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eye ctrl focus on 10D

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I bought Elan7 myself, saving 100$ on eye control and never missed it. I know many people though who bought new Elan in the first place just because of “how cool” the ECF was...

I agree with most of the opinions here that most probably Canon went the cost cutting way with 10D in order to push the price below 1500$…..

On the other hand I agree with some that there were more Elan7e sold worldwide than Elan7 (e.g. Adam T.) just because of ECF. Interesting.

Anyway, I don’t miss eye control at all but I was wandering what other reasons then cost made Canon not to introduce two 10D models, 10De with ECF and 10D without it. At the end of the day ECF is a marketing gimmick addressed to all those super-amateurs and gadget lovers… and Canon could use it in all those cool looking eye control focused commercials....

Perhaps new 3D later this fall will be equipped with that feature, I bet it will be....
 
Mike Delaney said:
Sorry to offend you with that answer there Danny boy, but that came
from the Canon techies themselves. Oh, and BTW, no glasses, sorry.
Click to expand...
I have an Elan 7e and use two of the five savable presets as settings for my eyes when wearing contacts for wearing glasses. Works Great!! No trifocals or progressives to be sure. But normal glasses seem to work with ECF for me.

As for the value of eye control overall... I love it and find it both an effective tool for quick focusing point selection and a lot of fun. My camera has been very accurate in choosing what I am looking at. It is not for everyone and can simply be shut off (or not purchased). If it came in a 10D body I would pay an extra $100 because it is so much fun, as well as being an addition to my arsenal of tools available. Much more than that and I would have to really think about the purchase.

Alas though, I have run maybe 4 rolls of film through the completely capable 7E since getting my D30 and later the 10D. But when you put a 14mm lens on a film body... it is a blast!!

Cheers,
Mark

--
always online at http://www.boomwallah.com
 
Peter Phan said:
Having used ECF on the Elan IIe, which had ECF activating three
focus points, and now having switched to the 10D without ECF, I can
say honestly that I miss ECF. Selecting focus points manually is
not as easy as activating the desired focus point simply by looking
at it. In fact, ECF was so effective for me that it seemed I was
mentally connected to my camera, like it was reading my mind. It
was very cool. In addition, with ECF on the Elan IIe I found that
I was switching focus points probably 50-60% more than I do now,
without ECF on my 10D. In fact, I was constantly switching focus
points because it was so intuitive to do. For me, ECF would be a
tremendously welcomed feature on the 10D!

Also, ECF is very helpful for E-TTL flash. E-TTL determines flash
output by measuring reflectance of the E-TTL pre-flash from the
position of the active/selected focus point. Therefore, the old
focus-lock/recompose method will mess up flash exposure, unless you
use FEL. But sometimes it isn't convenient to use FEL. When you
are readily and constantly switching focus points via ECF, E-TTL
follows along with the selected focus point, without the need to
FEL.
Chris-Z said:
Peter Phan said:
I never found it that useful on my film camera, it was easier to
set the focus point manually
Click to expand...
Yeah, and then at least it stays where it is instead of following
your eye around when you try to check your framing and (inevitably)
look at the corners of the picture in the view finder... :-)
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I loved EC om my EOS 3,worked great.Now I have a 1D without it.Choosing one of those 45 points manually really is a pain and often much too time consuming.I work for a newspaper,EC was THE feature on my EOS 3,I used it in 99% of my pictures.Now,if I want to change AF points vertically and horizontally,I have to push a button,turn a wheel and then another wheel or if I set CF 11 to 2 ....turn a wheel,push a button and turn another wheel.Whatever you do with your custom function...if you want to have access to all 45 points,you have to push one button and turn 2 wheels.That's a very bad solution.Maybe there should be a trackball or something like this,but PLEASE NOT 2 wheels and a button.

I know,you guys wanted to discuss EC on the 10D,but as far as I know,the system of choosing AF points is similar.

