Gizmodo reviewed Canon’s latest foray in the APS-C market segment, the Canon EOS 70D. The EOS 70D has many of the best features of other Canon DSLRs,  WiFi from the EOS 6D (price & specs), AF from the 7D(price & specs), the superb touchscreen of the Rebel T5i/700D (price & specs) and EOS M(price & specs), and others. This is a common practice of Canon: a new model resembles all the best features of other Canon DSLRs, and adds one innovative or at least new feature to the set. The EOS 70D’s absolutely innovative feature is the Dual Pixel AF, described by the reviewer as “terrific and unrivaled”.

More and more photography sites are testing the Canon EOS 70D, having a particularly sharp eye on its auto-focus performance. The EOS 70D’s Dual Pixel AF performance is so good that dpreview says it outperforms conventional AF.

Photography Bay tested the EOS 70D’s AF and compared it with Sony A77‘s, they are:

[…] very impressed with the 70D’s AF functionality. It may be the best AF out there among cameras with larger sensors. This includes the Sony A77 and mirrorless cameras that [they have] used to date. While the A77 is fast and accurate, the autofocus can be a little too “jumpy” at times when shooting video. The 70D moves slow and more natural (like a camcorder) so that the AF isn’t as jarring as it sometimes is with the A77

The video above was made by them. And I totally agree when they say that “the 70D is looking like it’s the best APS-C camera that Canon has released since the 7D“. Well, yes, it is. :)

For a tecnical introduction to the Dual Pixel CMOS AF have a look at this article by CPN. In the past DxOMark also compared the EOS 70D AF with the Sony A77.

Canon EOS 70D
B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA

dpreview added the AF test page to their work-in-progress review of the Canon EOS 70D. The Dual Pixel CMOS AF is up to expectation, it works so good that “the Dual Pixel AF system outperforms the conventional autofocus system – it’s more consistent, shot-to-shot and it’s more accurate, in terms of where it focuses“, according to dpreview. More after the break.