The future of ECF?

[r._j.]

Will Canon have more ECF bodies in the future? Curious to know about

this type of technology, which would probably only get better in time

with the aid of improved technology and, hence, its overall swiftness

and accuracy.

[PuppyDigs]

Only Canon knows the answer to that question. The Elan 7NE was released last year and has the latest ECF. It works great for me and I wish all my bodies had ECF. Multiple AF sensors seem rather useless without ECF. I hate using the QCD or main input wheel to control AF sensors. Subsequently I often disable all sensors but the center cross on cameras that lack ECF. I was surprised the 20D didn't feature ECF. If it did I would have tossed my 10D and bought a 20D. It seems about 50% of shooters love ECF while the other 50% hate it.

[danny lee]

I like EFC, I got it on the elan II, works very well in selecting focus areas. but more of a snap shot thing. on a more serious shoot, I would place the models, and set one focus point where I want it and dont have to look at the thing for each exposure. Then I would shoot about 200 shots. ECF may hinder in a situation like that, but still a nice option to have.

[kris]

I like the idea of ECF too but EOS30's ECF didn't work well even after several repeated calibrations.

<p>

Now that I'm using EOS3, I really miss the cursor pads for selecting AF points.

[phil vaughan - yorkshire u]

My EOS 30's ECF worked a treat, I wish the 20d had it too.

 

I think there are probably problems designing it into the digital bodies because I can't believe Canon let this market leading technology go lightly.

[r._j.]

Yes, I am also curious as to why Canon isn't pursuing it more....

[mark u]

I think a very real problem is that with crop cameras the pentaprism is too small - not enough space to cram in all the detectors, not enough illumination of the eye, not enough angular separation between focus points...

[._._z]

Canon has said that the processing power needed for ECF is too much for the current

generation of processors in DSLRs, which need the power for other things. Presumably

it will reappear in future DSLRs.

[jim_larson1]

I'm in the 50% that hate it :)

 

(I have used for a bit on a 7ne)

[marcin harla]

Ahh, ECF...I'm in the 50% of shooters that love it. Hopefuly someday Canon will put that technology in their digital bodies

[mormegil]

Even though it will probably never affect me, I figure it go into the 1D, or the 1Ds line.

 

There's plenty of space for detectors and lots of light on the full frame 1Ds, as it's exactly

the same as the film version.

 

The 1D on the other hand, has less light, but really needs it more for Sports applications.

 

Honestly, I can't imagine handling the 45 point area AF without eye control...then again,

I've never used ECF on anything but an Elan.

[bobatkins]

I'm glad they don't put it in DSLRs. I never use it on my EOS-3 and I'd rather not pay for it on my DSLRs.

 

Canon haven't ever used on on the EOS-1 series as far as I know. I don't think it's regarded as reliable enough for pros to trust when they have to get the shot. It's on the EOS-3 of course.

[jimstrutz]

Hmmm. And I would gladly pay extra to have it back on a digital body. It really is a personal preference thing.

[citizensmith1664875108]

When I first switched from a 7e to a RebelD I frequently caught myself wondering why the damn focus point wasn't moving. I ended up switching to the center point only as the automatic selection is unreliable, and manual selection a pain in the neck.

 

I'd love it back.

[digitmstr]

I miss the ECF on my EOS3 - I wish they had it on the 1v and DSRLs as well. I have found mine to work very well. Now, I just use the center AF point on my 10D.

[mormegil]

For people who don't ECF, you *can* turn it off.

[atan]

I loved ECF on my stolen ELANIIE, still love it on my EOS3 and ELAN7NE and wished canon included ECF on the 20D as well.

[marcin harla]

<i>I never use it on my EOS-3 and I'd rather not pay for it on my DSLRs.</i>

 

<p>I see your point. OTOH it's only $50 extra for ECF (based on Elan 7NE vs Elan 7N at least). Not a big deal if you buy $1500 body (20D), and definatelly not a biggie on $4500 camera. I'm not even gonna mention 1Ds mkII. Deviation in price amongst vendors is probably greater than the cost of ECF

[steve_dunn2]

<p>The cost thing is, presumably, the reason why all but one of the ECF-equipped bodies so far have come in pairs, one with ECF and one without. So, other than the EOS 3, the cost argument is a red herring. I don't buy the smaller pentaprism argument; if anything, they could add ECF and still have a relatively small hump because the ECF hardware goes outside the pentaprism, and the pentaprism is smaller than on a 35mm body. I hadn't heard the processing power argument before, but it's somewhat consistent with the reason they removed DEP mode from digital bodies, I suppose. Canon stated that they left ECF off the 1V because they didn't feel it was reliable enough for a top-of-the-line pro camera; the same reasoning would apply to the 1D family.</p>

 

<p>I didn't have ECF on my Elan II, and even with only three AF points, I wished I'd bought the Elan IIe. So when I upgraded, I got an Elan 7E. ECF is excellent; it works very reliably for me and is the most natural way in the world of picking which AF point to use. Mind you, even without ECF, the Elan 7 would be easier to use than the Elan II, due to the arrow keys (which the Elan II didn't have; it forced you to push a button, turn a knob, and push another button, rather than simply poking an arrow key).</p>

 

<p>Lack of ECF is the main reason I don't yet have a digital SLR. I was really, really hoping that when the 10D's successor came out, Canon would have added ECF to it, but they didn't. I'm not prepared to wait until 2006 to see if the 30D (or whatever it's called) will have ECF, so I'll either be buying a used 10D with its lousy AF-point selection mechanism, or spending a lot more on a 20D even though I'm hoping it's just a temporary body to last until there's a 30DE.</p>

[PuppyDigs]

"I like the idea of ECF too but EOS30's ECF didn't work well even after several repeated calibrations."

 

Kris, it took my Elan 7NE several dozen calibrations in different light and lenses to work consistently well. Several calibrations didn't cut it. Whenever I have an ECF failure (rare) I add another calibration for that situation. It gets better and better each time.

[alexandru_petrescu]

ECF is a nice thing. I've just played for about an hour with a 7ne and ECF. Its precision depends a lot on the position I put the eyeball on the viewfinder. I've calibrated about 20 times in the same set of light conditions, vertically and horizontally, and I'm happier with the results than just calibrating once vertically and horizontally. Also I may be happier than my other ECF posts because now using eyecup ED-E.

 

The drawback I can still feel is that it does take a few noticeable milliseconds between looking at a rectangle and it ligthing.

 

After the first time I've calibrated horizontally and vertically (1 each) it wouldn't recognize my pointing at the left rectangle, I had to look more to the right to have it red. After several calibrations I feel it more precise but I am not sure which is more precise: the camera better recognizing me or me looking harder.

 

I'm eager to test it in my common AF needs see whether it holds up to the AF speeds I need (the recognition ECF time presumably adds up to the automatic AF speed).

 

Anyways, it's all so unquantifiable...