Panasonic contrast AF versus Canon Hybrid AF comparison.
During the last years Panasonic and Olympus achieved impressive results on the AF performance. As you know they rely on the contrast AF only. Canon, Nikon (and soon Sony too) are using a hybrid contrast and phase detection AF on their mirrorelss cameras like on the new Canon EOS-M. The video on top has been made by Dpreview to shows the comparison between the G5 AF and the 650D AF.
I think the real advantage of phase detetion is the continous AF on moving objects. On still objects the Panasonic easily beats the Canon!
BY the way, the new Panasonic G5 arrived in Europe and is in Stock at Jessops and on eBay UK (Click here).
Miroslav
11 months ago |The comparison is not fair – they press Canon LCD earlier
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This http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sr5-nex-5r-sensor-has-phase-detection-pixels-on-sensor/ is much more important piece of news for 4/3 lens owners – if Sony gets PDAF on sensor right, then next generation of Olympus ( and maybe Panasonic ) m4/3 cameras will be able to use 4/3 lenses with PD auto focusing.
admin
11 months ago |You are right. Have to post this!
Anonymoose
11 months ago |I wonder if the E-7 could be a mirrorless cam with that sensor…
Renato S.
11 months ago |I’m not totally sure how should Panasonic approach this.
I remember reading that you lose light sensitivity and DR when you put phase detection in the sensor and unless Panasonic made some huge improvement in this area, I don’t know if they should, or maybe they should buy Sony’s sensor. The contrast AF is pretty good and very fast, it’s just not that good for moving objects, which would be nice to have for video. But if I had to choose between ISO/DR and AF for moving objects, I would choose the former.
Miroslav
11 months ago |“If I had to choose between ISO/DR and AF for moving objects, I would choose the former.”
Of course, but the real advantage of making effective PDAF on sensor for m4/3 would be instantly adding another 30-40 native lenses to the system. Fast (C)AF is overrated IMO, but any losses in ISO/DR would be overcome by improvements in the next generation of sensors.
Tim van vliet
11 months ago |Doesn’t surprise me if i take the 5DII out now instead of the omd. I get frustrated.
I got used to the focussing speed which the 5D doesn’t have!! It does still put out nice files.
But compared to a m4/3 body i can only see difference in DOF.
Highlights clip out a bit easier. The main thing is its easier on my back. And every camera nowadays makes good quality pictures. As long as you put the right glass infront of it.
Omd 12mm 25mm 45mm 75mm.
http://Www.flickr.com/photos/timvanvliet
Ronan
11 months ago |So you prefer the OMD because it AF faster, is lighter and has good glass.
Yet you will take your 5DMKii out?
Proofreading is a b*tch heh?
Igor
11 months ago |Interesting how the micro43 camera became the test-bench in Contrast Auto-focus speed against the Hybrid Phase-Contrast AF. It shows that a well-designed contrast AF system is faster at single AF acquisition than Canon’s current implementation of Hybrid AF.
Note, while both the 650D and G5 take about the same amount of time to recover to the original screen after AF is activated, you can get the G5 to shoot again before it has re-set to the original screen (it can shoot while writing). The conventional phase detect doesn’t work in live view so you couldn’t even record it!
BTW, Panasonic has just announced new AG-AC90 3MOS video camera. http://www.photographyblog.com/news/panasonic_ag-ac90/
Interesting new features are: 5-axis Hybrid OIS; 2 channel XLR audio inputs (MIC/LINE/+48V selectable);
Audio CH1/CH2 with individual level controls and input selection; HDMI output, AV Multi output (D-connector, composite video and audio 2 channel), USB connector; Remote terminals enable remote operation of iris, focus, zoom and Rec Start/Stop function.
Would we see some of this technology in the upcoming GH3?
Esa Tuunanen
11 months ago |> 5-axis Hybrid OIS
It’s impossible to copy stabilization in rotation to purely lens based stabilization mechanism so might it be that there’s some cooperation with Olympus in that…
They could try to do same by rotating image in software but that would lower sharpness some amount because of reinterpolation of pixels.
beautemps
11 months ago |No surprise.
