View Full Version : Canon Eye Control
PaulClements
05-17-2007, 03:56 AM
When we had the RedUser meet a few weeks ago I had a conversation with Eric Young of this board, and he mentioned Canon's Eye control.
A Bried explaination can be found here (http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=CanonAdvantageTopicDtlAct&fcategoryid=139&id=2649)
I was wondering if this has been looked into or not? Only with the addition of the Birger Mount it strikes me that this would offer an incredible method of run and gun shooting.
Perhaps one of the problems would be that because the view finder is not optical reflecting the eye movement might be more difficult???
Is Canon still using this technology in its prosumer / pro level cameras? I have an oldish EOS film body that has eye control, but I don't think my 20D has it (maybe it's buried in the menus).
It never seemed much more than a cool gimmick to me and I didn't bother using it once the novely had worn off, but maybe the technology has improved. Also not sure how well it would translate to video: if you are rolling during a take, what happens when you look around the frame?
Again, unless it has improved it almost felt like a solution looking for a problem.
Barry Gregg
05-17-2007, 07:10 AM
I have owned two Canon still cameras that had the eye control. It lost calibration all the time (you had to calibrate the camera for your eye). When it worked it was amazing, but it failed all the time, like right when you wanted it! I believe that they dropped the technology.
ericyoung
05-17-2007, 07:59 AM
...I had a conversation with Eric Young of this board, and he mentioned Canon's Eye control...with the addition of the Birger Mount it strikes me that this would offer an incredible method of run and gun shooting...Perhaps one of the problems would be that because the view finder is not optical reflecting the eye movement might be more difficult???
Hi Paul.
The current Birger mount does not enable autofocus as it would have to process the Red image for focus information.
It doesn't need an optical viewfinder though, as it "only" needs to be able to match eye position with a point on the image. Whether that image is optical or electronic is irrelevant. The method it would use to capture eye position would be very different though.
Eye control could possibly work even with moving images, provided you had a control to instantly toggle it on and off. It would take a substantial time and effort investment in practicing coordination to avoid looking at any other point other than the point you want to focus while it was active. Otherwise you'd end up with the focus jumping about. So definitely wouldn't be a pickup and shoot from the box option.
If, as Barry Gregg experienced, it lost calibration too easily, it wouldn't be useful. But eye-tracking technology has been advancing since Canon dropped it. Hopefully someone will revisit it someday.
PaulClements
05-17-2007, 08:05 AM
Well what about AC's of the future then? Instead of turning a dial at the right time they sit there looking at the same subject constantly and having cues when to look elsewhere... Would be funny as hell setting up a shot with a naked woman in the background and telling the AC to only focus on the subject ! :)
ericyoung
05-17-2007, 08:11 AM
Well what about AC's of the future then? Instead of turning a dial at the right time they sit there looking at the same subject constantly and having cues when to look elsewhere... Would be funny as hell setting up a shot with a naked woman in the background and telling the AC to only focus on the subject ! :)
Hence the toggle control. But otherwise I guess you'd just have to employ straight female ACs :blink:
Jeff Deveraux
05-17-2007, 08:12 AM
I, for one, never keep my eye locked on a particular spot in the frame while shooting. My eye is constantly evaluating what's in the frame. I think I would find eye tracking annoying. Cool feature for still work though.
PaulClements
05-17-2007, 08:25 AM
I agree Jeff, but imagine a scenario such as a shot in which you (the camera man) and 5 people are running down a street handheld, each person is a few meter apart and the shot you are looking for is one whereby the camera appears to be one of the group running and looking at the others. It would be an amazingly easy shot to achieve and look stunning if done well. Pulling focus even with remote ff and remote mornitoring, with all the actors knowing their exact cues of where to be and when, still would probably not yield as good a result as someone who was an expert cameraman with eye controlled technology and it would take a heck of a lot longer to prepare the shot.
ericyoung
05-17-2007, 08:53 AM
I, for one, never keep my eye locked on a particular spot in the frame while shooting. My eye is constantly evaluating what's in the frame. I think I would find eye tracking annoying.
Only if active all the time. As I said above, if you could activate it, eye track focus on the spot you want, and then deactivate with a simple toggle or momentary control, it would be very useful.
Jason Murphy
05-17-2007, 10:05 AM
With a toggle, eye control is a great idea, assuming it can be reliably implemented. And as long as we're talking about technology that hasn't yet been implemented for motion pictures, I'd also want the ability to set the speed of the focus shift.
PaulClements
05-17-2007, 12:51 PM
Instead of a toggle you could have a dial, similar in size to the dial on a follow focus, the dial could turn half circle and stop, at one end of the dial the focus shift is completely off, at the other end of the dial the focus is as fast as the lens can refocus, everything else in between represents variations in the speed.
Further more if the viewfinder and dial can communicate a visual number for the setting can be displayed on the viewfinder so that you have a strict guide, say 0-100.
You could also include presets on the dial/evf that lets you step the guide, so rather than any number between 0-100 you would step 0,10,20,30,40... or 0,25,50,75,100 so that you can maintain exact varying refocus speeds.
dalemccready
05-17-2007, 01:23 PM
I agree Jeff, but imagine a scenario such as a shot in which you (the camera man) and 5 people are running down a street handheld, each person is a few meter apart and the shot you are looking for is one whereby the camera appears to be one of the group running and looking at the others. It would be an amazingly easy shot to achieve and look stunning if done well. Pulling focus even with remote ff and remote mornitoring, with all the actors knowing their exact cues of where to be and when, still would probably not yield as good a result as someone who was an expert cameraman with eye controlled technology and it would take a heck of a lot longer to prepare the shot.
I'd set a split unless it was the middle of the night ;)
ColinSmith
05-17-2007, 01:30 PM
Would be funny as hell setting up a shot with a naked woman in the background and telling the AC to only focus on the subject ! :)
Ah no, don't remind me!
I had to shoot a fashion show with what seemed like almost all transparent clothes in it..... but it was way too dark and I was hand focusing with the lens wide open..... just on their eyes..... for 3 hours..... saw nothing......and nobody would show me the tapes afterwards.... :angry01: