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DSLRs and Compact System Cameras are becoming increasingly capable video capture devices in addition to being solid still shooters. But when it comes time to focus or zoom using the lens' or camera's built-in motor, you're often left with glaringly obvious noise on your soundtrack.

So far manufacturers have tackled this problem by introducing silent focusing motor lenses, but one group of engineers is taking a firmware-based approach that seems to work just as well (if not better) and might someday soon do away with zoom and AF noise entirely.

At the beginning of the week, Canon introduced the latest and greatest addition to its APS-C lineup of DSLRs when it debuted the Canon EOS 70D. In addition to the standard specs you would expect to find in any of Canon's APS-C cameras (the company has gotten some grief lately regarding its lack of innovation) the 70D packed one very impressive improvement.

The 20.2-megapixel Canon-designed sensor inside features something called "Dual Pixel CMOS AF": a new autofocus system that promises to vastly improve the speed of Canon's live view and video AF capabilities. And now, we get to see it in action.

There was a great deal of excitement when Canon entered the mirrorless camera market with the EOS M last year, but much of the buzz evaporated when people began putting the camera through its paces. Although the camera features impressive image quality, one of the biggest issues is the sluggish autofocus that often gets in the way of capturing "decisive moments."

If you're the not-so-proud owner of a EOS M who constantly grumbles about the AF, here's some news that'll be music to your ears: your camera is set to receive a major AF speed boost by way of a firmware update.

Canon today officially launched a new firmware update (version 1.2.1) for the 5D Mark III that brings two notable improvements to the camera: uncompressed HDMI output and the ability to use cross-type autofocus at f/8.

It’s fairly well known that not all lenses are created equal. Put that in combination with manufacturing variables and lenses don’t always perfectly align with the camera mount. Generally the differences are minor and for the most part negligible, but I buy old Minolta lenses from eBay and I want to get the best bang for buck out of them.

I started making micro adjustments to my lens/camera combinations when I first got Sony’s a77, and have now micro adjusted all my lenses for the a99 and D3. After reading what the Internet had to offer regarding “micro adjustment” or the “fine tune” functions higher level DSLRs offer, I quickly printed off some charts similar to rulers and taped them to my wall to start making adjustments.

Want to focus your camera simply by looking at a particular area of the viewfinder? If you're a Sony shooter, you might be enjoying that feature as early as next year. The company is reportedly working on building Eye Tracking autofocus into its cameras, with the initial version arriving in a flagship camera sometime in 2014.

When Fujifilm announced the X100s last week, it made the bold claim that the camera had the world's fastest autofocus system among cameras of the same class. Sluggish autofocus was one of the big complaints owners of the X100 had, so for this latest refresh the company focused its attention on making the camera faster.

Want to see how fast the new AF is? We captured the short video above during a brief hands-on time we had with the camera. It doesn't show an in-depth test or much variety in subject matter, but should offer a taste of what "world's fastest AF" looks like in the flesh.

The Canon EOS M is quickly becoming the laughingstock of the mirrorless party due to its autofocus system, which leaves much to be desired in terms of speed. To show just how sluggish the system really is, Tomek Kulas over at M43.eu did this very simple yet informative "hands-on test" that pits the EOS M against one of its archrivals: the Olympus OM-D EM-5.

The Canon 1D X firmware update that Canon accidentally leaked yesterday is now official and available over on Canon's website. The upgrade adds two autofocus features that photographers have been asking for since the camera was released: illuminated AF points and the ability to use cross-type autofocus at f/8.

Sony is reportedly focusing on autofocus as one of the main battlegrounds it’ll wage war on in the DSLR …

Contrast detection is one of the two main techniques used in camera autofocus …

Canon’s new 1D X is an impressive fusion of the old 1D and 1Ds lines, boasting state …

Photographer Adrian Onsen wanted to use the AI Servo autofocus mode on his …

One of the features that Nikon emphasized when they announced the D3100 was HD video with continuous autofocus, the first of its kind in DSLRs. Sure it sounded great on paper, but how well does it work in the real world? Here are a couple videos showing the D3100's continuous autofocus in action, created by Oscar Cheng.