canon eos 70d lcd touch screen replacement pricelist

The long-awaited Canon 70D comes packed with a groundbreaking new technology -- Canon"s Dual Pixel CMOS AF system -- that provides on-chip phase detection autofocus at every single pixel. That means a DSLR can finally record video with full-time continuous AF that"s truly camcorder-like, with smooth racking and exceptional subject tracking. And it improves Live View AF to the point where using the LCD monitor feels almost as fast as traditional viewfinder shooting. The 70D also gets an upgrade to 20.2 megapixels of resolution, as well as compelling Wi-Fi features that include remote image capture with full exposure controls. The camera may not wow enthusiasts looking for significantly better still image quality, but the Canon 70D marks a serious step up for photographers wanting pro-level video performance and quality.

Dual Pixel CMOS AF delivers full-time continuous autofocus (with phase detect at every pixel in framing area) for video and Live View still shooting; Full HD (1080p) video recording with pro-level features and quality; Improved resolution and good high ISO performance; Excellent Wi-Fi remote shooting with full exposure controls; 3-inch articulating LCD touchscreen.

Available since September 2013, the Canon EOS 70D is priced at around US$1,200 body-only. Two kit bundles are offered: one with the 18-55mm STM lens for US$1,350, and another with the 18-135mm STM lens for US$1,550. A dedicated 70D battery grip is also available for US$270.

The Canon 70D has been replaced by the Canon 80D, which earned our top pick for Best Intermediate DSLR in our 2016 Camera of the Year awards. The Canon 80D sports a higher-resolution 24MP sensor, a faster processor and a beefed-up 45-point AF system, as well as brings over the excellent Dual Pixel CMOS AF technology from the 70D. For all the details, read our Canon 80D review, or to see how the original 70D stacks up against the new Canon 80D, check out our side-by-side comparison here: Canon 70D vs. Canon 80D.

The Canon 70D (70D bundles and savings) may very well have started a revolution with an innovative autofocus system that"s new not only for Canon DSLRs, but also for the camera industry as a whole. Thanks to its Dual Pixel CMOS AF system, the Canon 70D -- a replacement for the three-year-old 60D -- could change the way you shoot both video and still images.

At the heart of this innovation is the Canon 70D"s image sensor, a 20.2-megapixel APS-C-type CMOS chip that"s been designed to accommodate on-chip phase detection -- but with one huge difference. To date, on-chip phase detect systems have provided but a handful of focus points scattered across the sensor"s surface. With the Canon 70D, almost two-thirds of its surface area at the center of the frame can provide phase-detect AF, and not just at a handful of locations -- we"re talking phase detect at every single pixel.

And unlike typical hybrid systems which use phase detect simply for a ballpark distance and direction to focus, then fine-tune with contrast-detect AF, the Canon 70D"s on-chip phase detect is accurate enough that tuning with contrast detection isn"t necessary. That is huge news for video capture, because it means no more hunting around the point of focus. With the AF bobble gone, full-time video becomes a much more exciting proposition, letting you quickly and smoothly guide your viewers" attention between subjects without distraction.

The new image sensor doesn"t just drive the completely new autofocus system; in addition, its resolution has been increased slightly over the Canon 60D"s. Sensor size is unchanged, but Canon has increased the active imaging area of the sensor slightly, from 22.3 x 14.9mm to 22.5 x 15.0mm. This means that, although pixel pitch has been reduced, the difference isn"t as great as you might otherwise expect. A simultaneous switch to Canon"s new DIGIC 5+ image processor further aims to tame image noise.

The net result is that, according to Canon, the 70D will produce noise levels that are roughly on par with the lower-res 60D for raw shooting. Meanwhile, the company says that JPEG shooters will see a "huge improvement" in image quality. To back up that claim, the ISO sensitivity range has been expanded to encompass everything from ISO 100 to 12,800 equivalents, with the ability to expand sensitivity as high as ISO 25,600 equivalent. Further in our review we"ll see if the camera live up to these promises.

The new image processor also yields a significant increase in burst shooting performance, which is now rated by Canon at a full seven frames per second.

Canon has gifted the EOS 70D with a new body that"s just slightly smaller, while retaining the same side-swiveling LCD monitor, and packing in several new features. These include a touch-panel overlay on the LCD monitor, built-in Wi-Fi wireless networking connectivity, a stereo microphone, and the same Live View control seen on other recent Canon SLRs. And supplementing the new on-chip phase detection system, there"s also a new dedicated autofocus sensor, identical to that used in the EOS 7D.

[Note that in some markets, a variant of the Canon EOS 70D is offered without the aforementioned Wi-Fi wireless networking connectivity. Technically, the Wi-Fi enabled variant is known as the EOS 70D (W), and the variant without Wi-Fi as the EOS 70D (N).]

The Canon EOS 70D"s design clearly shows a strong focus on video. Here, it"s compared to one of the most video-friendly mirrorless cameras, Panasonic"s Lumix DMC-GH3.

As well as all of the hardware changes, Canon has made numerous tweaks to firmware as well. These include the ability to preview creative filter effects before shooting, a new 3x to 10x variable video zoom function, the same video snapshot feature seen in recent Rebel-series cameras, and a choice of both ALL-I and IPB compression schemes for video, along with optional time code.

Walkaround. Although the Canon 70D looks a lot like its predecessor, it does feature a brand-new body design. Let"s take a look at what"s stayed the same, and what"s been changed.

Seen from the front, the Canon 70D is a little less wide than is predecessor. Otherwise, though, the basic dimensions are pretty close to those of the 60D. The arrangement of controls and features on the front of the camera is near-identical. The most significant difference is the absence of the small four-hole microphone port that, on the 60D, sat directly above the model number badge.

Seen from above, the Canon 70D likewise retains an arrangement very much like that of the 60D. As well as the two four-hole ports for the relocated microphone -- now stereo, and straddling the rear of the hot shoe -- there"s a new button between the Shutter button and front dial. This new control is used to select between autofocus area modes. The number of positions on the Mode dial has also been slashed by a third, to just 10.

It"s when you come to the rear of the camera that the changes are more significant. In fact, something of a game of musical chairs has taken place. The Menu and Info buttons have jumped from the top right corner of the LCD monitor, and now sit above its top left corner, instead. With its chair taken, the Delete button has grabbed a spot at the bottom right corner of the display.

The left-hand side of the EOS 70D (as seen from the rear) also shows a few changes. The connectivity available on this side is as it was, but the original single flap covering all of the ports has been split in two, with one half moved slightly behind the other. Microphone / wired remote terminals sit in front of and above the HDMI and combined AV Out / Digital (USB) ports. Above these, the speaker grille is now a nine-hole instead of seven-hole arrangement.

As the years go by, we see camera technology advance by fits and starts. Some developments are a bigger deal than others, but it"s rare that anything really amounts to a true technological breakthrough. However, the Canon 70D"s Dual Pixel CMOS AF system qualifies.

