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

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.

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.

Back in the day I shot with both the superlative EOS 3 and the compact Elan 7e, and the A2E before that.  ECF is a total game changer.  No other method is even close to how fast and intuitive ECF is.  I know that it didn't work well for everyone, but I honestly believe a fair amount of that to be user error.  You have to calibrate it right.  It gets more accurate if you calibrate it more times.  I have very strong glasses with multiple corrections and it worked perfectly.  I have light blue/green eyes and it worked perfectly.

I agree, I loved eye control AF on my EOS 3. A great camera. That said I will not be buying an R3. I don't like the size. I love the size of my ungripped R5.

I had no fewer than 5 bodies with ECF - 5, 50E, 55, 3 and 30V. It worked absolutely flawlessly for me on all cameras, although it was particularly handy on the 3 and 30V. It's a vastly superior method of selecting a focus point to the ghastly joystick.

I wouldn't have a problem with the MP count of the R3 for things I would use the T3 for, but I couldn't justify the cost compared to the more than adequate R6 for my needs in this area, nor do I want a bigger, heavier camera if I can avoid it. And for areas where I do need more pixels, I don't need high frame rates or AF any better than the R5. I'm not the target market. But I do hope the update technology trickles down into an R6 II.