Stefan
df1603 said:
I bought Elan7 myself, saving 100$ on eye control and never missed
it. I know many people though who bought new Elan in the first
place just because of “how cool” the ECF was...
I agree with most of the opinions here that most probably Canon
went the cost cutting way with 10D in order to push the price below
1500$…..
On the other hand I agree with some that there were more Elan7e
sold worldwide than Elan7 (e.g. Adam T.) just because of ECF.
Interesting.
Anyway, I don’t miss eye control at all but I was wandering what
other reasons then cost made Canon not to introduce two 10D models,
10De with ECF and 10D without it. At the end of the day ECF is a
marketing gimmick addressed to all those super-amateurs and gadget
lovers… and Canon could use it in all those cool looking eye
control focused commercials....
Perhaps new 3D later this fall will be equipped with that feature,
I bet it will be....
Click to expand...
 
I went back to shooting weddings with 35mm after purchasing the EOS A2E. Film had greatly improved since CPS and VPS and the ECF on the A2E addressed the drawbacks of focusing with a SLR in low light. I thought it was a great feature and it worked very well for me. 5 Focus points and a DoF spot in the upper left corner. I picked up a used EOS 1 with one focus point and must say that both cameras have a much better AF than my 10D. Don't get me wrong, I am still learning to adjust to the 10D focusing and it is a great camera but as so many have pointed out the R&D of ECF and AF are paid for, why not build on that.
df1603 said:
Any idea why Canon decided not to include eye ctrl focus in 10D?
Click to expand...
 
Mark McNeilly said:
Mike Delaney said:
Sorry to offend you with that answer there Danny boy, but that came
from the Canon techies themselves. Oh, and BTW, no glasses, sorry.
Click to expand...
I have an Elan 7e and use two of the five savable presets as
settings for my eyes when wearing contacts for wearing glasses.
Works Great!! No trifocals or progressives to be sure. But normal
glasses seem to work with ECF for me.

As for the value of eye control overall... I love it and find it
both an effective tool for quick focusing point selection and a lot
of fun. My camera has been very accurate in choosing what I am
looking at. It is not for everyone and can simply be shut off (or
not purchased). If it came in a 10D body I would pay an extra $100
because it is so much fun, as well as being an addition to my
arsenal of tools available. Much more than that and I would have to
really think about the purchase.

Alas though, I have run maybe 4 rolls of film through the
completely capable 7E since getting my D30 and later the 10D. But
when you put a 14mm lens on a film body... it is a blast!!

Cheers,
Mark
Click to expand...
I think the ECF works great on my 7e. I have one calibration for glasses on, bright light, one for glasses on, dim light, one for glasses of bright and dim, and that about covers it. The camera seldom misses my eye, but when it does it is almost always the far left focus point when I wear my glasses. Single script glasses, no bifocals or trifocals.

Yes, I would gladdly opt for the ECF option if it were offered. Maybe with the "3D" or "D3".

Darrell
 
I would seem to me that if Canon "figured out that no one liked it", then they would have not included it on the 3 and 7.

My guess is that they had some technical issues.

It will be interesting to see if Canon does come out with a digital verson of the 3, if it has it or not.

Personally, I hope they incorporate it into the DSLRs.
 
Canon, why not to give the choice to consumer?
10D for $1459, 10De for $1550
 
...which is, according to canon (from an interview formerly on picture-perfect.net, which has since expired) that although eye-control is good, it is not perfect. It is not reliable enough, in canon's view, for pro use in the field, and these cameras are designed for pros (hence the anti-bump press-and-hold controls).

Also, the setup for ECF darkens the viewfinder a little.

--
Mostly Full Frame user!

EOS Tree + Nikon Coolscan III
Deef Hurty.
 
...Canon are perhaps losing interest in eye control.

