Canon EOS 70D 20.2 MP Digital SLR Camera with Dual Pixel CMOS AF and EF-S 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 IS STM Kit Our Price: : $1,249.00 Buy Now: preketek/B00DMS0KAC 140 of 151 people found the following review helpful. 5Canon 70D First Impressions By S. Burg This is going to be short, since Ive not had the chance to do a whole lot of shooting as yet. Consider it a just out of the box impression. I already have a Canon 5D Mk III, and a number of L series lenses. I wanted a backup camera for video shooting, and I was intrigued by the new auto-focus system offered on the 70D. So far, Im extremely pleased with this camera. The 18-35 mm kit lens gives a lot of range, and I tested the camera out with my other lenses. The L series lenses work very well, and auto-focusing is fast, smooth, and doesnt search around much even in very low light. The camera is not as heavy as the 5D Mk III, but feels solid enough, and not all that different in the hands. Even with the 70-300mm f4-5.6L IS USM zoom - my heaviest lens at the moment - the camera feels surprisingly balanced. The crop sensor obviously changes the effect of the lenses, but having a full sensor and a crop sensor both, its like having 2 sets of lenses. My 70-300mm zoom now has an effective reach up to 480 mm due to the crop factor of 1.6. To me, this is kind of a bonus, though not in itself a reason to buy the camera. One thing I couldnt figure out before having the camera in my possession deserves a mention. This is my first experience with a fold-out LCD screen on a DSLR, and I had no idea how the display would deal with flipping around 180 degrees. Would it be upside down? This was the first thing I tried, and the screen auto-flips when it is rotated. Maybe everyone else already knows this - but I didnt! Anyway, the fold-out display is a great feature, and it also folds face-in to protect the display when not in use. The ability to touch various points on the LCD display while in Live View or shooting video, and shift focus while shooting is - to me at least - worth the price of admission. If Canon eventually updates the 7D and/or the 5D Mk III, this functionality would be most welcome! Purely as a gut reaction - I really like the 70D immensely. And it seems a very good value for the price. This may actually become my preferred walk-around camera, though time will tell. EDIT - 10/22/2013: Ive spent a lot more time with the camera now, so I can add to my earlier comments. While I purchased the 70D mainly for shooting video, I recently used it to shoot bracketed exposures for HDR (high dynamic range) panoramas. A friend of mine had a nodal camera head (The Ninja head) which allowed for precise rotation of the camera to cover a full 360 degree field-of-view. The Canon 70D allows for up to 7 bracketed exposures via the AEB controls. The plates were shot in the RAW (CR2) format, using the kit lens, and stitched together using PTGui software. After some initial trial runs, where we ironed out the kinks in the whole process, the results were exceptional. For those who may be wondering why do you want a 32 bit HDR 360 panorama at 10k-16k resolution? it is used to create realistic lighting and reflections in a 3D/CG software (i.e. Modo or Maya, for example). The 3D scene can be lit entirely by the 360 panoramic image, producing a very convincing result. At any rate, the Canon 70D delivered terrific results doing something I didnt even foresee when I bought the camera. I will try and upload some of the tests (where the photographic panorama serves as both background and light-source) if I can figure out how to do so on the Amazon site. EDIT: 11/7/2013: Since theres been some confusion regarding the sensor size of this camera and how it relates to the perceived focal length of various lenses, I feel the need to clarify this point. The Canon 70D has an APS-C sensor (Advanced Photo System type C) that is smaller than a full frame sensor such as the one found in the Canon 5D mkIII. The multiplier to determine the apparent focal length of a lens on the Canon 70D (or other APS-C sensor cameras) is 1.6. For example, a 105 mm lens on an Canon APS-C sensor camera would produce an image equivalent to a 168 mm lens on a full frame sensor. Other makes, such as Nikon, have different crop factor multipliers, but there is no interchangeability of lenses between Canon and these other brands. So the 1.6 factor is the one to keep in mind when comparing a full frame to an APS-C sensor size. I hope this clears up any confusion. Thanks! 372 of 427 people found the following review helpful. 