This new AF system is as revolutionary a development as any we can remember seeing since the dawn of the DSLR era itself. By integrating accurate, fully-capable phase-detect autofocus over a majority of the image sensor"s surface, Canon is fundamentally rewriting the book on autofocus.

The Canon 70D delivers phase-detect autofocus across an area that"s fully 80% of the height and width of the sensor, that allowsany area within that region to become a focus point, that can remain operational during video recording, and that will operate at any aperture. It"s a whole new AF ballgame, and one that"s going to shake the DSLR video business to its roots.

Sensor. The story of the Canon EOS 70D begins and ends with its 20.2 megapixel, APS-C CMOS image sensor. It"s absolutely unique, with two photodiodes sitting under a single shared microlens at each pixel location. This, as we"ve described in much more detail further up the page, allows Canon to provide for on-chip phase detection at every pixel location over almost two-thirds of the sensor"s surface area.

The new sensor is also slightly higher-res than the 18.0 megapixel chip of the EOS 60D, although the difference is modest and accompanied by a reduction in pixel pitch from 4.3 to 4.1µm. Simultaneously, the sensor"s active area has increased slightly to 22.5 x 15.0mm, bringing a minute reduction in the focal length crop from 1.61 to 1.6x.

Processor. The Canon 70D replaces its predecessor"s DIGIC 4 image processor with a newer DIGIC 5+ variant, first seen in the EOS-1D X professional digital SLR. The new processor allows improvements both in performance, and in image quality.

When Canon announced the 5D Mark II five years ago, it took the video production world by storm. It was the first full-frame DSLR with high-definition video recording capabilities, and was offered at an extremely affordable price compared to other large-sensor video cameras at the time. It wasn"t a slim margin, either: The Canon 5D II was tens of thousands of dollars more affordable, and yet still had a larger sensor than its rivals! However, for the average video shooter or casual consumer, the 5D Mark II and other subsequent HD-DSLRs all lacked a critical feature: full-time continuous autofocus for video.

Now, the Canon 70D isn"t the first Canon DSLR with video autofocus by any means, as most of the brand"s newer models have some form of continuous Live View AF. However, the Canon 70D feels like the first DSLR that does continuous Live View AF properly. Canon"s new Dual Pixel CMOS AF is pretty amazing -- and not just for video. It works great for still photography, too, as I found out during my time putting it through its paces.

I"ve been a Canon user for a few years now and shoot both still photography and video. I started with a 7D, and a while later added a 5D Mark II to the mix. In terms of still photography, I love my 5D Mark II for landscapes and occasional events or portraits, but my 7D has been my go-to still camera for capturing anything fast and tough to shoot, such as sports and wildlife, thanks to its more advanced autofocus and higher speed continuous shooting.

So, the Canon 70D is awesome for video. But how about stills? Does the added resolution help or hinder the 70D compared to its predecessor? Do the Dual Pixel CMOS AF system"s two photodiodes sharing a single microlens at each pixel location impact still image quality? We compare Canon 70D with the Canon 60D, Canon 7D, Olympus OM-D E-M5, Pentax K-5 II and Nikon D7100 to find out how the 70D competes in still image quality. Have a look and let your eyes be the judge!

Image quality on the screen and printed output don"t always mesh. Our print quality analysis gives you a definitive answer to the question: "How large can I print my photos as I push ISO?"

The Canon 70D more than holds its own in the print quality department, delivering sharp, worthwhile images at sizes comparable to its competition all the way up the sensitivity scale. It is worth noting here that one of its primary competitors, the Nikon D7100 (70D vs D7100), does print one size larger at base ISO due in large part to higher resolution and the lack of a low pass filter, but the 70D stays in step for most of the remaining ISOs, and even bests the D7100 at ISO 25,600. The D7100 does better at resolving detail in our difficult red fabric swatch, while the 70D does a better job controlling noise in shadowy areas as ISO rises, so there"s a definite trade-off one direction or another. But for the most part these two challengers deliver comparable image quality other than the difference we mentioned at base ISO.

The Canon 70D ultimately may not have delivered what everyone wanted or expected -- a significant upgrade in still image quality over its predecessor, the 60D -- but instead it ushered in a new technology so unexpected (and useful) that there"s no way we could be disappointed. We love when a camera manufacturer surprises us with a treat like Canon"s Dual Pixel CMOS AF technology. After all, a rare, ground-breaking innovation like this doesn"t come around too often.

What"s even better is that the 70D"s full-time phase detection autofocus system for video and Live View shooting -- with PDAF at every pixel in the AF area -- more than lives up to its promise. We were thoroughly impressed by how quickly and accurately the Dual Pixel CMOS AF operated. For movies, this technology finally puts true camcorder-like performance into an HD-DSLR; it"s been a long time coming. Racking focus between near and far subjects is especially easy and smooth with the 70D"s LCD touchscreen touch-to-focus feature. And when using Live View for still shooting, the advanced autofocusing felt nearly as fast as traditional viewfinder shooting under most scenarios.

Sensor. The story of the Canon EOS 70D begins and ends with its 20.2 megapixel, APS-C CMOS image sensor. It"s absolutely unique, with two photodiodes sitting under a single shared microlens at each pixel location. This, as we"ve described in much more detail further up the page, allows Canon to provide for on-chip phase detection at every pixel location over almost two-thirds of the sensor"s surface area.

The new sensor is also slightly higher-res than the 18.0 megapixel chip of the EOS 60D, although the difference is modest and accompanied by a reduction in pixel pitch from 4.3 to 4.1µm. Simultaneously, the sensor"s active area has increased slightly to 22.5 x 15.0mm, bringing a minute reduction in the focal length crop from 1.61 to 1.6x.

Processor. The Canon 70D replaces its predecessor"s DIGIC 4 image processor with a newer DIGIC 5+ variant, first seen in the EOS-1D X professional digital SLR. The new processor allows improvements both in performance, and in image quality.

Performance. In terms of performance, the Canon EOS 70D brings a 26% increase in our lab-measured burst-shooting speed, from the 5.3 frames per second of the 60D to a swift 6.7fps in the newer camera.

The performance (and increase in performance) don"t quite match those claimed by Canon, but they"re in the ballpark, and you"ll certainly notice the extra speed.

Sensitivity. Equally important is the Canon 70D"s noise performance. Here, the extra horsepower of DIGIC 5+ allows more sophisticated noise reduction algorithms, while the newer sensor design is said to mitigate effects of the reduced pixel pitch. Canon claims raw performance to be on par with the EOS 60D at like sensitivities, despite the slightly higher resolution, and our testing backed that up -- at the pixel level, both cameras turn in a very similar performance.

Thanks to these improvements, the Canon 70D sports an expanded default ISO sensitivity range of 100 to 12,800 equivalents, with the ability to push to ISO 25,600 if needed. By contrast, the 60D topped out at ISO 6,400 ordinarily, with an expansion to ISO 12,800 available. The difference is, it has to be said, much as you"d expect given the three additional years of development possible since the 60D"s release.