I hope not, because although I've not found it useful on either my EOS 5 or EOS 3, with development I believe it could be made so. Canon have dropped a few of their features out of the EOS lineup, eg the intervalometer (EOS 10 only), barcode reader (EOS 10 and 100), Power Zooms (EF 35-70 F3.5-4.5 PZ only), Autofocus-only lenses (No focusing ring or switch. 35-70 F3.5-4.5A and 100-200 F4.5A only), Quiet Camera Philosophy (EOS 5 and EOS 100 were extremely quiet cameras. Their replacements (EOS 3 and 50 respectively) were not. However, the EOS 30 seems to mark a minor revival of it, being rather quieter than the EOS 50 was).

However, I suspect that they're not losing interest in it since it's lived rather longer than many of the other things that they did drop. We'll see come september I suppose...

--
Mostly Full Frame user!

EOS Tree + Nikon Coolscan III
Deef Hurty.
 
'twill be on the high-frame-rate-with-deep-buffer, more-suited-for-sports model (3Ds), versus the follow on to the 10D/D60 (model designation not decided upon yet). There, now I'm on record. :-)

--
http://www.pbase.com/emagowan
I used to have a photographic memory. Now I'm digital, but the sensor's dusty.
 
Another problem could be related to the fact that competition didn't follow Canon steps with introduction of ECF in their cameras, thus making it a "standard". There is no better killer of a feature or even entire product then lack of competition in the market (e.g. Nokia Communicator cell-phone)
Isaac Sibson said:
...Canon are perhaps losing interest in eye control.

I hope not, because although I've not found it useful on either my
EOS 5 or EOS 3, with development I believe it could be made so.
Canon have dropped a few of their features out of the EOS lineup,
eg the intervalometer (EOS 10 only), barcode reader (EOS 10 and
100), Power Zooms (EF 35-70 F3.5-4.5 PZ only), Autofocus-only
lenses (No focusing ring or switch. 35-70 F3.5-4.5A and 100-200
F4.5A only), Quiet Camera Philosophy (EOS 5 and EOS 100 were
extremely quiet cameras. Their replacements (EOS 3 and 50
respectively) were not. However, the EOS 30 seems to mark a minor
revival of it, being rather quieter than the EOS 50 was).

However, I suspect that they're not losing interest in it since
it's lived rather longer than many of the other things that they
did drop. We'll see come september I suppose...

--
Mostly Full Frame user!

EOS Tree + Nikon Coolscan III
Deef Hurty.
Click to expand...
 
Two more dSLRS? Hmm.

Well, the 10D "rumors" turned out to be true, but they were backed up by showroom photographs. Granted they could have been photoshop alterations as most such image are.

There were three rumors that I know of that have so far prooven false: D40, D80, and 3d. A the least I'm resonably certain we can write off the first two.

The 3d rumor has been around a long time and seems to be picking up again. Why? Has Canon said something? Has someone violated a non-disclosure agreement? Has there been a display of these cameras? If it's none of those siatuations, then I just don't see how such a rumor can be taken seriously.
Edward Magowan said:
'twill be on the high-frame-rate-with-deep-buffer,
more-suited-for-sports model (3Ds), versus the follow on to the
10D/D60 (model designation not decided upon yet). There, now I'm
on record. :-)

--
http://www.pbase.com/emagowan
I used to have a photographic memory. Now I'm digital, but the
sensor's dusty.
Click to expand...
--
All my work are belong to me
 
I have only gotten to play with eye control on an Elan IIe, it worked great for me. In fact it appeared to work for me better then the person it was calibrated for.

I personally would love it as it would allow me to use the other AF points, which right now are more of a nuisance then useful.

My 10D usually remains on the center focus point only, because if I pick all points, the camera almost always picks the wrong ones to use from the ones I would or if I set to any other point, something changes and I spend good time I could be taking a picture in changing the focus point.

If I had Canon's ear, I would ask for eye control, with the ability to select manual focus, select specific points, or select eye control. I would want the option of rigging the focus point button to rotate through selected points, center point, or eye control mode by pressing it multiple times.

Me I would pay an extra $100 for eye control, as long as I can turn it off.

--
Quality is in the setup, Quantity ensures one good shot.
 
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