Canons combining both evaluative metering and eye controlled focus?

quixotic · Mar 5, 2017

Does anyone happen to have a quick answer on this one? (non-digital, of course).

Edit: Found some info. Looks like the Eos 3 and 5 (also called A2e), Eos 30 and 30v (also called 7e and 7ne).

Anyone know of a really good overview (with good graphics) of the eye control system? I just found out about this yesterday, and I'm quite intrigued...though so far, I haven't found any really good mir-like explanations on the web.

MattKing · Mar 5, 2017

You can also add the EOS 50E (Elan IIe).
I have both an EOS 7Ne and a IIe.
The eye controlled focus works for me, and I like it. But my understanding is that there are significant numbers of people who it doesn't always work for, which must have been a horrible marketing problem for Canon, and most likely explains why you don't see it on current digital models.
My sources of info are the camera manuals themselves, my personal experience with the cameras, and a couple of old contemporaneous reviews of my cameras that are out there on the internet (but which I didn't bookmark).
One of the quixotic )) things about my two cameras is that I can use stop down metering on the IIe if I use it with an adapter and one of my OM lenses, whereas stop down metering doesn't work in the same circumstances with the 7Ne.

quixotic · Mar 5, 2017

Thanks Matt. I also found these two sources:
https://books.google.ca/books?id=Om...gzMAQ#v=onepage&q=canon "eye control"&f=false
https://support.usa.canon.com/kb/index?page=content&id=ART117924
Looks like another rabbit hole that I'll have to explore. I don't see myself taking it on holidays or hiking, since I already have a lot of m-mount gear that is lighter, but it could come in very handy when I'm trying to focus in on our attention-deficit-disorder cat.

MattKing · Mar 5, 2017

The Canon calibration document is essentially the same as the contents of the manual for the camera(s).

Theo Sulphate · Mar 5, 2017

The 7NE is one of Canon's best EOS film cameras.

Without glasses, the eye-control focus on my 7NE works very well even in very dim light (single 60W bulb under lampshade in a big room). I was impressed.

With glasses, the eye-control works for me only in bright daylight.

"mir-like explanations" - good phrase.

Ron789 · Mar 5, 2017

I have the EOS5 and EOS3. If you're wearing glasses (like I do) the eye-controlled focusing is not very reliable, unfortunately. Apart from this, the EOS3 is a fine camera, though I prefer the EOS1 or 1n.

emacs · Mar 5, 2017

I have an EOS 3 as well, and can attest to the eye control being pretty useless with glasses on but decent enough without. If you wear glasses and stuck a diopter on I imagine you'd have a better experience, but I've found that the AF is accurate enough without using eye control so I never bothered.

Helios 1984 · Mar 5, 2017

Ron789 said:
I have the EOS5 and EOS3. If you're wearing glasses (like I do) the eye-controlled focusing is not very reliable, unfortunately. Apart from this, the EOS3 is a fine camera, though I prefer the EOS1 or 1n.

does it work with a diopter?

quixotic · Mar 5, 2017

emacs said:
I have an EOS 3 as well, and can attest to the eye control being pretty useless with glasses on but decent enough without. If you wear glasses and stuck a diopter on I imagine you'd have a better experience, but I've found that the AF is accurate enough without using eye control so I never bothered.

Thanks. I went ahead and ordered a 3 from Japan. I do wear glasses, but only for reading and for driving, so I should be OK that way. But I'm a left-eyed camera guy; hope that won't cause an issue for the eye control focusing. And unfortunately it doesn't have a built-in diopter adjustment. That might not be a huge deal, since I'm -0.5 and the stock viewfinder is -1.

I can't wait to play around with this thing. Can I assume that the evaluative metering and the eye control focusing will only work with the Canon EF lenses?

quixotic · Mar 5, 2017

Helios 1984 said:
does it work with a diopter?

I'm having a quick blast through the manual. Looks like the stock diopter slides out and the optional one slides in its place (p. 138)

Nodda Duma · Mar 5, 2017

My wife had a 7Ne when they were new. The eye-controlled focus actually worked very well..of course it needs to be calibrated to your eye.

Helios 1984 · Mar 5, 2017

quixotic said:
I'm having a quick blast through the manual. Looks like the stock diopter slides out and the optional one slides in its place (p. 138)

EOS 30 P.25 The wheel for the stock diopter is under the eyecup -2.5 to +0.5. Enough to keep my glasses but not enough to remove them, I'll have to get an extra -2 for this.

Theo Sulphate · Mar 6, 2017

The 7NE, at least, has calibrations for both landscape and portrait orientation, plus individual banks of calibrations for different users of the camera or for different situations.

cooltouch · Mar 7, 2017

It works fine in my Elan IIe, but it's worth noting that, if you switch between wearing glasses and not wearing them (like I sometimes do), you have to calibrate it for each situation. Dunno if it has to be recalibrated if you just slip on a diopter.

ic-racer · Mar 7, 2017

I wonder how the Canon AF compares to others. I got a number of Nikon AF SLRs lately and find they work very well for stationary objects in which a certain part of the scene needs to be in perfect focus. For moving objects the AF needs to be disabled, otherwise the shutter is disabled for some time after the button is pressed making 'moving object' photography nearly impossible.

Theo Sulphate · Mar 7, 2017

Canon EF lenses focus internally, guided by electronics from the camera to the lens motor.

Nikon autofocus lenses either focus by a drive screw (AF-D) from a motor in the camera body to the non-motor lens or electronically from the body to the motor in the lens (AF-S, G, or new E lenses).

The one lens that impressed me was the 60/2.8 G Micro-Nikkor on my F4s (*). It focused so fast and silently, almost like reading my mind, that at first I thought it was broken because I couldn't hear it or see the image shift. It was only after I kept pointing it at different objects in my house at various distances that I realized how quickly it was focusing.

(*) being a G lens with no aperture ring, it can be used on the F4 only in Ph, P, or S modes.

flavio81 · Mar 8, 2017

I own the EOS 5 and find the eye-controlled focus 100% reliable on bright light and even regular light. Haven't really tested it on dim light.

Once i tested the EOS 3 and found that it wasn't too accurate to select (by eye) the focus point, but it might have been an EOS 3 that required service (i.e. cleaning to the eye controlled focus sensor, etc).

quixotic said:
Anyone know of a really good overview (with good graphics) of the eye control system? I just found out about this yesterday, and I'm quite intrigued...though so far, I haven't found any really good mir-like explanations on the web.

Q: How does it work?
A: By witchcraft.

Canons combining both evaluative metering and eye controlled focus?

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Canons combining both evaluative metering and eye controlled focus?

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