Fast AF Canon compact for under £100

[Haydn1971]

I'm out on site next week - I'm a civil engineer - and rather than take my DSLR for photos of the road that I'm looking at, I thought I'd take my older Fuji E900 camera which from what I recall took semi decent photos for my site needs - however having pulled the camera out this morning, I was stunned by the sheer pedestrian speed of the auto focus, so I'm looking today for a cheap but fast AF compact camera for £100 or preferably less.

Main question is, are my expectations high due to using DSLR's for 4 years ?

 

[neuroanatomist]

...are my expectations high due to using DSLR's for 4 years ?

Unless you usually use live view AF, probably... CDAF is ssssllllooooowwwwwwww.

 

[Haydn1971]

I'd be happy with iPhone 5 speed AF - actually pondering using that instead...

Nah, strike that... Just tried the zoom function on my phone and its pants. ;-)

Back to a compact camera I think

 

[Haydn1971]

Oh dear... I've only gone and bought myself a EOS M !

 

[neuroanatomist]

Oh dear... I've only gone and bought myself a EOS M !

But...but...you wanted fast AF?!?

 

[Haydn1971]

Not had chance to play much, but really rather pleased with the EOS M - it's not fast, but faster than I had, even if its not as fast as my DSLR - picture quality is really rather good too

 

[CanNotYet]

Hmm, so much for the UNDER 100£...

Otherwise, Nikons 1 series has really good AF (blasphemy!)

 

[TeenTog]

But...but...you wanted fast AF?!?

I know that he's using a 6D, but for people like me using a T3........ I bet that the M's AF is pretty decent. I'm pretty sure It wasn't aimed at people like you using a 1DX. But I hope they produce something like that to beef up their mirrorless line!

 

[paul13walnut5]

M's af is pretty decent if:

You use oneshot rather than servo
Use single flexi zone rather than auto flexizone
Switch off continual af
Switch off touch af+shutter (use bin button to centre af spot)
Are happy to confrim af and recompose

And in this mide it is set to get even faster with the new firmware.

It's not a compact, it wasn't £100 and nor is it an SLR.
Enjoy it for what it is. The IQ is brilliant, especially with the 22mm!

Enjoy and welcome to the m club.