5A jack-of-all-trades with the best amateur video available By D. Alexander I like this camera a lot. Its a vast upgrade from the 60D, combining the best features of that body, the T5i, 6D, and 7D, with superior movie motion tracking. Its the first DSLR I can recommend for amateur video without a caveat for slow autofocus. Shooting stills from the rear LCD still favors mirrorless and hybrid bodies, but employing the 70Ds viewfinder pulls the advantage back to Canon. Ive listed the history of this line so you can get for a feel for where it slots. MODEL EVOLUTION: ==== 50D /2008 15MP 9-point AF, all cross-points 6.3 fps, 16 raw 96% viewfinder 640 x 480 LCD AF micro-adjustment AF joystick Flash sync socket CF memory cards ==== 60D /2010 + 18MP + 1080p/720p/480p movies + Mono mic + 720 x 480 LCD + LCD articulates + Metering improved + White balance improved + Wireless flash control + HDR / MSNR / exposure merge + Raw conversion and filters on-camera + Movie crop zoom (7X, 480p) +/- SD cards +/- simplified button layout -- 5.3 fps, 16 raw -- no AF joystick -- no AF micro-adjust -- no flash sync socket -- lesser build ==== 7D /2009 + 19-point AF, all cross-points + 8 fps, 25 raw + AF joystick + AF micro-adjust + Magnesium chassis + 100 % viewfinder + Flash sync port + Weather-sealing(ish) + Video sound level adjustment +/- CF cards +/- larger -- 640 x 480 LCD -- LCD wont articulate -- Movie crop zoom -- HDR / MSNR / exposure merge ==== 70D /2013 + 20 MP, noise improved + Dual Pixel AF in Live View + LCD articulates + LCD touchscreen + 720 x 480 LCD + Wifi built-in + Silent-shooting w/ viewfinder + Scene Intelligent Auto mode + Stereo mics + Video compression improved + Movie crop zoom (3X, 1080p) + HDR / MSNR / exposure merge +/- SD cards +/- smaller + /- weather sealing +/- simplified button layout -- 7 fps, 16 raw -- no AF joystick -- no spot-AF or AF-point expansion -- no flash sync port -- lesser build Viewed from another angle, heres where weve seen the major features before: * 20MP sensor * Dual-Pixel AF * 16-shot raw buffer, 60-shot jpeg buffer (60D) * 19-point AF system (7D) * Swivel LCD screen (60D) * Touchscreen LCD (T5i) * Simplified rear control layout (6D) * Wifi (6D) * AF micro-adjustment (7D) * Stereo microphones (T5i) * Silent shooting through the viewfinder (5D III) * Movie crop zoom (T3i) * IPB and ALL-I video compression (5D III) * On-camera raw conversion, movie editing, and effects preview (T5i) * Scene Intelligent Auto mode (T5i) Its like a greatest-hits album; theres almost nothing from the parts bin that hasnt made an appearance. Far and away the most important improvements are in autofocus. Lets dive into that. VIEWFINDER AUTOFOCUS: Like all DSLRs that can display a live feed to the rear LCD, the 70D has multiple autofocus systems. The primary is for stills shot through the viewfinder. The other is for stills or movies composed from the rear LCD. The AF array for viewfinder shooting is a 19-point system pulled from the 7D. It covers the same area as the 9-point array from the 40/50/60D/T5i/T4i, but the hit-rate in AI-Servo (Canons motion-tracking mode) with fast or unpredictable movement improves by at least half. That applies to the full grid and, to a lesser extent, the center point alone. The older system was already a third better than the one in the T2i/T3i/SL1. Thanks to the dense AF grid, the 70D is much less likely to miss during full-grid shooting for lack of having a point on contrast. There are few caveats to this system. First, it has only three of the 7Ds five AF modes: Full Auto (19 point), Zone AF (5 zones), and Single-Point (1 point). Its missing Spot AF (1 point, reduced size) and AF Point Expansion (1 point, reverts to local outer points if necessary). Will you miss them? Maybe. Spot AF makes it easy to hit a very small target with a fast lens, like an eye instead of an eyebrow. AF Point Expansion is great for motion when you want to use a specific AF point, but with a fallback so the camera wont give up if that point misses. Zone AF isnt a perfect substitute. It groups points into areas that you can select, but the point chosen within each area is always the one over the closest subject. If your subject is surrounded by other viable closer subjects, that may cause a miss noticeable with a fast lens. Second, theres more button-pressing than with the 40D/50D/60D for single-point shooters. The earlier bodies can directly select the outer AF points (where eyes typically end up in portraits) with one thumb movement. This 70D cant because the rocker only goes 8 ways (plus a center button) for 19 points. Theres no custom function to ignore middle points. Zone AF gives the same economy of thumb movement, but without the same precision from each zone. Third, certain older lenses may be more consistent with the 60D system. Ive had trouble in the past with false focus confirmations on a 7D paired with a 50/1.4 and 50/1.8. Firmware updates since may have negated that issue; I dont know. The 70D hasnt hinted at it so far. Still, whatever you buy, give it a controlled bench test before you trust it in