A700 AF Performance v. 8 competitors

[alphaomega]

What do you think of this DPReview posting: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read. ... e=29824474" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Seems pretty cool to me.

[sparaxis]

This does not really surprise me. Going back to the days when Popular Photography had really good reviews, the top end Minoltas were very competitive with anything else out there. For example the Maxxum 7 was the fastest focussing camera they tested at the time. However, compared to the 7 the 7D was a mess. I suspect a lot of the important stuff was downgraded to make the camera affordable. After all the 7 was almost $1000 body only when first introduced, and a few years later they introduced the 7D for only about $600 more. I suspect the focussing array was shared with the Maxxum 70. (Cheap wunderplastik). We know the f2.8 X shaped sensor was removed. Evidence of this cost cutting shows up in patent literature where they obtained a patent to squeeze a sensor mount into a film shutter. So it is not too much of a stretch to imagine the 7D and 70 sharing the same shutter too.

Anyway enough speculation of why the lovely 7D was flawed.

With the A700 Sony obviously went and designed a "good" AF sensor. It is ironic that Canon introduced the f2.8 X-shaped sensor just at about the same time that Sony went for a Canon-like f2.8 line sensor. (Perhaps KM hold a patent for the X sensor and are happy to license it to Canon as they are no-longer in the business - they seem to be licencing a lot of there treasure trove of patents to anyone who will pay!)

Whatever the truth about that, perhaps if the Sony double cross (shaped like what the Americans call a "pound sign" and others call a "hash"), really is "twice as accurate" we have a great bonus. Much better accuracy with lenses slower than f2.8. Then the f2.8 sensor is less important than before.

I have found the A700 to be far more accurate than my 7D. Perhaps the most noticeable differrence is the way it seems to lock focus whereas the 7D could be quite hesitant.

Nice to see that Sony is slowy getting recognised for making "good cameras" instead of "gadgets".

Alan

[Yagil Henkin]

My 7 (Film) has fast AF, and the Sony A700 seems to be no worse - actually, on the slow Tamron 28-200XR, it seems that the Sony is a bit faster.