35mm lenses have a 1.6x focal length crop when mounted on the EOS 70D. Two kit lens choices are available; either the 18-55mm STM lens, or the 18-135mm STM lens. Alternatively, you can buy the body alone, and supply your own lenses.

Autofocus. This, more than anything else, was obviously a key target for improvement in the Canon 70D. We"ve already detailed the new on-chip autofocus system, dubbed Dual Pixel CMOS AF, so if you"ve skipped ahead, scroll up to our "Close Look at the Canon 70D"s Dual Pixel CMOS AF" for in-depth info.

Briefly, though, Canon"s new system allows it to provide for phase detection at every pixel location across 80% of the frame height, and 79.56% of its width, both for still image shooting in Live View mode, and more importantly, during video capture. The system is accurate enough that there is no need for a fine-tune with contrast detection autofocus after phase detection has completed. Since it covers so much of the frame, it also allows phase detection autofocusing at apertures where dedicated sensors no longer work. Its main drawback, other than the fact you can"t use the optical viewfinder, is that it operates only on one axis, and so isn"t sensitive to vertical detail.

You"re only going to derive the benefit of that system for movies and Live View, however. In regular still-image shooting through the viewfinder, the Canon 70D reverts to a dedicated phase detection sensor. It"s not a new chip, but it"s new to this class, and borrowed from the Canon EOS 7D. It provides 19 autofocus points, each of them a cross-type, optimized to detect both horizontal and vertical features. In the center of the screen is an X-type sensor, designed to detect diagonal lines as well. It also requires lenses of f/2.8 or better, while the other points will work up to f/5.6.

Viewfinder. The Canon 70D features an eye-level pentaprism viewfinder with just over 97% coverage according to our lab testing, slightly improved from the 60D, which had a little over 96%. (The 50D had 95% coverage, so the figure is gradually creeping closer to the ideal, although Canon still lags some more affordable competitors in this area.)

Just like the 60D, the Canon EOS 70D provides a diopter adjustment range of -3.0 to +1.0m-1 diopters. However, it now lacks its predecessor"s ability to exchange focusing screens, and instead features a fixed transmissive LCD screen.

Display. Just like its predecessor -- which introduced the feature to the EOS line -- the Canon 70D includes a tilt / swivel LCD display (or Vari-Angle, in Canon parlance). The tilt mechanism allows the LCD to be folded out 90 degrees to the left of the 70D"s body, while the 270-degree swivel mechanism allows the screen to be turned 180 degrees to face upward or forward, or 90 degrees in the opposite direction to face directly downward. This also allows the LCD to be stowed facing inward, offering a modicum of protection against light bumps, scratches, and fingerprints.

The Canon 70D"s screen comprises a three-inch, gapless Clear View II TFT LCD panel, in place of its predecessor"s Clear View type. The change should translate to reduced glare and better contrast under strong ambient light. Dot count is still 1,040,000 dots, which roughly equates to a 720 x 480 pixel array. The Canon 70D"s panel has 100% coverage and 170-degree viewing angles. Display brightness is adjustable in seven steps.

It"s a capacitive panel like those found on most smartphones these days, and is particularly useful for touch autofocus during video capture, letting you seamlessly guide your viewers" attention from one subject to another with subtle focus changes.

Exposure. The Canon 70D offers a third fewer exposure modes on its Mode dial than did the 60D, a change that makes it rather simpler and more approachable. Modes that have been retained include the obvious Program, Aperture-priority, Shutter-priority, and Manual, plus Camera User, Creative Auto, and Flash Off. The Full Auto mode has been replaced by an Auto+ (aka Scene Intelligent Auto) mode, the Movie mode dropped altogether, and the five Scene modes that previously merited their own Mode dial positions have been combined into a single Scene position.

Metering. Like the 60D before it, the Canon EOS 70D includes a 63-zone iFCL metering sensor, which has a dual-layer design. Each layer is sensitive to different wavelengths of light, allowing subject color to be taken into account when determining exposure. Information on focusing points is also considered in metering calculations.

The Canon 70D"s exposure metering options include 63-zone Evaluative, Center-weighted Average, Partial (7.7% of image frame at center), and Spot (3.0% of image frame at center). Metering sensitivity range is specified at 1 to 20 EV (at 23°C/73°F, with 50mm f/1.4 lens, ISO 100).

Shutter. Available shutter speeds from the electronically-controlled focal plane shutter in the Canon 70D range from 30 to 1/8,000 second in 1/2 or 1/3 EV increments. There"s also a bulb mode of unstated maximum duration. Shutter life is rated by Canon at 100,000 cycles, unchanged from the EOS 60D.

Internal flash. Befitting its status as a non-pro camera, the Canon EOS 70D includes a built-in flash, something that consumers appreciate, and enthusiasts may find benefit from occasionally, as well. (It"s nice not to have to carry an external strobe on every trip, just in case.)

The 70D"s built-in, popup flash strobe has a guide number of 12 meters (~39.4 feet) at ISO 100. Coverage is approximately 27mm (35mm-equivalent), and X-sync is at 1/250 second.

External flash. As well as the built-in flash, there"s an intelligent hot shoe compatible with EX-series Speedlites and Canon"s E-TTL II metering system. Both Canon"s IR and radio-controlled wireless flash systems are supported, with the appropriate hardware.

Level gauge. Canon has included a single-axis electronic level function in the EOS 70D, capable of indicating side-to-side roll. Unlike some competing cameras, there"s no front-to-back pitch indication, however. That means you should be able to ensure level horizons, but you won"t get any help with preventing converging verticals.

Sealing. Just like its predecessor, the Canon EOS 70D includes weather sealing. Canon describes the camera as dust and moisture resistant, and says that it is sealed to the same degree as was the EOS 60D.

In Handheld Night Scene mode, the 70D will capture four sequential exposures, raising sensitivity enough to attain a hand-holdable shutter speed. It will then merge all four in-camera, averaging out some of the noise across exposures. The result: a handheld picture with less noise than you might expect, so long as your subject is reasonably static.

Finally, there is a choice of seven different Creative Filter effects in the 70D. These include Grainy Black and White, Soft Focus, Fisheye Effect, Toy Camera Effect, Miniature Effect, Art Bold Effect and Water Painting Effect. Each offers three different effect strengths, and can be previewed before shooting your final image.

Video. The 70D doesn"t just provide for still imaging. Video can be captured, too, at up to Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixel) resolution. When shooting at this maximum resolution, you have a choice of 30, 25, or 24 frames per second. At 720p HD (1280 x 720 pixels), your choices are 60 or 50 frames per second. Finally, there"s a VGA (640 x 480 pixel) mode, recorded at 30 or 25 fps.

You can choose to control exposure either fully automatically, or fully manually. If set to a Priority or Bulb mode, the EOS 70D will use Program autoexposure. It"s also possible to use Auto+ exposure, which will be set whenever any Basic Zone mode is dialed in.

Connectivity. The Canon 70D features similar connectivity to the full-frame Canon 6D, including built-in Wi-Fi for remote shooting, sharing and transferring of photos with Canon"s EOS Remote App. Note, though, that the Wi-Fi connectivity is not available in all markets. For some markets, a variant called the Canon EOS 70D (N) will be sold, and this will not include Wi-Fi.

There"s also one important difference from the Canon 6D in the connectivity department. Unlike that camera, there is no GPS in the Canon 70D. Other connectivity features are standard fare, including both a USB 2.0 port and HDMI output (mini-HDMI, type C). There is also a 3.5mm microphone jack for attaching an external mic.

Accessories. A range of accessories are available for the Canon EOS 70D. If you shoot with the 60D, you"ll be pleased to hear that quite a few -- including the LP-E6 battery packs, LC-E6 battery charger, ACK-E6 AC adapter kit, and CBC-E6 car battery charger kit -- can be used with your 70D. You can also keep your Angle Finder C, dioptric adjustment lenses, viewfinder eyepiece frames, remote switches, and cables.

There is one accessory you"ll need to buy anew, though, and sadly it"s one of the most expensive. The Canon EOS 70D uses a new portrait / battery grip, the BG-E14, priced at around US$270. The BG-E9 grip used with the 60D will not work with the newer camera.

Canon has announced the R10, a 24MP entry-level APS-C mirrorless camera for the RF mount. It arrives alongside a more expensive R7 sister model and looks a lot like a replacement for parts of the company"s classic "Rebel/XX0D" DSLRs.

The EOS R10 will be available, body-only, for a recommended selling price of $979. Kit options include a bundle with the compact, collapsible 18-45mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM for $1099 or with the 18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM for around $1379.

Canon says the sensor is a new chip it’s never used before, but has not given any details of how it"s changed. We know of instances in the past where Canon has squeezed a bit more out of an existing design by moving to a new production line that uses a finer process scale (higher precision fabrication of the circuitry), but we"ll have to wait to see how the sensor works in practice.

The EOS R10 gets a completely revised AF system with algorithms derived from those in the EOS R3. Specifically, that means it gains subject recognition modes allowing it to reliably identify and track humans, animals or vehicles. In the case of humans and animals, the camera has been trained to focus on the eye, and in vehicle mode there"s a "spot focus" option that lets you prioritize the rider of a motorbike or the helmet of a driver in open-wheel racing cars.

Beyond the multi-shot modes are interesting options such as a panning mode, for giving a blurred background as you pan the camera to match a moving subject. Canon"s panning mode detects how quickly you"re panning the camera and automatically chooses a shutter speed that will give you a motion-blurred background while also giving you a good chance of keeping your moving subject nice and sharp.

The EOS R10"s video is a fair step up from existing Canon models that used a 24MP sensor. It can shoot UHD 4K footage at up to 30p using the full width of its sensor to deliver oversampled 4K footage taken from 6K capture. Alternatively, you can crop in to what appears to be a native 3840 x 2160 pixel region of the sensor to shoot 60p footage.

As we"ve seen on the EOS R6 and R5, the R7 and R10 can shoot 10-bit HEIF files using the HDR "PQ" curve. These shoot wider dynamic range images in a way that allows them to show that wider dynamic range in a realistic manner if you connect the camera to a high dynamic range display or TV.

What hasn"t been cut is the number of control points: with the R10 featuring two large, prominent dials on the camera"s top-plate. There"s an upward facing one, just behind the shutter button and a horizontally-placed one on the rear shoulder of the camera, just above the on/off switch. This is a level of direct exposure control Canon has traditionally reserved for higher-end models, so it"s good to see on the more basic of the two new models.

On the plus-side, it gets the same viewfinder panel as the R7, along with a fully-articulated touchscreen (albeit with lower magnification on the finder and a lower res rear panel). The handgrip is narrower than that of the R7, and seems to protrude slightly further forward, meaning your knuckles are more likely to encounter the wider part of some lenses. It"s not dissimilar to the smaller Rebel SL models.

The viewfinder is a 2.36M dot OLED panel, which is still a common spec on sub-$1000 mirrorless cameras. This one has a rather small 0.95x magnification (0.59x in equivalent terms). Canon tends not to give information about refresh rates. Neither is a particularly high-end panel, but both are comparable, for now, with the camera"s (rather elderly) peers.

The R10 uses the LP-E17 battery that"s been used in Rebel DSLRs and several M-series mirrorless cameras before. It"s a compact, 7.5Wh unit, which is not good news in a mirrorless camera. It delivers a reasonable 350 shots per charge when using the rear screen and a rather low 210 shot rating when using the viewfinder. These figures are for smoothness priority mode: dropping to power saving mode sees these numbers jump to 430 and 260, respectively.

Canon says that both its EF mount and the M-series of APS-C mirrorless cameras will continue alongside the R10, but it"s hard to imagine that either is likely to persist in the long-run. Everything about the R10 screams that it"s designed to be a Rebel T8i (EOS 850D) camera in the RF range, and it"s hard to believe Canon plans to put as much weight behind maintaining its legacy lens mounts as into the one its pinning its future on.

So how does it look? Perfectly fine would be our first impression. And, historically, that"s often been the bar that Canon"s had to reach, to sell a load of cameras. The Digital Rebel series represented a breakthrough in bringing DSLRs to a comparatively accessible price point, but its progress has tended to be somewhat incremental since then. They"ve rarely been the most capable or the best-specced cameras, but they"ve worked well and build up enough goodwill to continually sell well.

But that"s talking about the camera market looking back ten to twenty years. Times have changed, fewer people are buying dedicated cameras and through good design and powerful processing, smartphones are delivering image quality that competes with some ILCs but with little of the bulk and none of the effort. Having the name "Canon" on the front will still help sell R10s but only to those people still going out to buy a dedicated camera.

The R10 certainly has a few spec points in its favor: it"s the only model in its class to offer 4K/60 capture (though there"s a significant crop and the footage is a touch soft), and the only one that can shoot at an impressive 15 fps using its mechanical shutter. The buffer isn"t huge, so it"s not going to be your first choice for sports, but for brief moments of action, it"ll be a stronger offering than you can currently get from Fujifilm, Nikon or Sony.

The EOS R10 is pretty compact, especially when combined with the collapsible 18-45mm F4.5-6.3 zoom. Its 29-72mm equiv range is pretty handy but that F7.2-10 equivalent aperture range isn"t especially inviting.

Moving across to the RF mount gives a degree of future-proofing that"s been ebbing away from the EF and EF-M series, which is likely to make would-be buyers more confident. And the arrival of price-conscious APS-C buyers into the system is only likely to provide more reason for Canon to expand the more affordable end of the RF lens lineup, even if the priority is likely to be focal lengths that work well for full-frame shooters, first and foremost.

Viewed from the front, the EOS 70D greatly resembles its predecessor. Measuring 139x104x79mm, it’s the same thickness, but 2mm shorter and 6mm narrower, making for a body that’s a tad smaller when both are placed side-by-side. In use though, there’s essentially nothing in it, especially as both bodies share exactly the same weight of 755g including battery.

Both are smaller and lighter than the EOS 7D (at 148x111x74mm and 900g with battery) which occupies a ‘higher-end’ position in the current line-up, although as mentioned in the intro, the EOS 70D now roughly matches many of its features and exceeds it in some respects. Meanwhile Nikon’s D7100, which is aimed at a similar buyer to the 70D, is roughly the same weight at 765g including battery, but slightly narrower and thinner, and a little taller at 136x107x76mm; I’ve pictured the 70D alongside the D7100 below. In your hands they’re essentially the same size and weight.

In terms of build quality, the EOS 70D shares a similar construction to the EOS 60D with a plastic-covered metal shell. In this respect it remains below the ultimate toughness of the EOS 7D, not to mention the much earlier EOS 50D, with their full magnesium alloy shells. Interestingly Nikon has gone for a halfway approach with the D7100 and the D7000 before it, by employing magnesium alloy on selected parts of the body, satisfying the desires of many enthusiasts without the cost and weight of a full magnesium alloy body such as the D300s or EOS 7D.

While you can debate the actual durability of the D7100 versus the 70D thanks to their materials, there’s no doubt Nikon is more upfront about the degree of environmental sealing on its mid-range camera, describing the D7100 as having full weather-sealing. In contrast, Canon has once again rolled-out the somewhat confusing statement that the 70D shares equivalent weather sealing to the EOS 1N film camera. Now while the 1N was a pro SLR in the mid-Nineties, it’s hard for most people to know exactly how capable it was, and whether it’s more or less capable at repelling dust and moisture than the D7100 – we’ll have to wait and see from anecdotal owner reports, although I should note Canon also used the 1N comparison with the EOS 7D, so we can at least conclude the sealing is to the same standard as the 7D even if it doesn’t share its magnesium alloy body. I also don’t recall the comparison being used for the 60D, so the implication is that the 70D is superior in this regard to its predecessor.

In your hands the 70D feels satisfyingly chunky. There’s plenty to wrap your fingers around on the grip, and on the rear is a substantial ridge for your thumb to press against. The D7100 is also a lovely camera to hold, benefitting from Nikon’s hooked inner area inside the grip for your fingertips, although the thumb rest on the rear isn’t as pronounced as on the Canon. It’s all down to personal preferences, but I felt the coarser rubber texture on the 70D was stickier than the smoother pattern on the surfaces of the D7100.

The EOS 70D employs the same LP-E6 Lithium Ion battery pack as the EOS 60D, EOS 7D and EOS 6D, which Canon quotes is good for 920 shots using the viewfinder (23 degrees Celsius), a drop from the 1100 and 1090 quoted for the EOS 60D and EOS 6D under the same conditions, but more than the 800 of the EOS 7D and essentially the same as the 950 Nikon quotes for the D7100. Switch the camera to Live View and Canon quotes 230 shots per charge for the 70D. I managed just over 300 shots on a single charge with a fair amount of Live View shooting and around 20 movie clips lasting 30-60 seconds.

While owners of the EOS 60D will be able to use any spare battery packs though, they won’t be able to use the same battery grip as the EOS 70D requires the new BG-E14; like most grips, this can take two battery packs and provides portrait controls.

In terms of connectivity, the EOS 70D is equipped with USB and Mini HDMI ports, along with a 3.5mm jack for external stereo microphones. It’s also compatible with the RS-60E3 and RC-6 remote controls and features built-in Wifi for wireless connectivity, more about which later in the review. Unlike the Nikon D7100, it does not however feature a headphone jack, but again it does feature built-in Wifi which Nikon forces you to buy as a separate accessory.

While I’m delighted Canon’s equipped the 70D with Wifi and allows both remote control via smartphones and laptops / desktops, I’m disappointed it didn’t include built-in GPS, nor even supplied or suggested a means to sync with a GPS log made by a smartphone. The EOS 6D and even the pocket SX280 HS both sport Wifi and GPS, so why do we have to buy it as a separate accessory here? It’s not cheap either, as the GP-E2 accessory costs around $250 USD even with discount applied.

Finally, the EOS 70D includes a popup flash with a Guide number of 12m at 100 ISO (matching the Nikon D7100), and a hotshoe for external flashguns. Like most mid-range cameras, there’s no PC sync port for external lighting on either the 70D or D7100.

In terms of controls, the EOS 70D will be familiar to anyone who’s used a Canon DSLR. Much is inherited from the earlier 60D, with a few enhancements borrowed from the 7D. The result is a layout that’s very similar to the EOS 6D.

Like all those models, the mode dial is on the upper left side of the body, surrounded by a satisfyingly chunky power switch. The mode dial has a button in the middle which needs to be held down before it can be turned, preventing any accidental changes. I’ll cover the modes themselves in more detail later, but for now note that the 70D has lost the separate positions for the most popular scene presets and now, like the 6D, bundles them together under a single SCN position – you then choose the desired preset from the on-screen menu.

On the upper right side is an LCD information screen which offers the same details as the 60D with the addition of a new Wifi status icon; as such you can view not only the shutter speed and aperture, but also the ISO and the number of shots remaining at a glance without anything doubling up for anything else; note the Nikon D7100’s upper LCD display uses the same numbers to indicate ISO and shots remaining, so you can’t see them both at the same time.

To the lower right of the screen is the same thumb wheel as found on the 60D and 6D which features an eight-way rocker in the middle and a small SET button inside of that. As I mentioned in my 60D review, I felt the inner rocker is a little too flush with the outer thumb wheel and that you can sometimes accidentally press or turn one when you wanted the other. I much prefer the ergonomics of the chunkier thumb wheel and joystick on the higher end models like the 7D and up, and wonder why Canon feel the need to deploy a smaller one here.

Following the 7D and 6D, and in a nice upgrade over the 60D, the 70D now employs a simple control for entering Live View and the movie mode. This consists of a Start / Stop button surrounded by a collar which switches between Live View or Movies. This works really well and is a welcome change from the 60D. Note Nikon now adopts a similar approach on models like the D7100.

But there’s another important control difference between the 70D and the 60D, not to mention the 7D and 6D. The screen on the 70D is touch-sensitive, sharing the same wonderful interface as models like the EOS 100D / SL1 and 700D / T5i. Revealingly, the 70D is Canon’s highest-end DSLR to feature a touch-screen, which indicates the company is beginning to realise they’re also useful for more serious or professional photographers. About time I say. Touchscreens are incredibly useful for a number of reasons and it perplexes me why they’re not available on semi-pro and pro level DSLRs. Maybe there’s a toughness aspect I’m unaware of, but if it’s down to negative market perception, then I wish the market would get over it.

