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Are screen protectors necessary on cameras with "flippable" screens (like the Canon 60D?

Canon 50D: Shutter-Lag (full AF) = 0.131 sec / Canon 60D: S/L = 0.256 sec / Interesting; Why? -- MORE BELOW --?

  • Most amateurs may not notice the difference of 0.125 seconds, but I suspect pro's who may have used the 50D as a back-up camera for shooting sports (or anything in motion) would notice the difference. http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/E50D/E50DA.HTM Excerpt from 50D review: "Timing. One of the main features that keeps me using Canon cameras primarily is the fast autofocus acquisition, especially in their semi-pro and professional digital SLRs. The Canon 50D scored an impressive single-point AF lag time of 0.131 second, and auto-area AF wasn't much slower, as 0.174 second." Test was apparently using Canon 18-35mm kit lens. http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/E60D/E60DA.HTM Note the conspicuous abscence of comments regarding the 60D's shutter lag in the main text of the 60D review; there is however this line in the summary at the end of the review: "Single-area full AF lag and burst mode slower than 50D". As with the 50D, test was apparently done using Canon 18-135mm kit lens. And the 50D is two years older than the 60D?? ... So what did Canon have to do to the 60D, in order to slow things down by 0.125 seconds? The moniker "60D" is 10 Canon "D units" more than the moniker 50D -- but the shutter-lag-with-full-AF almost doubles?? Does Nikon play these kinds of games, too? Can anyone point to any similar examples in Nikon's product lineup? [I'm taking these performance statistics from imaging-resource.com because dpreview falls short in lag testing -- if anyone who has used both cameras has observed that the 60D's shutter-lag-with-full-AF is actually about the same as the 50D's, please let me know.] ~ thanks for your answers ~

  • Answer:

    Canon never meant the 60D as a direct replacement as the 50D. That role is more or less given to Canon's 7D. If you check the specifications on the 7D, you'll find that it's even faster than the 50D and features a more advanced autofocus system. Regardless, AF lag isn't something that would make or break a DSLR for me (they're all super duper fast now), I believe lenses are much more important when considering autofocus speed and image quality. In my opinion, the 60D didn't need to be introduced. It doesn't offer anything significant compared to the 550D (and now the 600D), and users that truly want to appreciate faster speed and ergonomics would go for the 7D anyway. Nikon's latest D3100, an entry-level DSLR, has 14 megapixels. The Nikon D3s, which is the company's flagship, "only" has 12 megapixels. Not that anyone knowing megapixels dont matter would care, but it certainly looks odd when you're comparing specs side-by-side. Of course, this is not permanent, and Nikon should be coming up with the D3's successor in the very near future.

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You can answer your own question by looking at the same website. They provide the same data on Nikon models. In particular, look at the D90 versus the D7000. There happens to be 0.030 seconds difference in favor of the older D90 in terms of shutter-lag and the time required to achieve focus. The fact is, these two cameras have different AF systems and under some testing conditions, the older system can be slightly faster. Other factors can boil down to the individual sample of the camera or lens just as it does in cars. As an example, I have two friends with "identical" Nissan GT-Rs yet, one of the two cars is making 10 extra horsepower at the rear wheels running the same fuel. There are minor variations from one sample to the next. With respect to the 60D and 50D, those of us who are Canon users will typically tell you that we don't necessarily see the 60D as part of the original family of XXD cameras. Your comment about the 60D being 10 more units than the 50D has nothing to do with the logic of how cameras get their names or what manufacturers do with them. Most of Canonites see the 60D as a downgraded camera that belongs more to the Rebel/XXXD family than a successor to the 40D/50D. Keep in mind that the 7D at a time most of were expecting a 60D. When we later heard there would be a 60D, most of us presumed Canon would move the camera down market and that's exactly what happened. Given that Canon doesn't give their AF systems cool names like Nikon, we can't know if the 60D has the same AF as the 50D or if its just a different model with the same number of AF points such as that found in the Rebel T2i/550D. Finally, the typical buyer of a 60D, isn't going to notice a time difference of 0.125 seconds. Thats faster than most people can blink an eye. I would even argue that most pro photographers will either stick with an older 40D/50D, move up to a 7D, or go with an used 1D as their backup body rather than move to the 60D which uses SD rather than the CF cards used in Canon's professional camera bodies. In the grand scheme of one's workflow, a difference of 125 milliseconds isn't going to mean much at the end of the day. Photography, sports photography in particular, isn't a task where that fraction of a second adds up at the end of a day resulting in a failure or loss as it might if you were a racecar driver or competitive shooter trying to beat the other guy from one point to another or otherwise finish the course sooner than the next competitor.

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