Q&A: Should I Upgrade to a Canon 70D or a Canon T6s from the Canon T3i & T5i?

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Check out the User Reviews and Amazon's LOWEST price on the Canon 70D at http://tinyurl.com/psmmh4w

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Canon 70D - A 3 Month Review of the Canon EOS 70D by Gareth Davies

Photo by Gareth Davies

I upgraded to the Canon 70D from my 600D back in December. Most of the photography I do is of rugby games, so the 70D was the ideal choice - the 5D Mark III was too expensive and the 6D is not ideal for sports.

The biggest difference I found with the 70D was the focusing system.  The 19 point all cross type focusing system is wonderful - a big improvement over the 9 point with single cross type on the 600D.

The build quality of the camera is also very good. It's a lot sturdier than the 600D and it's a nice weight.

Since buying the camera I've photographed about 4 rugby games at my local amateur club where I'm really close to the action and a couple of public training sessions at Racing Metro, one of the leading clubs in the French Top 14. I now rarely have issues with the shots being out of focus - most of them are nice and sharp. I set it to use the centre focusing square which gives me the use of the 9 central focusing points. I use the Canon 70-200 f4 IS lens. The camera is really fast to focus and I rarely have problems tracking the players - in an average game I take maybe 700 photos, out of those maybe 5% having focusing issues, but most of these are when it was focused on the wrong player which is mostly down to myself trying to keep up with the play.

Canon 70D Focus Issues - User / Owner Report by Christian at Bonsai MultiMedia

Hi there,

I'm German and have had focus issues with my Canon 70D from the start. I'm one of the notorious testers and posters on one German forum and got a lot of heat for the whole discussion.

In short: The actual phenomenon only occurs under very particular circumstances. It can't be shown with test charts and/or under artificial light. I am able to show it with all of my lenses with apertures of f2.8 or wider.

Circumstances are:

- wide open lens, f1.0 - f2.8 (phenomenon instantly disappears from f3.2 onwards)
- phase AF via viewfinder only (or Quick AF mode in Live View)
- manual selection of the center AF field (instantly disappears when selecting any other field)
- small, distant objects that just fill the frame of the center AF field (at least 5-10m away, rather more).

The result are completely OOF images in the area where the focus should have been. The focus sometimes can be found very close to the camera instead of 100m away where the object was.

Best NEW Camera of 2013??? Canon 70D Nikon D7100 Olympus E M1 Panasonic GX7 Sony a7 a7R

With 2013 done and gone, the internet has been talking about what was the Best NEW Camera of 2013.

We've got quite a few contenders, but I'll narrow them down to the Canon 70D, Nikon D7100, Olympus E-M1, Panasonic GX7, Sony a7, and the Sony a7r.

So what do you think was the best new camera of 2013?

Click on the video above for my take on it.

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Best New Camera of 2013? Canon 70D Nikon D7100 Fuji X-E2 Panasonic GX7 Sony a7 Olympus E-M1

The year was 2013.  It was a year of change, it certainly was in the camera industry as well.

We saw a lot of great new entries into the market.

Nikon introduced the Nikon D7100, their shiny new update to the SUPER popular Nikon D7000.

Fuji introduced the Fuji X-E2, a promising update to the much loved Fuji X-E1.

Panasonic rocked the mirrorless world with the Panasonic GX7, a camera so awesome it took a lot of the wind out of the Panasonic flagship's, the Panasonic GH3, sails.

Sony introduced the brothers, the Sony a7 and the Sony a7r, two cameras who made it so hard for photographers to choose between them that many just threw their hands in the air and bought both.

Olympus brought us the Olympus E-M1, the camera many Olympus shooters had been waiting for.

And last but not least, Canon set the DSLR world on fire with their new Canon 70D, a camera revolutionary for it's new Canon Dual-Pixel Hybrid autofocus system.

So which was the best new camera of 2013???

Well, you tell me!  Leave a comment and let us know your vote.

What's that?  You want to know my vote?  But won't that influence yours?  I mean, I don't want to sway you one way or the other now.

Ahhh... OK!  To me, it was a fairly easy choice for the Best New Camera of 2013 crown.  The Canon 70D brought us such revolutionary technology with the Canon Dual-Pixel Hybrid autofocus system that I think there's no question the Canon EOS 70D is the Best New Camera of 2013.

The Canon Dual-Pixel Hybrid autofocus system changed video forever, and every manufacturer out there is scrambling to come up with their own version.  At the moment, there really is no other choice for me when it comes to DSLR video.

If I were buying a new camera today, it would be the Canon 70D, simply because I want that Canon Dual-Pixel Hybrid autofocus system.  I shoot a lot of video these days, as much or more than I do photos, and the Canon Dual-Pixel Hybrid autofocus system is something I wouldn't be without in a new camera.

That said, I'm really looking forward to Nikon, Panasonic, Olympus, and Sony catching up and introducing their own version of the Canon Dual-Pixel Hybrid autofocus system!  Come on guys.  Don't leave us hanging. :-)