the field. Even four-digit gear has quality control variation. Three other narrow points of note: like the 7D, this body has AF microadjustment, an AF offset intended to tune out manufacturing variability in lenses and bodies. Third-party, wide-aperture, and telephoto lenses benefit most. Less so lenses with older AF mechanisms (e.g., 50/1.8, 50/1.4) and those that misfocus variably at different distances or lighting. Weve also had a custom function switcheroo. The 7D had one for ignoring obstructions in AI-Servo. The 70D replaces that with one that controls sensitivity to objects that change speed erratically. The 70D also loses the 7Ds ability to bind an alternate AF point or zone to a button. In aggregate though, Im pleased with what Ive seen so far. Full-grid automatic AF and AI-Servo on the 60D and before were not ideal. The focus points were too far apart, the selection method was not predictable, and AI Servo was not consistent with static subjects. As a result, I used One Shot with single-point selection for most subjects. This 70D is actually usable in full-auto. When I had a 7D, I found myself in full-auto or Zone AF with AI Servo about half the time shooting f/2.8 or above. I see no reason to change that with the 70D, so Im not as disappointed about the loss of the other two AF modes as I could be. HANDLING AND NEW FEATURES: No surprise: it feels like a 60D. Narrower, shorter, but about the same. My right pinky is just barely on the grip. The 40D/50D/7D, already short compared to Nikon bodies, are noticeably taller. General build is standard, competent Canon. It isnt brickish like the 7D and the other two to a lesser extent. The difference shows up on the scale: this body mirrors the 60D and weighs 6 ounces less than the 7D, splitting the difference between that and a T5i. Good for travel, though lens weight tends to dictate the DSLR experience at this level. Canon has rejiggered the button layout to match the 6D. Theres a new button near the shutter that switches AF modes. Five buttons have switched functions relative to the 60D. Because Menu is now a left-hand button, adjusting settings by button is a bit faster because you can employ both thumbs. Likewise, deleting photos is a bit slower because its now a right-hand button that requires a thumb movement from the control dial. None of this matters unless youre shooting multiple bodies. The 70D pairs best with a 6D, and the 7D with the 5D III. Earlier bodies require more acclimation. The only physical features I dont like are the rear dial and D-pad. The dials gotten smaller. Again. You wont jog it as easily when pulling out the rear LCD, but its another step down in tactile response from the 7D. Likewise, the AF hat-switch that last appeared on the 50D hasnt returned for this body, so you have to shift your thumb further down to use the less precise rocker panel. If you choose not to bind AF to the shutter button, youll wear out that digit in a hurry. Theres also the question of weather sealing. This 70D is apparently even with Canons professional SLR from the mid-90s, whatever that means. Theyre similarly cagey about the 7D. The kit lenses arent weather-sealed. Could you shoot in the rain? Sure. Twice? Well. The big addition here is the touchscreen. The implementation is straight from the T5i: if you can adjust a setting with the physical UI, you can adjust it by touch. This significantly lowers the EOS learning curve. The touchscreen is capacitive and almost as responsive as a modern smartphone. A proviso for users in cold climates: gloves must be conductive for touch control to work. How does touch change things in practice? If youre a novice, it makes things accessible. Press the Q button to pull up all the major camera functions and tap to adjust. If youre more advanced, it simplifies autofocus. You dont have to place focus points on your subject or pan a focus box with the D-pad. Just tap. Its so much faster. This yields huge dividends when coupled with LCD articulation for off-angle shooting (of high or low objects), studio shooting from a tripod, and most especially with movies, where you have no time for adjustments and dont want to shake the camera by mashing buttons. Picture review also benefits. Phone gestures (e.g., pinch zoom, swiping) make checking focus vastly quicker and more flexible than on any other non-touch EOS camera. Lets talk about Wifi. I didnt care much for it on the 6D, but its growing on me for one reason: I can get a live feed to my phone with AF control. Thats a big deal. Youve always been able to remotely trigger EOS bodies with radio transmitters, but you cant preview the shot, change settings, or move the AF point. Third-party software will do all that, but only with a cable. Its always been an either-or thing. Now you can have both with a free Canon app thatll work with Android or