GADGET REVIEWS Just another GADGET NEWS

It’s clearly the season for new camera gear, and today it’s Canon’s turn in the spotlight. Along with a few new lenses comes the EOS 60D, a “replacement” for the two-year-old 50D. Those looking to upgrade from their 50D should look elsewhere, though, perhaps to the 7D, as this new camera is more for consumers than enthusiastic amateurs.

The magnesium body of the 50D is now plastic, and the 60D uses SD-cards instead of Compact Flash. It also gets a slew of gimmicky image processing features (Toy Camera, anyone?) and the obligatory video capabilities.

In fact, video seems to be what this camera was made for. The rear screen is the pop-out, tilt-and-swivel type, Canon’s first on an SLR, and has the over a million dots of resolution (or around 330,000-pixels). Video is shot at varying sizes and speeds. 1080p is available at 24p, 25p or 30p frame rates. Drop to 720p resolution and you can shoot at up to 60fps. Whatever picture you choose, you get full manual control, including sound with 64 audio-levels.

The 18MP sensor (like the LCD panel) is the same as that found in the 550D (or Rebel T2i), the AF system comes from the old 50D and the 63-zone exposure meter comes from the 7D. It’s almost like the Canon engineers just picked through a shelf of existing parts and snapped them together like Lego, producing what seems like a pretty sweet-looking camera.

The 60D will go on sale in September for $1,100 body-only, or as part of a $1,400 kit with a 18-135mm lens.

EOS 60D product page [Canon]

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Source:wired.com

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This is the oddest camera announcement you’ll see for a while: the Canon 7D Studio Version is, more or lass, a standard 7D with parental controls. It’s not to stop the kids messing with your DSLR, but to help busy pro-photographers to manage their workflow. I know: try to stay awake.

The 7D SV lets the master photographer set up the camera just how he likes and then send lackeys out to, say, shoot school-portraits without messing things up. There are, according to the press release, four-levels of locking so you can let the less stupid assistants do some things for themselves.

This has some utility. You could make sure all your images come back with precisely matched white balance, within the correct ISO-range, for example.

Also included, if you opt for a kit, is a version on Canon’s remote wireless transfer unit, the WFT-E5A. Normally this works like a $700 Eye-Fi card, sending GPS-stamped pics to your computer. With custom firmware the WFT-E5A loses the GPS but gains the ability to ready barcodes, adding their info to a picture’s metadata. Again, this is about speeding up large-volume workflows (stop yawning at the back). You can also scan codes direct to the camera.

The price for these patronizing products is $1,830 body-only (the normal 7D is $1,700) and $2,600 for the kit. Availability to be announced.

EOS 7D SV Press release [Canon]

The above photos shows the current 7D

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews