Mark, thanks for posting this. Uploading in 480p was disappointing, but it gives the idea. I'd love the touch screen feature as well, though I want a touch screen that doesn't get finger prints. Oh well.... I guess we can't have it all.

:-) 500 USD only autofocus? Better i buy a Ninja Blade..in many tests I've seen, I do not follow a steady cam convins.E ok .. but otherwise I personally prefer manual focus

Well, my upgraded C100 arrived back an hour ago and I've been playing with various EF lenses.

Wow, some of them are pretty noisy, too noisy to use with internal mics or even a shotgun, though the AF works pretty damn good!

Had a chance to try this with a 100mm 2.8 L IS. Worked great as long as you set the distance switches properly.

Unfortunately the lens' manual functions did not work properly so I had to return it!

Dave
could you list which lenses are noisiest possibly? Im thinking of sending one of my C100s away for the upgrade and would like to know more about what you think.

Another thing that occurred to me was, when I use both my C100s on a shoot, and set them up the same with perhaps a 24-105 on one and a 24-70 on the other, I end up with images that are identical in terms of exposure and colour balance which is VERY helpful in the edit. Do you think adding the upgrade will mess this up?

I'd love to see it in action before I decide, and you're only a couple of hours away from me. If you're free for an hour sometime maybe I could impose on you for a look at yours in action? PM me if you're up for it.

Cheers

Wayne

Dave
could you list which lenses are noisiest possibly? Im thinking of sending one of my C100s away for the upgrade and would like to know more about what you think.

Actually, I was thinking of doing a video for youtube with the various lenses and how they react, with on camera audio to capture the sound and maybe another camera looking at the focus scales on the lens.

It does seem like it focuses very quickly on a subject (which is good), but then if the camera is moving towards a subject, or perhaps the camera is stationary and the subject is moving towards the camera, it seems to zone focus rather than tracking them smoothly.

What I mean by that is maybe the subject is at 12 feet and all is good but then as the subject moves (i.e. walks) towards the camera it seems to hold that focus position until the subject is maybe 9 or 10 feet then it makes a big adjustment (with associated lens focus noise), like the subject is about to move out of this focus 'zone' and in to the next. Does that make sense? The subject stayed in focus, but there are jumps every so often which are most apparent in how the background (to the sides) appears is in focus rather than the subject itself. It's certainly not as smooth in tracking as my XF for instance.

Well I sent mine off on Tuesday and it's done and on its way back. Should have it monday morning. Only doing the one camera for now. I think its too expensive to do them both and Probably wouldn't get much use out of it on both cams. Looking forward to having a play with it early next week.

I 'took my C100 to the vet' on Monday, and it's back - so I did some tests with the 18-135mm STM lens.

BTW, Sigma 50mm 1.4 - works at all apertures, but is a DOG - seems to only do contrast detection, and even then it does it very inaccurately. It behaves just like it did on a 7D and 550D - frustratingly badly in AF. Save yourself a bar bill and snap off the 'AF/MF' button in MF mode. Canon 24-105 - a bit slow, but it does the business. Canon 70-200 L f4 - slow, but accurate. Noisy, especially with IS engaged!

But stuff all that - how does it work with the newer STM lenses? Short answer: good.

Canon C100 Dual Pixel Auto Focus - the chicken test on Vimeo

If you think this is a sort of 'cat video' but with birds, please note that I'm testing - and it doesn't always work. Feathers are good for checking focus accuracy, birds move around and have no 'face detection', and pay attention to what's in the middle of the frame *when* it comes to focus.

There is a latency of just under a second where the software is tuned to say 'okay, yes - you have looked at this for long enough for me to do a focus pull'. This is important.

So, I have been doing other tests (which I will share when I'm not supposed to be 'working') where I've used the One-Shot AF - hey, this button WORKS! Seriously, that's how it's going to work for me. WHen you have a clear shot of the subject 'in the sights' so to speak, dab the button'; Instant. Now you can re-frame for the 'negative space' or 'looking room'. One Shot AF was a bit of a waste before Dual Pixel AF, and now I think it's my favourite mode.