iOS. Wireless control opens a lot of creative possibilities. Put the camera on a bear path or strap it to your car. Make it a flexible second-shooter at a wedding or behind a hockey net. Take a selfie or a group shot without prefocusing or hoping theres contrast in front of an AF point. Move pictures to the phone, process in Instagram, and upload to Flickr. Shoot in one room and have an assistant sort pictures in another on a different floor. Im sure Ive barely scratched the surface. Limitations? A few. You cant take or send movies when Wifi is on (and the setting wont change automatically, youll probably end up binding it to your custom menu), the app has only bare-bones functionality, live preview is sluggish, and a transfer rate of 2 MB/s makes it impractical to move 25 MB raw files. You wouldnt do any better with an Eye-Fi card; the X2 version is about half as fast. Because it combines a touchscreen with most of the hardware controls from Canons professional bodies, this body leaves a lot of room to grow. It wont be intimidating for long if youre coming from a Rebel. LIVE VIEW AUTOFOCUS: The 70Ds Live View AF is a revolutionary feature, so lets start with deep background. Skip the next three paragraphs if youre already familiar. Live View focusing has always been a challenge for true DSLRs. DSLRs work by reflecting light off a mirror into both the viewfinder and the main phase-detect AF array. To get a live feed, that mirror flips up to expose the sensor, so neither the viewfinder nor the main array will work. In the past, that left you with focus from whatever the camera could divine from the image data itself, the same contrast-detect AF used in point-and-shoot cameras, mirrorless bodies, and phones. But unlike phase-detect, the camera doesnt know which direction or how far to focus. So it guesses. And hunts. Fine for still subjects and small sensors if its done right. Not so much a DSLR; Canons implementation in every body before the T4i was measured-in-seconds slow with stills and totally inept with motion, which made a great many video shooters very good at manual focus. The first solution was to devote a few pixels in the center of the T4is sensor to phase-detect. They kicked the AF in the right direction and contrast-detect did the rest. The SL1 expanded that system to 65% frame coverage, which made it Canons best hands-off movie DSLR. But the SL1 is hardly perfect even within the phase-detect AF area. Its usable with subjects that dont move toward or away from the camera too quickly (about a third as fast as the main phase-detect AF array could track), but it still gets confused, its not brilliant in low-light, and theres a subtle back-and-forth focus-racking when it settles on a subject and when tracking anything. Enter the 70D. Canons made every pixel over the same area capable of phase-detect with a technique they call Dual Pixel AF. And theyve done it without any obvious effect on image quality, while ditching contrast-detect entirely. Wizards, all of them. What performance can you expect relative to the SL1 and the main phase-detect array? (+) In Movie Servo mode, it responds almost instantly to scene changes. Focusing on static objects in general is very quick, although a few mirrorless bodies are even faster. Enabling face detection adds a slight delay, and more if theres no face in the scene. (+) Different lenses change focus at different speeds. None of them seem to run at maximum speed. The change algorithm is tuned for pleasing transitions. (+) Theres no focus-racking when focus stops. All mirrorless bodies still do this in low light and most in bright light. (+) It keeps subjects that move at one speed in focus instead of repeatedly snapping in and out of focus. Here again, some mirrorless bodies can track things even faster, but the object wont actually be in focus for as long. With the kit lenses in good light, itll hold focus on a subject moving directly at the camera from close range at 7-10 MPH. Indoors in low light, closer to 3-5 MPH. Movement can be much faster if its far away or tangent to the camera. (+) Focus accuracy is very high. AF-M does not, and need not, apply here. (+) USM lenses work as fast as STM, though USM may be audible on the audio track in quiet settings. STM lenses are capable of smoother transitions. (+) It works down to EV 0, half the light of the SL1 and almost even with the main array. Almost candlelight. (+) Face-tracking is effective even with conventional indoor household lighting. (+/-) It works with lenses as slow as f/11, a full stop ahead of the SL1 and two ahead of the main array. Not Canon teleconverters, however. A third-party TC that doesnt report the aperture? Maybe. (-) The main array is still more responsive with erratic movement. (-) A few lenses dont work with it. The ones that matter are: 100/2.8 Macro, 24/1.4L