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Clarification for 70D AF lens compatibility.

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Wm. L.

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Hi,

Camera store staff (local store, B&H live chat) left me believing buying a 70D for the video auto focus means I need one of the new STM lenses. Being a tech pro, info junkie I find this list from Canon that leads me to believe all of my EF-S 10-20, EF-S 17-85, and EF 70-200 L USM are all compatible.

Do these people mean I might hear lens noise, have jerky focus, or just trying hard to get me to buy more stuff?

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consumer.usa.canon.com

I've proven to myself that a 70D is indeed superior to the SL1 and T5i for video, but that in store testing was done with the 18-135 STM. Now the list above has me thinking I could start with lenses I have if I choose to get the 70D.

Thanks for any clarification on this.

WJL
 
Wm. L. said:
Do these people mean I might hear lens noise, have jerky focus, or just trying hard to get me to buy more stuff?

WJL
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Noise and jerky focus.

The 18-55 STM is almost absolutely silent while AFing. The 40mm pancake, on the other hand, is quite loud.
 
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ZiggyDeath said:
Wm. L. said:
Do these people mean I might hear lens noise, have jerky focus, or just trying hard to get me to buy more stuff?

WJL
Click to expand...
Noise and jerky focus.

The 18-55 STM is almost absolutely silent while AFing. The 40mm pancake, on the other hand, is quite loud.
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Thank you.

I am not looking for professional quality perfection as much as nice work done for personal, family, and on occasion as a demonstration or training tool for my work.

That Canon publishes the list has me thinking not getting a new lens might be livable. I don't get why they'd do it and risk dissatisfaction in same way I get the sales staff wanting me to get a lens or two vs just a body.

Is it a difference something like my trying SL1 and T5i against the 70D where they indeed have live view, AF, but not in same league?

Thanks again.
 
Wm. L. said:
That Canon publishes the list has me thinking not getting a new lens might be livable. I don't get why they'd do it and risk dissatisfaction in same way I get the sales staff wanting me to get a lens or two vs just a body.

Is it a difference something like my trying SL1 and T5i against the 70D where they indeed have live view, AF, but not in same league?

Thanks again.
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I should probably clarify a bit.

The Dual Pixel LV AF is only compatible with certain lenses, with non compatible lenses it defaults to the traditional method which is slower. The purpose of Dual Pixel is much faster AF acquisition as well as better tracking for movement.

STM lenses give smooth and quiet focusing during videos. Non-STM but compatible lenses still benefit from faster AF in LV, as well as better tracking compared to traditional AF.

Dual Pixel has been shown to be slightly less accurate for stills, but the speed gains are tremendous.

For reference, I have the T4i and the SL1, and the LV AF speed between the two is already quite noticeable. Watching videos of the 70D have lead me to believe that it is quite a bit faster, both in LV AF and movie AF.
 
In the camera store the 70D and Nikon AW1 did the focusing seemingly as fast as I could (age joke). The catch was the demonstration with the newer 18-135 STM lens and not my EF-S 17-85.

Thanks.
 
ZiggyDeath said:
The Dual Pixel LV AF is only compatible with certain lenses,
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103 lenses - which includes all current EF/EF-S lenses and mainly omits obsolete older zooms & super teles. 3rd party lenses are likely also not supported.

http://www.canon-europe.com/Support/Consumer_Products/Dual_Pixel_CMOS_AF_EF_Lens_Compatibility/
ZiggyDeath said:
Dual Pixel has been shown to be slightly less accurate for stills, but the speed gains are tremendous.
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It has? I must have missed that link.

--
Erik
 
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Erik Magnuson said:
The pictures show the opposite - if the amount of misfocus is shown by amount of axial CA, then the dual-pixel AF image shows the least color fringe. It may be simply a difference in what "optimum" focus consists of - highest contrast edge ignoring color or cleanest edge including CA.
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ZiggyDeath said:
By their own admission, some of the manually focused shots weren't perfect and has some variation.
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Also the focus points for dual-pixel AF are somewhat larger than you expect.
ZiggyDeath said:
In addition, they come to the conclusion:

"our testing makes it appear the 70D's Dual Pixel AF gives most of the speed advantage of conventional phase detection AF and most of the accuracy benefits of contrast detection, but doesn't quite manage to offer all of both."
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Ideally you'd want to test with a few more lenses.
ZiggyDeath said:
*I should probably point out that I am in no way saying that Dual Pixel focus is bad. Nor am I claiming that one should stick to the slow contrast AF. Only that Dual Pixel is slightly less accurate compared to the regular LV AF method. Those who require absolute critical focus that contrast offers, however, are left with something a bit less than optimal.

What constitutes as critical focus? Well, that's up to the user to decide
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It may also depend on the lens in the presence of significant axial CA.
 
Wm. L. said:
Hi,

Camera store staff (local store, B&H live chat) left me believing buying a 70D for the video auto focus means I need one of the new STM lenses. Being a tech pro, info junkie I find this list from Canon that leads me to believe all of my EF-S 10-20, EF-S 17-85, and EF 70-200 L USM are all compatible.

Do these people mean I might hear lens noise, have jerky focus, or just trying hard to get me to buy more stuff?

http://consumer.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/cameras/standard_display/daf_compatible

I've proven to myself that a 70D is indeed superior to the SL1 and T5i for video, but that in store testing was done with the 18-135 STM. Now the list above has me thinking I could start with lenses I have if I choose to get the 70D.

Thanks for any clarification on this.

WJL
Click to expand...
Even though a lot of lenses are compatible, the ring USM lenses are still quite loud


The video is probably not a good example of how well the lenses can focus track, since different field of views and different DOFs are shown.
 
I should have looked on YouTube earlier. I know a sound track will take care of some things but the focus performance looks superior.

That still leaves me wondering about whether or not I want to carry 70D and bigger lens but no doubts about the 70D and STM versions in Canon product choices.

Thank you.
 
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