Astonishing: 40D Af tops 77D AF

[No-Frills]

Not the greatest image because the background is disturbing. Shot with the old 40D. We met the heron at a water castle and the only tele lens we had in the bag that day was the 55-250mm kit lens, the newer version, not availabe as the 40D was produced. In total I made 21 shots with the newer 77D, only 9 in focus and all in full profile. Than I made 12 shots with the 40D and the bird moved always his head (he didn't turn head and beak as I shot with the 77D). All 12 shots with the old 40D are in focus.

[kvbarkley]

Why is it astonishing? The 77D is kind of between the Rebel Line and the X0D Line.

[Tronhard]

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@kvbarkley wrote:

Why is it astonishing? The 77D is kind of between the Rebel Line and the X0D Line.

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Well, to be fair the EOS 40D came out in 2007 and the 77D in 2017, with a 10 year difference in technoloy I would expect the 77D to match if not better the 40D in most respect.  That said, I get resultsI am happy with from a D30 (2000), D60 (2003) and the 60D (2010).

[BurnUnit]

Not to take anything away from the 40D, but the shot above was taken in AV mode at f7.1, ISO 400 at 1/320th of a second. How about posting one of the "lesser" shots from the 77D so we can compare the exposure information in the EXIF data. The 77D may be a more capable camera than you realize.

[No-Frills]

The exposure data isn't really comparable. The heron suddenly came down 50 meters left from the place shown in the 40D image. That was in bright sunlight and the distance was about the half. The bird was very nervous and I had no time for any settings except to set the AF points. Out of 5 or 7 not a single image was right in focus, the eye(s) not sharp. Meanwhile I deleted this fails. So far as I remember ISO was 200, f number 11 and speed about 500, because the spot was in direct sunlight. As the heron went to the shadow I decided to test the 40D. After switching the lens back to the 77D the bird was right of the place shown in the 40D image and in more shadow. The shots were made with 1/320, ISO640 and f5.6 but the bird was always in
full profile. Out of 11 shots with the 77D 3 are nor perfect in focus.

Perhaps it is more a problem to set the AF point straight on head and eye of a heron and not a problem of any camera. The heron is since some years a common bird in german Parks and I often took images when I was not out for birds and the longer lenses were at home. The results with my Fuji X-T20 and 55-230mm lens are often not better as the 77D with 50-250mm results of that day. A single AF point can easy miss the subject with the slightest move of the camera.