MK1, 16-35/2.8L MK1, and 80-200/2.8L. (-) Contrast-detect is the fallback for unsupported lenses, Movie Crop Zoom, and some teleconverters. Its just incredibly confident. The subject was out of focus. Now its in focus. If you choose your own AF points, it looks like a professional focus-pull. The only difference is that you cant (as yet) control the transition pace. That may well become an update down the road, and Im sure Canon will improve speed and predictive ability in future generations. A version of this system may eventually even obviate the main array. But for now, its good enough. Great, even. Finally. STILLS: Image quality is fairly good. Relative to Canons 18 MP bodies, the 70D has about a half-stop less noise in JPEG and raw. JPEG noise processing has improved. Theres less low-frequency blotchiness at high-ISO. Colors are preserved through the entire ISO range, so if you downsize a high-ISO shot for web use to hide the noise, it looks very similar to the same shot at low ISO. I couldnt really say that about the older sensor. Id run this body to ISO 6400ish for full-res shots, but if low-light is your highest priority, the 6D is still well ahead. Dynamic range seems slightly less than before in the highlights, though you can add a stop back with Highlight Tone Priority. I use that feature constantly in daylight; its worth the noise to keep the whites intact. Nikon leads here with the D5200 and D7100. Those two also have somewhat more detail from their 24 MP sensors, similar high-ISO noise, and less shadow noise at low ISO. Color noise in deep shadows is still there with the 70D, so you cant be quite as aggressive boosting low tones in post. That aside, a fairly deep 16-20 frame raw buffer, 7 FPS, and the 7Ds AF system make this a legitimate sports camera. It wasnt so long ago that Canons 1D series capped out at 8 FPS. Stills shooting with Live View is a different story, though. You can still bang out frames at full speed, but you wont be able to see or track anything. The live feed doesnt come back until a few seconds after youve released the shutter button. Focus is fixed from the first frame. Better mirrorless bodies show intermediate frames and continue to focus, but thats partly out of necessity. I dont rely on Live View for scenarios that need quick feedback. MOVIES: If this is your first foray into DSLR video, youll be impressed. As with stills, the right lenses can give you creamy backgrounds and professional-looking subject isolation. The 70Ds feature set borrows a few things from the 5D III: 1080p/30, 720p/60, 480p/30, Time Code support, and a choice of IPB and ALL-I compression. Missing are the 5D IIIs headphone jack, uncompressed HDMI video, live audio gain control, and both Av and Tv modes (M is still available). We might eventually see one or all of these arrive via Magic Lanterns inevitable piggyback firmware. New to the 70D is onboard stereo sound. It has an ambience that the mono mics from the 60D and 7D cant match, but like every onboard setup, it picks up camera and lens noise in quiet environments and youll sound massively louder if youre talking from behind the camera. Theres a jack for an external mic. Maximum recording time is a half-hour. Battery life is 1-2 hrs depending on temperature, AF use, and lens stabilization, though you can double it with the battery grip. Image quality is Canons status quo despite the new compression. Color and contrast are strong by default. Resolution hasnt changed: its somewhat soft at 1080p, but in a way thats only apparent with high-detail scenics or when shown back-to-back with Panasonics GH3 or a video-only body like the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. Moiré control (of false coloring and interference patterns on subjects with repeating fine detail) is decent. Better than the 6D, short of the 5D III. Youll still see some edge-crawling with horizontal features. Noise is subtle enough until about ISO 800. A key returning feature is Movie Digital Zoom. Its a menu option last available with the T3i that lets you zoom from 3X to 10X in 1080p mode. The higher zoom levels arent that interesting, but 3X mode has 1:1 pixel mapping, so you lose very little quality. Its effectively a free teleconverter without the light loss. In 35mm terms, it turns your kit 18-135 into 600mm on the long end. Two caveats: it only works with contrast-detect AF and it cant be enabled while recording is in progress. Macro shooting and the sort of fixed composition and focus shots common to professional productions benefit most. Like the 7D and 60D before it, the sole on-camera editing controls trim the beginning and end of the clip. Achieving that on a computer takes surprising effort. If youre not post-processing, shoot in IPB, trim the footage in-camera, copy it to your system, and use Handbrake or AVS Video Converter to