r3 eye control looks like a game-changer (again)

CWaterston wrote:

The ability to move the focus point with your eye, half press for focus lock, and full press for taking the picture may sound like a minor improvement, but will probably be so useful in practice that it will tempt r5 owners to think seriously about adding this body or foregoing the 45 mpix to get the feature in a 24 mpix body.

What do you think? To me, almost totally eliminating the need to select a focus point initially or to switch it instantly on the fly opens up great creative possibilities. Example: shooting a model in the foreground and then looking at the background person/object instantly to take a photo with the foreground subject blurred--all within a second or two--expands creativity.

Models will appreciate this as much as photographers, as anything that removes the annoying "hold on just a second" instruction from the photographer (while fiddling with focus point) will allow a much more natural working relationship and free up the photographer to concentrate less on the equipment and more on pose and framing and composition.

I try not to get excited about camera features, but honestly this is one that will, well, make photography fun again.

If you remember the EOS 3 (film days) came out with the eye control. Later they put it in a more consumer body called the EOS Elan 7e. I bought the Elan 7e and it was OK at best. It worked well when it worked but sometimes it could be frustrating to get it to lock focus.

But that was 20 years ago. I'm very interested in seeing how it works now with 20 years of technology improvements. If it's a hit I'm sure they will put it in future "Affordable" bodies. One more thing that gives them bragging rights. The R3 will be a good test for this. Over the course of the next few months I'm sure we will see tons of reviews on how well the eye control works or doesn't work.