-at-home-mom budget.

Video quality- again, stay-at-home, so I want to be able to get my baby boy's "first's" on good quality video without compensating image quality.

Rotating screen- I am vertically challenged (like 5' even on a good day) and looking at the 7D vs. 60D I decided to spend a little less and use that rotating LCD to my advantage when stuck with an odd angle I can't shoot by looking through the viewer.

Many people think the 60D is strictly a hobby body and won't deliver the goods people want to purchase. Seasoned photographers, your thoughts on this? Obviously if your skills are exceptional you can use just about anything to take a great photo, but is the body your starting point for success? Before the bashing war begins, please note I am not advertising myself as the perfect photographer, I've been in the "bizz" for not even a year yet, I have a lot of learning to do (which is why I joined the forum!) but I think my work has improved vastly since my first "photo shoot."

Thanks for your feedback in advance!

Love & Ink Photography

http://facebook.com/loveandinkphotography

 

[jaomul]

No the 60d is not a pro body. A pro body is normally weather sealed, built like a brick and will take years of abuse. Can the 60d take pro grade photographs, in the right hands , certainly yes

 

[runnah]

No the 60d is not a pro body. A pro body is normally weather sealed, built like a brick and will take years of abuse. Can the 60d take pro grade photographs, in the right hands , certainly yes

Agreed. But the lines these days are pretty blurry as to what makes up a "pro body".

To the OP: why does it matter?

 

[robbins.photo]

I see many different opinions of everyone's gear, and of course the never ending battle of the Nikonians & Canonians. What is your thought on the Canon 60D? I have been selling my "skills" as a photographer since March and use only a 60D, I personally bought it with 3 things in mind:

More bang for the buck- I'm on a budget, like a stay-at-home-mom budget.

Video quality- again, stay-at-home, so I want to be able to get my baby boy's "first's" on good quality video without compensating image quality.

Rotating screen- I am vertically challenged (like 5' even on a good day) and looking at the 7D vs. 60D I decided to spend a little less and use that rotating LCD to my advantage when stuck with an odd angle I can't shoot by looking through the viewer.

Many people think the 60D is strictly a hobby body and won't deliver the goods people want to purchase. Seasoned photographers, your thoughts on this? Obviously if your skills are exceptional you can use just about anything to take a great photo, but is the body your starting point for success? Before the bashing war begins, please note I am not advertising myself as the perfect photographer, I've been in the "bizz" for not even a year yet, I have a lot of learning to do (which is why I joined the forum!) but I think my work has improved vastly since my first "photo shoot."

Thanks for your feedback in advance!

Love & Ink Photography

http://facebook.com/loveandinkphotography

Well if you want an unbiased opinion here, Nikon, Canon, 60 of this, 7 of that.. none of it makes a hill of beans difference. Know what makes a pro photographer? Someone who can sell photographs.

 

[manicmike]

No the 60d is not a pro body. A pro body is normally weather sealed, built like a brick and will take years of abuse. Can the 60d take pro grade photographs, in the right hands , certainly yes

This.

I hate the term pro body. If you've got the skill you can make a great photo with just about any camera. The difference is in the features that a pro body has.

 

[Derrel]

No, it's not as pro body, but it's a fantastic value. Majeed B. uses one, and I've shot with him more than a dozen times over the last 18 months or so, mostly on landscape stuff at the Oregon coast, or the Columbia Gorge national scenic area, and have seen the camera "in action" and have seen his results. The Canon 60D is a pretty capable APS-C d-slr body. It has some nice features, like the exposure simulation in live view, a good virtual horizon leveling system, and so on. As long as the ISO level is "normal", like below 800, the images seem to be pretty good. At baseline ISO, the images are excellent, as long as the lens in use is solid. I personally have recommended the 60D to people on TPF who happen to be looking for the best bang-for-buck d-slr body in recent months. Now that the 70D has taken over the top slot in that "category", the deals on the 60D are really value-heavy.

 

[jsecordphoto]

I have a 60D and like it, but its certainly not a "pro" body.For most of the stuff I do it works great, but at high isos in low light I'm not happy with it at all. I'm planning up upgrading to a 6D soon for doing landscape astrophotos but I'll be holding onto my 60d as a 2nd body

 

[KmH]

The way to tell if a Canon camera body is a professional grade or prosumer grade camera body is you cannot mount Canon EF-S lenses on it.

So currently, Canon offers 2 prosumer grade cameras - the 5D MK III and the 6D.
Canon's only professional grade DSLR is the 1D X.

 

[AmberAtLoveAndInk]

To the OP: why does it matter?

Just stimulating shop talk. I personally believe that skill comes from the person, not the camera, but I wanted some insight from seasoned pros about what makes a "pro" body because I am considering upgrading my gear sooner rather than later.