bring it down to a size suitable for Youtube or Vimeo. IPB doesnt hold up to major changes in colors or tone curve in post; choose ALL-I for a more serious production. What are we missing? Mostly out-of-the-box thinking. Given what Magic Lantern has added to the 5D III (raw video, HDR video, a thousand other features) solely through reverse-engineering, one wonders where Canon might have gone. Even the more prosaic 1080p/60 and a less indifferent downsampling algorithm would have been appreciated. Still, Ive a greater appreciation for whats already there now that its actually in focus. LENSES: Both kit lenses are excellent. The 18-135 STM is much improved over the USM version that came with the 60D and earlier kit choices like the 28-135 USM. Strong points include a smooth zoom action, no zoom creep, and nearly inaudible focus and stabilization. Its a little heavy and bulky compared to the 18-55 STM, but Id still favor the longer zoom range. You dont really sacrifice anything but size, weight, and cost to get it. Some thoughts on future additions: * Primes are often lighter, smaller, cheaper, available in wider apertures, optically better, and subject to less less manufacturing variation. Theyre less convenient, less versatile, updated less often, and can cause you to miss shots in fast-paced shooting environments. * An f/2.8 lens on this body is just fast enough for most indoor use without flash. Youll want a flash for anything slower. A flash can provide more even, pleasing pictures, at the expense of a bulkier, attention-attracting rig. * Third-party lenses tend to have less initial cost, better warranties, and more aggressive designs. AF and optical performance is often (but not always) inferior to OEM lenses, quality control and service can be less consistent, and resale values are lower. Value varies by lens model. Some are better than the OEM equivalents (e.g., Tamron 70-300 VC, Sigma 35/1.4). Some fill holes in the OEM lineup (e.g., Sigma 50-150/2.8 OS, 30/1.4, 18-35/1.8). And some are lesser substitutes, but still competitive (e.g., Sigma 10-20/4-5.6). Try Canons 85/1.8 if youre looking for an economical leap in subject isolation relative to the kit lenses. MEMORY: Video chews through storage space. A 32GB SD card is good for about 45 minutes with ALL-I compression and two hours with IPB. 8GB and 16GB cards are plenty for stills. Size aside, interface responsiveness isnt much affected by card speed. Faster cards have three advantages: they can shoot longer raw bursts at 7 FPS (as much as 20), clear the picture buffer more quickly, and record video at the highest quality without risking a speed warning. In one-shot mode, this difference is invisible; very fast cards would only make sense if you were time-limited on card-to-computer transfers with a USB 3.0, SATA, or Firewire card reader. IN SUM: This is the most significant DSLR Canon has introduced since the 7D. Its the first one Ive reviewed without some major caveat. And thats unusual. Canon doesnt often make game-changing cameras. They do what they did with the 30D, T3i, T5i, and 6D: make incremental improvements and leave a lot on the table. Thats not what happened here, and so much the better. The 70D is significant because it has most of the 7Ds AF unit, which is serious business because Canon differentiates cameras with AF performance. Its significant because Canon has licked the movie AF problem that stopped me from ever recommending a DSLR to normal people for movies, while leapfrogging even Sonys pellicle-mirror DSLR-alikes, a former class leader. And its significant because it combines these upgrades with a physical and touch UI that makes them accessible to a broad cross-section of users. Truly, well-played. But should you buy one? Maybe. Like every new DSLR, its expensive, and the old ones depreciate like dairy products. Theres no question the major upgrades are in Live View. If youre all about stills through the viewfinder, plenty of bodies from the 40D onward could satisfice. But for videos with moving subjects, this is the zero square. Theres nothing from Canon behind it. If I had $700 to buy a movie DSLR that would fit in my purse, Id save another $500 and buy a bigger purse rather than take the SL1 over the 70D. vs. 7D - New at $1500, the 7Ds a nonstarter. Used at $750 and with the enhancements from firmware 2.0, its a bargain for viewfinder stills if you dont need silent shooting. Its faster, more usable, more configurable, and built like rocks. Its also short an articulating touchscreen and completely inept in movies without manual focus, but focus peaking in Magic Lantern makes that easier. vs. 60D - New, its barely half the price of this 70D. Viewfinder focus is pretty decent, the framerate is high enough if youre not relying on your pictures for dinner, and it has the same nifty articulating LCD