Canon's new 70D SLR keeps video in focus on the go

Jefferson Graham | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Sneak Peek of Canon's new 70D | Talking Tech Jefferson Graham offers a sneak peek of Canon's new 70D DSLR, which promises to shoot video like a camcorder. The camera will be in stores in September.

Canon%27s 70D has continuous autofocus for video

Will be in stores in September

Improved %22dual pixel%22 image sensor has twice the number of pixels

LOS ANGELES — What if you could shoot a DSLR still camera like a camcorder, keeping the image in focus as you moved across the room and zoomed in and out?

That's something that many photographers have wished for, and a feature Canon plans to push heavily in the fall when it releases the new EOS 70D, ($1,349 with lens, $1,199 body only).

USA TODAY got a sneak peak at the 70D, which Canon just announced. It replaces the current 60D (on sale now online for around $599, body only). Some specs: 20-megapixel image sensor (up from 18 MP for the 60D) and the ability to shoot as many as 7 frames a second (up from 5.3).

But the big news is the continuous autofocus. As anyone with a DSLR knows, most models won't stay in autofocus once a recording has started. If you pan a sports field to get video of your son playing baseball, you could start in focus on home plate and end up with a fuzzy image when he gets to first base.

With the 70D, the idea is that you'd remain in focus all the way through.

Canon touts the 70D as keeping 80% of the focus area sharp. It pulled it off with what it calls a "revolutionary" new method of pixel management. Traditional image sensors only capture light with the pixels; the 70D uses a "dual pixel" sensor that both focuses and captures the images.

To get even more geeky, the camera has more than 40,000 pixels on the sensor — up from 18,000 for the 60D.

What the extra pixels do is "speed up autofocus and make it more accurate," says Chuck Westfall, Canon's technical adviser. "It's now quicker and more reliable."

In our brief tests during our sneak peak, the 70D truly stayed in focus as we roamed the room, and it did everything Canon said it would — but we'll reserve final judgement until we get the opportunity to do a full review.

The potential is huge. The DSLR video revolution was started by Canon in 2009 with the release of the 5D Mark II, when photographers began taking advantage of the larger imaging chip in DSLRs — 20 times the size of those in video cameras — for brighter, crisper images and cinema-like quality.

You can't zoom as effectively or smoothly on a DSLR as you can on a video camera. And initially, you couldn't run the camera as long as a camcorder — clips were 12 minutes, max — but now most newer cameras, including the 70D, allow up to 29.9 minutes.

The images looked so much sharper that photographers were willing to put up with the focus issues. They use add-ons — such as loupes and monitors — to help their eyes see better to focus.

Now, with the 70D, their camera bags could conceivably be a little lighter.

Canon's lineup of DSLRs starts with the entry-level Rebel cameras, ($649, body only) and is topped off with the 5D Mark III ($3,300). In between now will be the 70D, which has a larger body than the Rebel cameras, more manual controls and a new feature — built in Wi-Fi, in conjunction with an app for Apple and Android devices.

Follow Jefferson Graham on Twitter: @jeffersongraham.