Canon EOS 60D Manual page 8

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6 David Busch's Canon EOS 60D Guide to Digital SLR Photography
Depending on your path to the camera, the Canon EOS 60D is either the company's
most ambitious amateur camera, or most affordable entry-level "pro" camera, which are
both distinctions that I find almost meaningless in the greater scheme of things. I know
consummate professionals who produce amazing images with an original Digital Rebel
and experienced wedding photographers who evoke the most romantic photos from a
Canon 30D. The EOS 60D is a professional camera in most of the traditional senses:
built like a tank with a magnesium body, reliable for hundreds of thousands of expo-
sures, capable of lightning-fast autofocusing and superb image quality, whether you're
shooting in a studio or drenched in driving rain. But whether your images are of pro-
fessional quality, both technically and inspirationally, depends on what's between your
ears, and how you apply it. The goal of this book is to provide you with the informa-
tion you need to put your brain cells and your Canon's electro-mechanical components
to work productively.
There's a lot to learn, but you don't have to master every detail all at once. Some of the
other camera guides I've seen winnow this information down to about one-third as many
pages. Indeed, I find it odd that those guidebooks use the same basic template for the
advanced 60D cameras as for a resolutely amateur-level model like the EOS T3. A pro-
fessional/semi-professional camera like the 60D has a lot more depth than that, and
deserves the in-depth coverage you'll find here.
Whether you've already taken a dozen or twelve hundred photos with your new cam-
era, now that you've got that initial creative burst out of your system, you'll want to take
a more considered approach to operating the camera. This chapter and the next are
designed to get your camera fired up and ready for shooting as quickly as possible. After
all, the 60D is not a point-and-shoot camera, even though it does boast easy-to-use
"Basic Zone" and "Image Zone" options with icons on a handy dial representing vari-
ous fully automatic modes, plus "scene" modes with icons for a person (for portraits),
flower (close-ups), mountain scene (landscapes), or runner (sports activity).
So I'm going to provide a basic pre-flight checklist that you need to complete before
you really spread your wings and take off. You won't find a lot of detail in these first two
chapters. Indeed, I'm going to tell you just what you absolutely must understand, accom-
panied by some interesting tidbits that will help you become acclimated to your 60D.
I'll go into more depth and even repeat some of what I explain here in later chapters,
so you don't have to memorize everything you see. Just relax, follow a few easy steps,
and then go out and begin taking your best shots—ever.
Even if you're a long-time Canon shooter, I hope you won't be tempted to skip this chap-
ter or the next one. I realize that you probably didn't purchase this book the same day
you bought your camera and that, even if you did, the urge to go out and take a few
hundred—or thousand—photos with your new camera is enticing. As valuable as a book
like this one is, nobody can suppress their excitement long enough to read the instruc-
tions before initiating play with a new toy.
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