The way to tell if a Canon camera body is a professional grade camera body is you cannot mount Canon EF-S lenses on it.

The 60D can mount EF-S lenses.

No, it's not as pro body, but it's a fantastic value. Majeed B. uses one, and I've shot with him more than a dozen times over the last 18 months or so, mostly on landscape stuff at the Oregon coast, or the Columbia Gorge national scenic area, and have seen the camera "in action" and have seen his results. The Canon 60D is a pretty capable APS-C d-slr body. It has some nice features, like the exposure simulation in live view, a good virtual horizon leveling system, and so on. As long as the ISO level is "normal", like below 800, the images seem to be pretty good. At baseline ISO, the images are excellent, as long as the lens in use is solid. I personally have recommended the 60D to people on TPF who happen to be looking for the best bang-for-buck d-slr body in recent months. Now that the 70D has taken over the top slot in that "category", the deals on the 60D are really value-heavy.

I agree, the bang for buck factor is wild!! Question, why is the 60D not considered "pro" or even "semi-pro" if Canon lists in it the "pro" category and the camera CAN deliver excellent work? While sorting through this forum I see so many labels on gear but not any on the "photographers" themselves?

 

[KmH]

For me, a pro body includes a built-in vertical grip.

The difference between prosumer and entry-level is about camera features and functions.

When I was still shooting as a studio business, I used a prosumer crop sensor body with a screw-on vertical grip (Nikon D300/MB-D10), and a pro grade full frame body (Nikon D3).
Both cameras had the same controls layout (including the vertical grips), making switching between bodies seamless.
I had 2 of each so I had a back up for each.

 

[table1349]

[h=2]Thoughts on the Canon 60D? Pro body or not?[/h]
Yes, no, maybe, who cares. If you are hung up on whether your gear is "Pro" or not, then it makes me doubt your "Pro" ability. A real "Pro" can get the job done with what ever they have available. It's not the body, its the photographer that is or is not a "Pro." Back in the film days, no one would consider an Kodak Instamatic a pro body, but Annie Leibovitz did an entire series of photographs with just that. I don't think to many people would doubt Annie's credentials. She was not the only one that did such things.

What a "Pro" looks for in a body is convenience, reliability and quality. Generally the more you pay for a body the more features/convenience you end up with. Generally with higher cost/quality bodies you get less of the fluff that some people want that you find on lesser cost bodies and more useful tools.

 

[runnah]

For me, a pro body includes a built-in vertical grip. The difference between prosumer and entry-level is about camera features and functions. When I was still shooting as a studio business, I used a prosumer crop sensor body with a screw-on vertical grip (Nikon D300/MB-D10), and a pro grade full frame body (Nikon D3). Both cameras had the same controls layout (including the vertical grips), making switching between bodies seamless. I had 2 of each so I had a back up for each.

I really don't think that the vertical grip is a defining characteristic these days. Back when it used to hold the motor drive it's was certainly the case. Frankly I think a $3,000 body is well outside the average consumer budget and with most dslr sharing 90% of the same features the line gets even blurrier.

 

[Derrel]

I looked at your Love & Ink site a few minutes ago, and I think what your 60D needs is a pro lens or two. I looked at your senior photo gallery, and thought that quite a few of the shots had far too distracting a background in them, sort of the hallmark of a slow, consumer-speed zoom lens look. I honestly thought that on maybe half of the Love & Ink seniors, if you had made the same shots with a faster lens, set fairly wide-open, that the photos would have looked better. Whatever lens you're using has rather unpleasant bokeh, AND is rendering the backgrounds with far too much depth of field. The high school senior shots would benefit from a creamier, moire out of focus rendering, in most cases.

Without getting too technical about it, one of the biggest issues with a 1.6x camera is that at the working distances in normal environmental portraiture, is that the small sensor size, combined with the short focal length lenses used to get half- to full-body poses, puts the focusing distance into the zone where it is close to hyperfocal focus distance. On CLOSE-IN shots, 1.6x is okay, and it's possible to get some subject/background separation. But on longer-distance shots, with the slower aperture lenses, when you're stuck at f/5.6 at 10,12 feet, that background is GOING TO BE very recognizable. And that is the main issue with the 1.6x sensor cameras.

 

[Lumens]

I'm not sure I go along with Pro/Non-Pro equipment. I was with a professional photographer a few weekends ago using an old XSi with a very out-dated third party lens and as much as I hate to admit it his photos came out much better than mine even though I was using newer and much better equipment. It's not the equipment that is "Professional", it's the photographer.

 

[weepete]

Simple answer : no.

Why?: canon says so. They have 3 ranges of DSLRs, begginner, enthusiast and pro. The 1D and 5D sit in their pro range, the 60D, 70D, 7D and 6D sit in their enthusiast range with their other cameras in the beginner range.