What are the advantages of Canon’s Dual Pixel CMOS AF system?

 

 

On the heels of the trio of camera announcements from Canon this week, the company has released a new video showing off its Dual Pixel CMOS AF technology. The video, while not highly technical, does a good job of providing an overview of the technology.

At the heart of the Dual Pixel CMOS AF system is phase-difference autofocus pixels covering 80 percent of the height and 80 percent of the width of the image sensor. The pixels handle both imaging and phase-difference autofocus, hence the “dual.” Canon’s old Hybrid CMOS AF III system, while still utilizing phase-detect autofocus, relied on separate pixels for imaging and autofocus.

While the video below is a promotional video, it does highlight many of the key advantages of the Dual Pixel CMOS AF system we have found when reviewing recent Canon cameras. For example, in our recent Field Test of the Canon EOS M5, we were impressed by the camera’s autofocus capabilities, thanks in large part to its Dual Pixel CMOS AF system.

The comparison video clips in the video above do an excellent job of highlighting the advantages of Dual Pixel CMOS AF over Hybrid CMOS AF III. In case you missed it, Canon recently announced a trio of cameras, the M6, T7i and 77D, all of which employ Dual Pixel CMOS AF.

(Seen via The Digital Picture)