Like earlier Canon DSLRs with touch-screens, you can tap your way through the on-screen Q menu, adjusting pretty much anything you like. The main menu system can also be navigated by touch and despite the small text, this works surprisingly well. When it comes to entering text for copyright information or Wifi codes, you’ll also welcome the option to tap them in rather than scroll one character at a time through an on-screen alphabet. Swiping through images in playback and pinching to zoom also comes very naturally after using smartphones and tablets. And of course there’s the killer application of tapping to set the focusing area, or tapping to refocus while filming video. Canon’s touch-screen interface is one of the best around and you can pretty much control every aspect of the 70D by tapping, although the wealth of physical buttons, dials and switches means you can completely ignore it if you prefer. Personally speaking though, the touch-screen on the 70D is a valuable addition to Canon’s mid-range DSLR and I hope it’s deployed across the entire range sooner rather than later.

Finally, like all Canon DSLRs, the EOS 70D is also supplied with the free EOS Utility, which supports full remote control of the camera using a PC or Mac, over a cabled USB or wireless Wifi connection, the latter only working via a Wifi access point rather than direct.

The EOS Utility looks much the same as before, allowing you to adjust virtually any setting apart from changing the exposure mode. As before you can fire-up a Live View window with a high resolution live image, remote focus, take photos and have them recorded to the computer, camera or both, or trigger movie recording, although videos are still only recorded to the internal memory card. You can also set up an interval timer, which goes some way to compensate for one not being built-into the camera (unlike the D7100 which has one built-in). In Live View Shooting you can load an optional overlay image for lining up compositions, and I’m pleased to report the leveling gauge first deployed on the 5D Mark III is now also available here, albeit in a simpler single axis format.

But while I’d like the mobile app to share the same degree of functionality as the EOS Utility for Macs and PCs, it seems churlish to complain as it’s all provided free. So whether you’re running Windows, MacOS, iOS or Android, there’s free remote control options available for the EOS 70D.

As an EOS DSLR, the 70D features a standard EF lens mount with native compatibility with the entire Canon EF lens catalogue, including EF-S models designed for the smaller APS-C sensor. This is the key benefit of the EOS 70D over rival formats, especially youthful mirrorless ones: native access to over 80 lenses from the enormous Canon catalogue without the need for an adapter or compromised AF performance. With an APS-C sensor, the effective field of view of all lenses is reduced by 1.6 times, so the 18-55mm and 18-135mm kit zooms would deliver a field of view equivalent to 29-88mm and 29-216mm on a full-frame DSLR. I tested the EOS 70D using the EF-S 18-135mm STM lens which features smooth and virtually silent focusing in Live View and movies; if you intend to shoot a lot of video with the 70D, it’s well worth going for Canon’s STM lenses. Here’s an example of the coverage at both ends of the focal range.

As a traditional DSLR, the Canon EOS 70D is equipped with an optical viewfinder and it’s a slight upgrade over the one in the earlier EOS 60D. Both employ penta-prism designs with 0.95x magnification, but the EOS 70D boasts 98% coverage compared to 96% on the EOS 60D. Neither match the 100% coverage delivered by the EOS 7D or Nikon D7100 though, and it’s worth noting the EOS 7D delivers a slightly larger image too at 1x magnification.

When compared side-by-side the Nikon D7100 delivers a slightly larger image through its viewfinder compared to the EOS 70D, and again the D7100 offers 100% coverage compared to 98% on the 70D. Meanwhile the Olympus OMD EM5’s electronic viewfinder delivers a 100% view with an image is almost exactly the same width as the 70D’s optical viewfinder image, but it’s a little taller on the EM5 due to its squarer aspect ratio.

In a nice upgrade over the EOS 60D, the EOS 70D offers on-demand LCD graphics in its optical viewfinder, including the active AF points and an optional alignment grid. An optional simple icon in the lower middle of the frame can also indicate if the camera is level or tilted to one side or the other, but not by how much, while three additional icons in the upper middle can optionally indicate the AF area mode. Note Nikon’s D7100 also offers on-demand LCD graphics in its viewfinder, again including an optional alignment grid, but in addition dedicated scales on the right and bottom sides to act as a dual-axis virtual horizon. The Olympus OMD EM5’s electronic viewfinder can of course overlay a multitude of colour graphics including a dual-axis level or live histogram.

Like the EOS 60D, the 70D is also equipped with a 3in screen with 1040k dot (720×480 pixel) resolution and a 3:2 aspect ratio which means images composed in Live View or played back will fill the screen. Meanwhile Nikon’s D7100 offers a slightly larger 3.2in screen with 1229k dots (640×480 pixels), but in the squarer 4:3 aspect ratio which means images are composed in Live View or played back with a thin black strip underneath. This crop effectively means the active image area on the D7100 is roughly similar to that on the EOS 70D.

The info button cycles between a page of settings information, a single axis leveling gauge (c’mon can’t we have a dual axis on every model?) and the main shooting information screen, which can be adjusted using the Q Menu interface. There’s no eye sensors to turn it off when composing with the viewfinder, but another press of the Info button will do that if you prefer.

Switch the camera to Live View and, as mentioned above, you’ll fill the screen with the image when set to the native 3:2 aspect ratio. Pressing the Info button cycles through views with and without shooting information, or with a superimposed live histogram. If you have enabled one of the alignment grids, this will appear in every view.Sadly there’s no virtual leveling gauge in Live View.

But the EOS 70D’s screen has two major benefits over the D7100. First, like the EOS 60D before it, the screen is fully articulated, allowing it to flip out and twist to any angle including forwards towards the subject. This gives it much greater compositional flexibility than the D7100, and it’s a shame Nikon only feels an articulated screen is appropriate for its D5xxx series at the moment.

The second benefit over the D7100 – not to mention an upgrade over the EOS 60D and even the 6D – is that the EOS 70D’s screen is now also touch-sensitive. Canon’s made the sensible decision to adopt the touch-screen capabilities and interface of the EOS T4i / 650D and its successor the EOS T5i / 700D, which allows you to tap through the menus, swipe and pinch during playback and best of all, tap to refocus anywhere on the screen whether shooting stills or filming video. Even if you’re not bothered about using the touch capabilities to navigate the menus, the ability to tap to focus is useful to all still and movie shooters and a significant benefit over the EOS 60D, EOS 7D, EOS 6D and the Nikon D7100. It’s also worth noting again that the EOS 70D becomes Canon’s highest-end DSLR to feature a touch-screen as the company foolishly didn’t implement one on the EOS 6D.