less the touchscreen. A fine camera. Id buy that used 7D first without a second thought. vs. T5i - At $750, this camera is $150 more than the 60D. It has the awkward honor of being a consumer-class device thats harder to use in movie mode than the semi-pro 70D. That accompanies a lesser build, lesser physical UI, very small raw buffer, no Wifi, no AF-M, no top LCD, no movie zoom, and the 60Ds older phase-array AF. To me, the step down is not worth $450. vs. 6D - This full-frame body has appeared for $1500 in some places. It has far better noise control in low light: almost two full stops on the 70D, with a very sensitive center AF point to match. Physical size and layout are similar, but framerate and motion tracking with the main phase array are way behind, as is Live View AF. No LCD tilt or touch. Full-frame lenses cost half again more. The 70D is a better choice for most people, but weigh the 6D if you shoot methodically and care most about subject isolation and low-light performance. vs. Nikon D7100 - Stills have more detail and dynamic range and respond better to post-processing. The main AF array is better than the 70Ds and more configurable, but offset by a 6-frame raw buffer. No LCD tilt or touch. No Wifi. Dual SD cards. AF assist lamp. Intervalometer. The physical UI is better, though the menu UI is less polished, as are some software features. Video can be uncompressed over HDMI and 1080i/60, but motion AF is Rebel T5i-caliber. On the system side, Canon has better service and cheaper lenses in some categories. Stills would have to be a much higher priority than movies to favor this over the 70D. Post if you have any questions -- Ill answer them. 92 of 104 people found the following review helpful. 5Game changer for me! By Jay A few things first to note. On a professional level, the only photography I do is sports/action and in extremely low light. When many dont think to go past ISO 3200, I cannot afford to go below! I shoot 80 percent boxing and MMA so that type of environment is who I am writing to or people interested in low light action photos without being able to afford the newest 1D. The 70d obviously cannot compete with the 5d Mark III or newer 1ds and 6d in the noise department. BUT, the 70d does produce nice and usable action shots at 12,800 ISO, and that is what my hope was. I have shot with a 7d and 6400 was the max I could go and that was with the 30mm f1.4 Sigma lens (f1.8-2.0 in horrible lighting). It is not fun being limited to that focal range but I just couldnt push the ISO further in order to use my 24-70 2.8 zoom. The 70d however is a game changer for me because at 12,800 ISO I can now use my zoom in the worst of lit venues and get decent shutter to stop the action. Keep in mind I have yet to put it to the real test as the next boxing show isnt until next Saturday. But I have been shooting in the local gyms which are worse anyways over the last few days to test it out. I will definitely update this following next week but I have been searching the net for the last month for a real life ISO review on this camera with no luck. So there is mine! Also, I did test the 6d a month ago and the noise handling like all say is breath taking. But I tried every bit of auto focusing imaginable all points, center point, ai servo, ai focus, one shot, at a dim lit boxing ballroom and it was the most frustrating experience of my life. My old Rebel XT could focus on the action better. I just couldnt use it. As far as the 70d and 7d in the situations I describe above? I will have to let you know on the focusing in a real life test next week. But so far, the 70d feels amazing and right on par with the 7d (minus a few options). And I really dont notice a loss in burst speed ( I dont really burst anyways to catch boxing, 1 to catch the shot and a second or third to catch the after effect). But unlike my 7d, I now can shoot at ISO 12,800 with good, usable results. The lowlight still photo capability IS better the the 7d. Some reviews use numbers to say they are too close, but I own both cameras and for what I do, there is no question. Some may not need to push the ISO so high to get a high shutter. And if that is the case, a 60d, 7d or many other Canon bodies will work for you. But if you were like me and wondering if the 70d takes all the wonderful video focussing features and has better then 7d noise handling and offers all to you at this good price, you dont have to wonder because I can confirm this to be true. You cant expect 6D, or 5d Mark III level noise handling, but good enough. So those are my initial thoughts on the 70ds low light performance. I am sure it is even more special in nice lighting! I recommend this camera :) secv.net/B00DMS0KAC.html
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 00:57:35 +0000
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