Hope they will compare it with the moving red robot soon! That will be the interesting point.
Stevey
11 months ago |Any tests comparing m43, Nikon 1, Sony SLT and Canon hybrid for tracking AF (and any hunting) on moving subjects in video ?
Esa Tuunanen
11 months ago |PDAF of Sony SLT should work even better than same AF sensor in DSLR.
Unlike in SLR AF sensor gets focus information even during exposures and for video situation is even more simpler with SLRs unable to use PDAF while for SLT’s focusing video is no different from stills.
Here’s some focus testing between m4/3 and Nikon 1. In mirrorless there shouldn’t be real difference in focusing between still and movie.
http://www.sansmirror.com/newsviews/galapagos-focus-testing.html
Martin
11 months ago |Has anybody inspected the images of cameras offering on-sensor PDAF for visible traces of that technology? I am just wondering how relevant these artifacts might be. On-sensor PDAF is not neutral on chip area, but -as far as I understand- cannibalizes some chip area that would otherwise be covered by normal fotocells. Which implies that some fotocells in the sensor array would either be smaller or missing altogether. As each case introduces some inhomogeneity into the sensor array, there should be visible effects originating from either increased signal amplification or spatial interpolation, as necessary to mask these inhomogeneities.
peevee
11 months ago |Interpolation is going in the Bayer sensors all the time anyway. And I am sure every modern sensor has a few dead pixels too. Adding a few more is not really visible. Say you lose 100 pixels out of 18000000, like in the case of the Canon – so what.
Martin
11 months ago |Sure, but with on-sensor PDAF it would be groups of multiple co-located dead pixels, wouldn’t it? Might be much harder to mask than a handfull of randomly distributed dead pixels.
Esa Tuunanen
11 months ago |Canon sensor has very few irregularly positioned pixels for PDAF so wouldn’t be wonder if it turns out to be as much marketing gimmick as fully functional feature.
Chipworks has comparison pic for Nikon 1′s sensor which uses PDAF pixels in lines.
http://www.chipworks.com/en/technical-competitive-analysis/resources/recent-teardowns/2012/07/inside-the-canon-rebel-t4i-dslr/
AdventureRob
11 months ago |So glad I dropped Canon stuff now. Their efforts are starting to become an industry joke. How long have they had to sort this out?
Nikon did well with the 1 system, it’s innovative, has uses and I applaud them for doing something different. But Canon just knock together the best theoretical ideas to look good on paper, and hope that will do.
Phase detection, mirrorless (I know thats a 650D not the M), APS-C all sounds great, but the results show different.
beavis
11 months ago |Canon is out…
Agrivar
11 months ago |Dont forget the fiasco around the Allergy problem of the 650D !! Imagine being allergic to your camera !! so funny.. didnt Canon do any tests before selling the cam?
FMJ
11 months ago |I still shoot Canon FF DSLR, but i take this video as a Joke of the Day…..
WTF with that slow af speed?
Jón
11 months ago |I’m puzzled. I would think that Canon surely can do better. Or maybe they didn’t put much emphasis on the live view AF because the user can always go back to the mirrored phase detection AF…
Andy
11 months ago |Doesn’t really matter as this is a secondary focusing system for the camera.
The eos-m (with production firmware) will undoubtedly be faster.
Ryan
11 months ago |Im going to have to agree that the AF will be faster. With the current AF it wont sell. I guess we will just have to see!
Zachery
11 months ago |If the PDAF pixels were in use on the Canon side, then it would not hunt back and forth like that. Something is obviously wrong with it, whether it’s a camera flaw, setting issue or usage mistake (perhaps it only works when the focus area is small and since the touch screen focus mode makes a huge focus area, it doesn’t use the hybrid AF, for example).
Also, Canon is hardly the company to look to for leveraging technologies effectively. They only just recently put half decent AF systems in any of their cameras. If you want to see how well PDAF pixels can work, get a V1 and shoot with the center AF point. If you REALLY want to see how well PDAF pixels can do, wait for Sony to implement it.
John Smith
11 months ago |I hope that Fujifilm is watching this. The X-Pro1 needs more speed.