Light and rugged
Written: Mar 03 '02
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Pros: Rubber belt film drive makes for silent rewind, very light
Cons: Eye control doesn't work well, 9% in viewfinder blocked, bad night focus
The Bottom Line: The only difference between the Elan 7E and Elan 7 is the eye control and $50. They are both great cameras.
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| wajlee's Full Review: Canon EOS-30 35mm Film Camera |
This is a great camera, but is one of the least popular Canon EOS cameras because beginners normally start out with the Rebel 2000 and then graduate to one of the professional Canon SLRs. However, I would like to convince you that you should get an Elan 7E/7 as your first autofocus SLR.
The 7E/7 will make your switchover to Canon's professional line much simpler. First of all, and probably the most convenient is the two dials that you can use to change the exposure settings. In Program Mode, the back dial changes the exposure value in +/-1/3EV increments from -2 to +2 EV, while the main dial changes the ratio of shutter speed to aperture. In full manual, one controls aperture while the other controls shutter speed. This is much easier to use than the Rebel 2000's one dial interface.
The most stunning thing about the Elan 7E/7 (called the EOS-30 and EOS-33 in Europe and Japan) is that it can give four frames per second. While this is not most useful for most people, it can come in very handy when you're taking bracketed shots where you use three different exposure values to be sure you don't overexpose or underexpose. The less time between the shots, the less time the subject has to move. It also comes in handy in sporting events. The Elan 7E/7 is also the lowest model with AI Servo mode, which will track a moving subject so there is no need to manually trigger the autofocus. However, this seems to work only about 50% of the time, while it works about 90% of the time on the higher end Canons.
If you photograph a lot of family events like recitals and weddings, you don't want your SLR to be the noisiest thing around. The Elan 7E/7 is great for this. It has a sprocketless rubber-belt film drive that advances and rewinds your film so silently that you have to put your ear up to it to hear it. No more people staring at you when you run to the end of your roll. There is also a function that allows you to leave the leader out of the film when rewinding it. This way, you can rewind mid-roll and use the rest of the film later. Since it has a belt-drive with infrared light control (the IR lamp fogs high speed IR film though), you will be able to advance the film to just where you left off without having to skip a frame and lose film.
The biggest drawback of the Elan 7E/7 is the terrible autofocus in low light conditions. This camera is the worst I have seen when it comes to this aspect. To focus in even medium light conditions, you need to find something with a high contrast. Thankfully, it does have flash assist for focusing. If you have the flash popped-up in a manual mode or if you are in one of the auto modes, the flash will fire briefly three times to provide light for focusing. Most of the time I just prefer to focus manually in low light.
Probably the biggest advantage of having this camera over the Rebel 2000 is something called Custom Function 4. It allows you to switch autofocus to another button on the back. When you attach a USM lens, this also allows you to override autofocus without flipping the switch to manual.
Overall, the Elan 7E/7 is a great body for the beginning SLR user, and also a great backup/travel camera for owners of pro Canons. Go for the Elan 7 instead of the 7E if you don't want to pay $50 for a feature you won't use that much after playing with it as a toy the first week.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 450
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Epinions.com ID:
wajlee
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Location: California
Reviews written: 13
Trusted by: 2 members
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