Canon EOS 70D Dual Pixel AF Performance

[Don Haines]

As to the lv af performance: the (afaik unanswered question) is: Is this on-sensor phase af as precise as the good ol' contrast af which beats the 60d/7d/... viewfinder phase af hands down? When I use af in lv it's usually for precision, not for speed.

So many goodies in this new camera. Makes you wonder why would anyone get a 6d now!

No, it really doesn't.

But still I'd like Canon to put a ff sensor in this 70d rather than the 6d being a ff 60d

You can't compare apples to oranges, And you can't compare new technology to old. Whatever advances made in the 70 D will eventually trickle its way down(up?) to the 6D Mark-two. I believe that the next camera announced by Canon will be the 7D2, And the next year will probably be full frame upgrades. In the short-term the APS-C cameras may look quite competitive against full frame, But once everybody is playing with the same technology we should be back to the same relative differences as we have now

 

[drjlo]

- Not sure how the continuous AF tracking was set up for the 4th vid (or if it was even set up correctly at all), but it clearly showed that that particular L USM lens+body combo couldn't follow the hand as it moved backward & forward from the initial point of focus lock.

It's kind of strange they picked the 100L Macro for AF testing, since as a macro lens, it is not one of the faster AF Canon lenses, and the if the focus limiter was set to "full," it would REALLY be slow. I would have liked to have seen how lenses like 24-70 II or 70-200 II do.

 

[Loswr]

As to the lv af performance: the (afaik unanswered question) is: Is this on-sensor phase af as precise as the good ol' contrast af which beats the 60d/7d/... viewfinder phase af hands down? When I use af in lv it's usually for precision, not for speed.

It may be that contrast detect AF on the 7D is not the high bar you'd think it would be...

http://www.reikan.co.uk/focalweb/index.php/2012/12/af-consistency-comparison-nikon-canon-phase-detect-contrast-detect/

 

[Zv]

As to the lv af performance: the (afaik unanswered question) is: Is this on-sensor phase af as precise as the good ol' contrast af which beats the 60d/7d/... viewfinder phase af hands down? When I use af in lv it's usually for precision, not for speed.

It may be that contrast detect AF on the 7D is not the high bar you'd think it would be...

http://www.reikan.co.uk/focalweb/index.php/2012/12/af-consistency-comparison-nikon-canon-phase-detect-contrast-detect/

Very interesting. Thanks for posting this Neuro, I'll be using LV AF a lot less from now on! Things we took for granted are all coming crashing down! It's like mythbusters!

Oh and kudos on the "high bar" pun!

 

[Zv]

As to the lv af performance: the (afaik unanswered question) is: Is this on-sensor phase af as precise as the good ol' contrast af which beats the 60d/7d/... viewfinder phase af hands down? When I use af in lv it's usually for precision, not for speed.

So many goodies in this new camera. Makes you wonder why would anyone get a 6d now!

No, it really doesn't.

But still I'd like Canon to put a ff sensor in this 70d rather than the 6d being a ff 60d

You can't compare apples to oranges, And you can't compare new technology to old. Whatever advances made in the 70 D will eventually trickle its way down(up?) to the 6D Mark-two. I believe that the next camera announced by Canon will be the 7D2, And the next year will probably be full frame upgrades. In the short-term the APS-C cameras may look quite competitive against full frame, But once everybody is playing with the same technology we should be back to the same relative differences as we have now

The 6D will still have the better IQ and high ISO advantage. Plus if you look at the focal link neuro posted you can see the 6D also has very accurate and reliable phase detect and contrast AF. I still don't see the need for fast AF in LV, if I'm using LV it's because I have time. And in which case I am manually focusing. Maybe macro users will benefit from it? That might explain these videos with the 100L macro lens? The videos aren't blowing me away to be honest.

 

[Mark D5 TEAM II]

This is the way to test the Dual Pixel PDAF continuous AF tracking:

EOS 70D 「デュアルピクセルCMOS AF」

Unfortunately for Canon, the lens & firmware used for this test showed it can't keep up with the head of the train at close distance...

 

[Marsu42]

As to the lv af performance: the (afaik unanswered question) is: Is this on-sensor phase af as precise as the good ol' contrast af which beats the 60d/7d/... viewfinder phase af hands down? When I use af in lv it's usually for precision, not for speed.

It may be that contrast detect AF on the 7D is not the high bar you'd think it would be...

Very interesting. Thanks for posting this Neuro, I'll be using LV AF a lot less from now on! Things we took for granted are all coming crashing down! It's like mythbusters!

Thanks for the link, though I already knew this article - and it shows when and why I use contrast af in lv on the 60d:

When shooting tripod macro or some static scenes with thin dof I usually focus around a bit to get just where I want. Either I use focus peaking & mf , but otherwise contrast af in lv is more reliable for this because just as neuro's link shows phase af'ing through the vf the around same point repeatedly gives worse results. Btw this is also my personal experience, if phase af'ing the same point you can see the camera struggle and coming up with slightly different focus results all the time.

 

[pedro]

So many goodies in this new camera. Makes you wonder why would anyone get a 6d now!

High ISO performance.

plus one.

 

[pedro]

You can't compare apples to oranges, And you can't compare new technology to old. Whatever advances made in the 70 D will eventually trickle its way down(up?) to the 6D Mark-two. I believe that the next camera announced by Canon will be the 7D2, And the next year will probably be full frame upgrades. In the short-term the APS-C cameras may look quite competitive against full frame, But once everybody is playing with the same technology we should be back to the same relative differences as we have now
[/quote]

I would not be too sure about FF upgrades by next year. 2015 might be the year for that. But we might see a high MP count sensor body applying the 70D tech (?). Anyway, what imho really matters is a new sensor fabrication process.

 

[macreviewzonline]

Can't wait !

 

[hifocused]

Has anyone seen any videos of the auto focus continuous?
I want to now how well it would do with a constantly moving subject like a bride walking towards you down the aisle.

 

[Mark D5 TEAM II]

Has anyone seen any videos of the auto focus continuous?
I want to now how well it would do with a constantly moving subject like a bride walking towards you down the aisle.

Do the brides you shoot move as fast as a bird flying over a field? This video shows how Dual Pixel PDAF on the 70D easily tracks a BIF over a field (2nd video from the top of the page, around the 0:46 mark): http://cweb.canon.jp/eos/lineup/70d/info/af-tech/index.html

 

[GaryJ]

I keep imagining slapping my macro lens on this camera and using my finger to track insects etc on the touch screen for critical sharpness.

We May Dream