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Why Canon Drops Eye Control In Its DSLR?


vernon98034

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<p>All my Canon film cameras have the eye control feature for a focus point selection. So, I expected the same feature from a Canon DSLR body. To my surprised, I don't get the feature from a Canon DSLR camera. I get quite frustrating the auto focus point selection on 6D. And that lets me wonder why Canon DSLR camera doesn't come with the eye control anymore. </p>
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I too miss ECF and loved it on my Élan 7E and EOS 3. Really nimble and natural compared to joysticks and wheels.

However, you need to get over it as the majority of people found calibration too fiddly, didn't like ECF or it didn't work for

them due to deep eye sockets or coated glasses. So Canon gave it the boot after the Élan 7NE.

 

After nearly 5 years, I'm really happy with my 5D MKII and have no plans to upgrade until it dies. Well, unless Canon

adds ECF to the next generation 5D series. I 'd preorder and pay a ridiculous price to get ECF back. Don't care if it has

more MP or less, 100 AF points or iTunes. ECF would make me reach for plastic and fast.

Sometimes the light’s all shining on me. Other times I can barely see.

- Robert Hunter

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<p>About 15 years ago, I bought and A2E, which I loved and still have. It was my first "serious" camera since I bought a Pentax ME Super back in the 80's. Anyway, I loved the ECF. It worked great for me. At first. But as I became more skilled, I learned to examine the scene, particularly the back ground, more carefully. My eye, wandering around the scene, caused the ECF to zoom in and out of focus. After a while it drove me crazy, so I quit using it, and now I don't miss it.</p>
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<p>I miss it. I too would drop 3k+ a pro level DSLR that had it - in a heartbeat. While it certainly has many critics, and many people for whom it doesn't work as well as it did for me, it is a feature that I sorely miss. It was bloody fast, and I could frame and focus on wherever I wanted to focus without more than a half shutter push. I had to learn focus/recompose to a large extent <em>after</em> I went fully digital. Ironic that now it would be far easier to implement, and more effective due to the proliferation, availability, and wider use of contact lenses (including ones for, say, astigmatisms) that simply weren't available when the feature was in production. Sigh, by far it is the best example of feature they've done away with without adequate reason (IMO).</p>

 

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<p>I think many people who had cameras with the feature had the experience related by Phil, to one degree or another. I suspect Canon stopped putting it on cameras because only a relatively small number of people actually wanted it, or used it when they did have it.<br>

I have several cameras with the feature (including the EOS 5-aka A2E, the very best of which is my EOS 3 camera). I have tried it out and simply found it less helpful than I had supposed it would be.<br>

Like giving voice commands to your computer, it is a feature that was mostly useful in bragging about it to the people who owned something else.</p>

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<p>The only contact i have had with ECF was a eos 50e that i buy for the lens that was on it.<br /> and as someone that 95 percent of the time only use 1 focus point id find it very useful ,it seems 100 percent reliable the 10 minutes i played with it . and i did not calibrate it <br /> I have no intention of changing my 5Dc until the mark 111 is in my price range (approx 2-3 years yet )b but if the mark 11 had ECF i get 1 today<br>

just to add i am guessing that more focus points a camera has the harder it will to implement it reliably </p>

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<p>We had both the Elan IIe and the EOS-3. The Elan IIe worked well with both me (no glasses) and my wife (fairly heavy prescription lenses). The EOS-3 would not work for my wife with her glasses no matter what we tried. We don't know what changed in the design between the two. I tended to use the ECF when composing landscapes, but usually for birds and animals I used the center focus point and recomposed.<br>

<br />We're all digital now but last time I checked the Elan IIe was still firing. The EOS-3 had some sort of error (I forget the error code). I had it fixed once but a couple of years later the same error code popped up. That was the excuse to move into digital...</p>

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  • 9 months later...

<p>I just used my Canon Elan 7NE yesterday, shooting some slide film using ECF. It was so fun and easy to use that I really regret not having it in my 60D now.<br>

I use prescription glasses but ECF worked well for me anyway.<br>

Unfortunately I don't think Canon will bring it back to any DSRL. </p>

 

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  • 1 year later...

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