Disclaimer: 80-90% of the time, we use manual focus. There are times - shooting children, chickens, even consenting adults in unrehearsed and unrepeatable moments - when a good solid AF is really useful. The Canon upgrade isn't 'tap to focus' or 'zone focus' (which is really cool), but it does help me get one step further to replacing my EX1s for certain types of observational videography.

if canon can enable us to move center focusing with joistik,I do this update on C100.It is difficult to keep a video frame and track and center focusing.there is a delay when you lock focus to a point after the start and focus?

Thanks Matt

I think the one-shot AF mode may help here. But yes, the next logical step is for the AF area to move like the Magnification area. Hey Canon, we don't compose with the centre being the key area of interest - not the last few centuries at least! LOL

My C100 is "getting done" next week. No it's not perfect - but I can see times when it'll be mighty useful in run-n-gun situations so on balance it's worth the cost for me.

Mine arrived back this morning and I used it on a shoot at lunchtime which was a bit more run and gun than I was expecting. Pretty impressed with the results.

It left me more time to work on the framing and composition than worry about the focussing, so thumbs up from me.

Had mine for about 2 weeks with the upgrade and worth every penny!! Steadicam and crane now piece of cake. Center point isn't a problem if you assign a button for toggling AF modes. Not a fast way of working and sure I'd love the joystick to move the AF box but certainly puts this camera in a very different league from others. My first test was chasing my dogs around with a 50mm 1.4 at f1.4. Worked really well!! Next was this video which I didn't have the right lens for so I did some post zooming. Pilot surprised everyone with this impromptu performance. But the AF tracked the plane perfectly. Will be re-shooting soon with a proper lens!
John Klatt at Coolidge 4-5-14 on Vimeo


And here's another video from the same day…(a couple of shots are from my friend's 1D mk4 and are handheld shaky)
Falcon Warbirds and friends at Coolidge 4-5-14 on Vimeo

I got my upgraded C100 back from Canon about a week ago. Dual Pixel AF is definitely a useful feature if you're doing any kind of shooting in unpredictable circumstances. It's great for quickly grabbing and locking focus, which is where I think I'll get the most use out of it. It's also extremely useful in slider shots or other movement where you'd have a hard time pulling focus as a single operator.

My only complaint is the price. Charging 10% of the camera's price for adding one feature — requiring just labor and no new hardware — seems like they're gouging their customers.

A final note of interest if anyone's holding out for a firmware update that makes the focus area movable: Chuck Westfall of Canon states in a video interview at NAB with Dan Chung that that may be possible on future products, but on this generation and on this particular sensor, Canon uses the center area because they know that's the part of the sensor they can count on to work for the feature. Pretty clear Canon has no plans to make it movable on the current C100.

I picked up that point Chuck made in that video too - watched it last night. I should get out more, especially on Saturday nights!!!

This, to me, looks like a classic case of Canon "managing customer expectations" on the likelyhood of other features being added to the current crop of Cinema cams...in other words this is all we're going to get regarding the Dual Pixel AF. For sure, that centre focus box is not going to be joystick moveable....However, and this is purely conjecture on my part, I suspect that it also means no other "cool new features" are likely to be added to the current crop of Cinema cams via (paid for) firmware - really hope I am wrong :-(

To end on a more positive note, I had confirmation from Canon UK in Elstree on Friday afternoon that my C100 has now had its DPAF upgrade done - so I should have it in my hands again very soon. Wooooee!

I agree about the price. I'm running two and can only afford to get one done at the moment. Happy with the one that works though.

If I'd known they were going to change their minds about adding it as an option to new models, I'd have waited a couple of months before buying my second one. Rather cheesed off about that.

Just got my C100 back via UPS about 30 minutes ago

Tried it with the Canon 17-55mm F2.8 IS EF-S first and it seems to work pretty well - and for sure assigning Button 7 (the one on the side grip labelled 'Magn') to 'AF Lock' was the first thing I did after resetting all my menu options back to how I want them.

Then I tried my Canon 70-200mm F4 IS. Bit slower than the 17-55 (but still a bit snappy).

Then I tried my Canon 100mm Macro F2.8 Hybrid IS. Lovely! Really quiet IS on that one and a much slower, more natural refocussing on some medium telephoto shots - some really nice results!

Canon 10-22mm F3.5 works great too.

This is all just shooting close-up to a Cherry blossom tree near my studio and then repositioning the shots and watching how the focus tracks.

This looks like a very usable additional tool.

I've never really used any autofocus systems on my cams before either!