Nikon D7000 vs. Canon EOS 60D

-What's up prizefight fans? I'm Brian Tong and we have a face-off between two of our favorite mid-range digital SLR cameras. It's a picture perfect punch out between the Nikon D7000 and the Canon EOS 60D. Our judges for this fight are CNET Review Senior Editor Lori Grunin and Senior Editor Josh Goldman. I'm gonna leave the scoring to the expert this time around. Now, we'll take both judges' scores and average them out to the nearest tenth. The final prizefight score will be an average of all rounds using the same decimal system. Let's have a clean fight. First round is design and interface. Nikon's D7000 is one of the best DSLR designs our editors have seen. Every function is easily accessible and the controls are in places that make sense. It's comfortable to use and it also has an excellent viewfinder with 100% scene coverage plus its body is ranked better for dust and moisture sealing. Canon 60D is no chump when it comes to design either. We give it kudos for its flip-out LCD but that design choice forces some of the direct controls to be on top. Pressing a button directly in the middle of the mode dial to unlock it is awkward and even though its menus are easier to navigate, its directional pad control dial make it a pain. Nikon's D7000 gets things started with a perfect 5 and Canon's 60D gets a 3.5. Next round is features. Both of these cameras bring the features you'd expect from a mid-range DSLR. Nikon brings dual SDXC slots the ability to bracket up to two stops and more sophisticated white balance tools. Canon 60D has one big advantage here and if video is your priority, then this is the camera to get. Its LCD is more versatile and it shoots 10 ADP video at 30 frames per second compared to Nikon's 720p video at 24 frames per second, but not everyone is using a DSLR just for video and this one's too close to call. Our judges call this round even at 4. So after two rounds, Nikon's D7000 jumps out to an early lead but there's plenty more fight to go. Round three is shooting performance. The numbers don't lie when tenths of a second matter and both cameras are pretty much dead even when it comes to shooting performance. The difference is in startup time. With the D7000, it's pretty much instantaneous and it has a higher frame rate for burst shooting. Speed matters here and our judges were impressed by both cameras but it's Nikon that gets the edge with another perfect 5 and Canon gets a 4. Next round is image quality. The Nikon D7000 is a 16.2 megapixel camera and the Canon 60D is an 18 megapixel monster, but we all know there's more to a picture than that. Our judges admit it's a real tough call because both of these cameras are excellent. The D7000 fairs a hair better with its color accuracy and white balance, but Canon edges it out with better video and audio quality. This one is as close as you could get but Canon takes this round 4.5 to 4. So, after averaging four rounds, Canon has closed the gap a little but it still trails by half a point. The final round that decides it all is value. The Nikon D7000 retails for $1499 with its standard lens and the Canon EOS 60D retails for $1299. If you're looking for just the body--and who isn't--you'll find the same $200 difference. Now, the Nikon might be priced higher but you're really getting one of the best cameras for design featuring photo quality and it's worth it to our judges. In the final round, Nikon gets a 4.5 and Canon gets a 3.5. So to average out all five rounds and in a prizefight where Nikon came out of the gates with a perfect round. Canon closed the gap but it just wasn't enough and the D7000 takes this battle 4.5 to 3.9 and is your prizefight winner. I'm Brian Tong. Thanks for watching. We'll catch you guys next time for another prizefight.