A quick note on the Olympus OMD EM5’s screen: it also has a 3in 3:2 shaped panel, albeit lower resolution at 610k, and if you’re shooting in the native 4:3 aspect ratio there’ll be thin black bars running down the left and right sides, resulting in a slightly smaller active image size than the 70D or D7100. The EM5’s screen is touch-sensitive and tilts vertically, so it’s more flexible than the D7100’s, but misses out on the full articulation and higher resolution of the 70D – although again it does have a dual-axis leveling gauge.

The EOS 70D features significant upgrades to autofocusing whether you’re composing through the optical viewfinder or using the screen in Live View. Starting with the traditional approach, the EOS 70D now inherits the 19-point all cross-type sensor of the EOS 7D which works at light levels down to -0.5 EV. This represents a decent upgrade over the EOS 60D which employed a simpler 9-point AF system, albeit again all cross-type sensitive down to -0.5 EV.

For the record, Nikon’s D7100 employs a 51-point AF system equipping it with a broader and denser spread of AF points, although ‘only’ 15 of them are cross-type sensors. That said, Nikon’s AF system is sensitive down to -2 EV, allowing it to work under dimmer conditions. It’s also worth noting that while Canon’s EOS 6D ‘only’ offers a 11-point AF system with just a single cross-type sensor in the middle, it works under even dimmer conditions of -3 EV. It’s always worth comparing these capabilities if you’re fond of shooting in low light.

In use, the 70D’s traditional viewfinder based AF system works as you’d expect, feeling as responsive as the 7D. In Single AF mode, it’ll lock onto subjects very swiftly, and in Servo AF it can easily track subjects approaching or receding at reasonable speed. For example it had no problems tracking my kids and keeping them in focus as they ran towards me at top speed – so long as they stayed within the boundaries of the AF sensor of course. Like all Canon DSLRs, it’s also easy to manually select a single AF point, and the Zone AF option, which divides the total array into five groups allowing auto selection from a specific portion of the frame, also works well.

I’m particularly pleased to find AF Micro adjustment reinstated on the 70D after it was unceremoniously removed from the 60D, and the icing on the cake is that it’s more sophisticated than the implementation on the 7D. With the 70D you can register up to 40 lenses and if they’re zooms, you can make separate adjustments to both the short and the long ends of the range.

So inheriting the EOS 7D’s traditional viewfinder AF system (with some features removed but others added) is definitely a nice upgrade the EOS 70D enjoys over its predecessor, but the most exciting development involves the autofocusing when shooting in Live View with the screen.

The EOS 70D boasts a brand new Dual Pixel CMOS AF system for Live View and movies which, like existing hybrid AF systems, embeds phase detect sensors on the main imaging sensor. What makes it unique in the market though is a whopping 80% of the EOS 70D’s sensor pixels double-up as phase-detect AF sensors, equipping it with more powerful autofocusing capabilities than earlier hybrid solutions.

With Dual Pixel CMOS AF, Canon has split each pixel into two separate light gathering photo diodes. These photo diodes can be read separately to provide phase-detect AF information, or, and this is the clever part, be read together as conventional imaging pixels. This means Canon can effectively devote all of the pixels to autofocusing, then simply switch them into imaging once the picture needs to be recorded. There’s no compromise, in theory at least.

In practice, the 70D’s sensor ‘only’ uses 80% of its pixels in this dual-use scenario, but that’s still enough to cover most of the frame. So anything falling into this area can be quickly focused on, and thanks to there being 16 million phase detect points in there, the 70D does not need to fall back on contrast-based AF to finish the job. Better still, the Dual Pixel CMOS AF system is not restricted to minimum apertures of f5.6 or f8 for successful operation – it can work down to f11, allowing you to autofocus with most telephoto lenses even when coupled with a tele-converter. It also means movies can be autofocused at apertures down to f11 as well. This is in contrast to, say, Sony’s SLT system which reflects some of its incoming light to drive a traditional phase-detect AF system, but of course reduces the total light striking the imaging sensor, only offers a handful of AF points and only works at f5.6 or brighter.

Couple Canon’s Dual Pixel AF system with a touch-screen and it’s easy to see the potential of the EOS 70D – just tap almost anywhere on the screen and the camera should quickly and confidently refocus without any hunting. In fact this seems as good a time as any to show you a demonstration of just that happening in practice in the movie mode.

In this video I placed the EOS 70D on a tabletop and used the touch-screen to pull focus between the jar of sugar cubes in the foreground and the rear of the cafe in the background. I had the 18-135mm lens set to 50mm and the aperture opened to the maximum available value, in this case, f5. This may not seem particularly fast, but with the jar positioned close to the minimum focusing distance and the rear of the cafe some distance away, the resulting shallow depth of field provides a considerable challenge to any continuous AF system. But once again the EOS 70D manages to pull-focus effortlessly between the macro foreground and distant cafe with barely any evidence of searching. Rival contrast-based systems would not only search to confirm the final focus, but would almost certainly struggle to lock onto the highly blurred subjects. Here the 70D has done a great job. I should also note the focusing area for the jar was towards the left side of the frame, which would normally be outside the region covered by previous hybrid AF systems.

Unlike many AF systems which only work with certain lenses, Canon also claims its Dual Pixel CMOS AF system will work with no fewer than 103 lenses in the EF catalogue, and that it’s also 30% faster than the Hybrid AF system on models like the EOS SL1 / 100D. In short, it sounds like the Holy Grail of AF for movies and Live View on DSLRs, but of course that’s only the theory. To find out how it performs in practice, I closely compared the 70D’s Live View with that on earlier Canon DSLRs, its main rival the Nikon D7100 and several leading mirrorless cameras which of course operate in Live View only.

The EOS 70D offers four AF options for Live View: Face and Tracking, Flexizone Multi AF, Flexizone Single AF, and Quick Mode. The first three use the new Dual Pixel AF system, while Quick Mode momentarily flips the mirror down to take a reading with the traditional viewfinder AF system before raising the mirror again to continue with Live View. Quick Mode is a hangover from the first Canon DSLRs to sport Live View, offering some respite from the slow contrast-based AF on those early models. But as hybrid systems have arrived and matured, not to mention now crowned by Dual Pixel AF, it’s become increasingly irrelevant, so I’ll now concentrate on the far more exciting first three modes.

In Flexizone Multi AF, the 70D splits the active AF area into 31 squares which cover roughly 80% of the frame in a thick cross shape leaving only small square gaps in the extreme corners and thin strips on the sides uncovered. Left to its own devices the camera will attempt to identify the subject and use as many AF areas as it sees fit to lock onto it. Alternatively if you press the SET button or tap the screen you can group the 31 AF areas into nine zones, allowing you to refine the region you’d like the camera to monitor. Note if you choose to shoot in different aspect ratios, the total number of AF areas will reduce – for example if you’re shooting in 16:9 or filming HD video, the number of AF areas reduces to 25.

In Flexizone Single AF you can position a single AF area pretty much anywhere you like within a rectangle that’s only slightly smaller than the entire frame; you can use the physical controls to position the frame or simply tap where you’d like it to be on the screen. It’s possible to magnify this area by five or ten times for a closer look and confirmation that the subject is in focus, and like all Canon DSLRs, the magnified display is very clean and detailed.

In all three modes, the 70D will focus on the target area with a half-press of the shutter release, or if Continuous AF is enabled, it’ll make continuous adjustments so that there’s minimal delay when you come to take the photo. Continuous AF will also attempt to track a subject in motion, more of which in a moment.

Enable Continuous AF though and the process becomes noticeably quicker. With the 70D pre-focusing on the target and refocusing if or when it moves, it normally has little if anything to do when you eventually press the shutter release. Indeed with Continuous AF enabled, the 70D’s focusing speed for reasonably static subjects becomes as fast as, say, the Olympus OMD EM5, which is one of the quickest mirrorless cameras for single AF acquisition.

But it’s not all good news. Take a photo at the same time with a mirrorless camera and the EOS 70D, and while they may both focus and react at the same speed, the 70D will generally take much longer to return you to back to a capture view. With image review disabled, I timed the 70D taking around two seconds between the shot being taken and the live view returning for composition. In contrast, a native mirrorless camera like the Olympus OMD EM5 took less than a second between taking a photo and returning you to a live view. This may not sound like a big deal written down, but in practice I found the 70D’s live view was frustratingly slow when taking portraits or shots of kids in live view. Sure the focus and response once the live image was available was quick, but it took too long before I could recompose and shoot again for subsequent shots.

I also tried the 70D’s Continuous AF for tracking various subjects. It was fine with subjects moving slowly, such as someone walking towards you at a slow pace (think wedding marches), but for anything faster it failed to keep up. I had my kids run towards the 70D at various speeds and while the traditional viewfinder based AF system had no trouble tracking them, the Live View version didn’t stand a chance. Now to be fair, this is an area where mirrorless cameras – even those with hybrid AF systems – struggle too.

It seems that for now, if you want to take photos of subjects moving quickly towards (or away from) you, a traditional phase-detect sensor housed by the viewfinder remains the only satisfactory solution. Crucially this is where Sony’s SLT cameras also house their AF sensor having first deflected some light from the main optical path. This means the SLT cameras remain the only ones I’ve tested which boast the speed and confidence of a DSLR viewfinder AF system, but with Live View electronic composition. So if that’s a combination you desire, then an SLT remains your best bet, and the point of entry is affordable too with models like the A58. But remember Canon’s Dual Pixel AF still enjoys several technical benefits over the SLT system. For example it works when the subject is almost anywhere on the frame, whereas the SLT system, like a traditional DSLR viewfinder, requires the subject to fall over a specific AF point which are normally concentrated around the center. Canon’s Dual Pixel AF also works at smaller apertures, whereas a traditional DSLR or SLT system will only work at f5.6 or faster. Canon also offers a handful of STM lenses which focus smoothly in virtual silence. The moral is to think carefully about how you’ll use your camera before choosing an AF system to match.

Overall for still photography, I found the 70D’s Live View a bit disappointing. The Dual Pixel AF system may allow the 70D to focus on static subjects as quickly as a good mirrorless camera in Live View, but it was no better for following action, while the implementation of Live View on a DSLR also meant the shot-to-shot times were often frustratingly slow. Now it’s important to note that if Dual Pixel AF technology were implemented on a mirrorless camera, it could avoid the slow shot-to-shot times of the 70D, which would make it much more useful. But the bottom line is despite this new technology, I ended up mostly using the 70D’s Live View for static tripod based compositions.

But before you consider Dual Pixel AF on the 70D a missed opportunity, I’ve only spoken about stills so far. For movies it’s a genuine game-changer and provides the 70D with the best continuous AF tracking I’ve ever tested on any camera, DSLR, SLT or mirrorless. I’ll discuss this in detail in my movie mode section with plenty of examples.

Just before wrapping-up this section, a quick note on manual focusing. Canon sadly hasn’t equipped the 70D with focus peaking for stills or movies, so there’s no visual aid when manually focusing while viewing the whole composition on-screen. But I’ll continue to commend Canon for delivering one of the cleanest and most detailed magnified images in Live View. Like all Canon DSLRs, the 5x and 10x Live View magnifications look clean and wonderfully detailed in most circumstances. Try the same thing with Live View on, say, the Nikon D7100, and you’ll have to deal with not only a lower resolution preview but also one that’s plagued with noise. In short, you’ll struggle to confirm absolute focus with magnified Live View assistance on a Nikon, but it’s rarely if ever a problem on a Canon.

The EOS 70D is equipped with a satisfyingly chunky mode dial with a central lock button letting you choose from PASM, Bulb, Custom, Green Square Auto+, Flash Off, Creative Auto and the SCN position proving on-screen access to seven presets. The shutter speeds range from 30 seconds to 1/8000 and there’s a 1/250 flash sync speed. In these respects it’s the same as the EOS 7D, EOS 60D and Nikon D7100, although it’s worth noting the full-frame EOS 6D only offers a maximum shutter speed of 1/4000 and a fastest flash sync of 1/180.

In terms of auto exposure bracketing, the EOS 70D offers 2, 3, 5 or 7 frames at up to 3EV apart. This matches the EOS 6D, but is slightly broader than the five frame / 3EV bracketing offered by the D7100. All represent a big upgrade over the EOS 7D and 60D though which were produced back in the bad old days when Canon thought three frame bracketing was sufficient.

As usual the Green Square Auto+ mode can take care of everything for you, and if deployed in Live View can also employ more sophisticated scene detection similar to the company’s compact cameras. Meanwhile the Creative Auto, or CA mode for short, provides beginner-friendly control over depth-of-field with a touch-sensitive ‘background blur’ slider.

The 70D additionally offers a seperate HDR Mode in the main menu which takes three photos and automatically combines them into one; this only works in JPEG mode and the camera won’t save the seperate images, only the final composite. In terms of exposure you can choose +/- 1, 2 or 3EV, or let the camera work out what’s best for you. There’s an option to auto align if you’re not shooting on a tripod, and best of another the option to capture the three frames with a single press of the shutter release; this is useful because you could trigger the burst using the self-timer, thereby ensuring the camera isn’t touched between frames and preventing the need for a cable release accessory.

Here’s an example I took inside a church where the interior was dim, but the windows strongly backlit. The HDR version, at +/-3EV doesn’t look too much different, and the histogram verifies this. There’s a little boost in the shadow areas and a little recovery in highlight regions, but in this example it’s not been very successful. I should however note this same scene responded quite well to the HDR Backlight Control scene preset, so if you fancy doing some auto-HDR I’d recommend doing a shot with both modes until you work out which one delivers the effect you desire. Or better still, shoot bracketed exposures and combine them manually using software like Photomatix later – after all the 70D offers up to seven frame bracketing which will delight HDR photographers.

In Live View you can now apply seve