Canon EOS 3
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Nope, not the 3, but my 'daily driver' is the 30v, which can be regarded as a kind of a dumbed-down, consumer-grade version of the 3. It's significantly lighter but does have a built-in flash which the 3 lacks, although the AF system is more rudimentary on the 30v (then again, I never saw much sense in having more than a single AF point anyway...).
It's pretty much always been well-liked AFAIK. I just never happened to stumble across one, otherwise I'd probably would have had one myself as well.
IMO it's hard to go wrong with any of the EOS cameras, especially the later ones.
It's pretty much always been well-liked AFAIK. I just never happened to stumble across one, otherwise I'd probably would have had one myself as well.
IMO it's hard to go wrong with any of the EOS cameras, especially the later ones.
I dont shoot Canon, but a close friend who does, she has the line up, the 7, 3, 1n and V along with a brace of L glass lens. Her day to day carrier is the 3. She lives in Southern Cal and still shoots some sports for a local college, that is the only time she uses the 1V along with a full frame digital body. I use Minolta but based on her experience should have gone with Canon.
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Not by myself, but friends of mine are Canon enthusiasts. And I have had by them the possibility to test it.
Definitely the second best / advanced Canon film SLR, surpassed only by the EOS 1V. The friends who are using it love it, and are very satiesfied., and highly recommend it.
The EOS 30V and 33V are also excellent, only a little bit behind the EOS 3. And they are damn cheap on the used market, completely underrated.
Sshhhh....!
One nice thing about the EOS 3 is that it shares all the same battery grips as the EOS 1 series. Lots of battery options, and also size and weight options.
Thanks. I wasn't aware they share battery grips. So they must be pretty comparable in body size.
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I think we can be very relaxed, prices will not increase: The film youtuber community (which is the main force in driving prices for certain popular cameras) is ignoring these extremely capable and "great bang for the buck" latest generation AF cameras (also from the other brands) stubbornly for years.
They continue hyping cameras like the Canon AE-1, Pentax K-1000, Nikon FM-2, Leica M6, Hasselblad 500 series; Mamiya 7 etc.
The EOS 3 is a very large camera. It is actually larger than the EOS 1 and EOS 1n, and nearly identical in size to the EOS 1v. The EOS 3 uses more plastic construction, and is lighter than the 1 Series.
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You will be happy with the selection of F mount EOS lens, even older L glass is very very good. And all full frame EOS lens will work including the VR lens.
Your right.
Over time, it's become clear that the EF mount, introduced in 1987, was the right choice. In its 38 years of existence, it has provided 100% backwards compatibility.
Which is why I now have buyers' remorse for buying into Minolta A mount. At the time I was just thinking of good prices for really good lens. As time as gone by, I do have good glass, but my SSM lens will not on my 9 as it was not factory modified, the 7 and 5 will take SSM lens but are rather limited when shooting wildlife. On the side all my Sony A mount bodies will work any A mount lens. Canon, no issues from first to last.
Not right, pedantic. Heheh.
Well, 99.8% or so. I'm aware of two exceptions/caveats:
(1) some early 3rd party lenses used an aperture control command that Canon later stopped supporting.
(2) IS doesn't work reliably on all film cameras. IME it generally suffices to turn the camera off and then on again for the IS to work again, at least on my EOS30v cameras. I think I've had one or two older EOS cameras on which an IS lens wouldn't stabilize at all; can't quite remember which one(s) this was/were; maybe a first-generation EOS1 (not 1n/1v) and/or EOS5 and/or EOS50. Can't remember; I pretty much only use the 30v's these days and have sold off most of the others.
I have an EOS-3 and 1v, I like them both. In the 3, the eye controlled focus always worked for me, also has other interesting uses. The 1v feels more solid, but not in a way I care. The main advantage to the 1v is the focus is faster and seems to lock in better. I have a fair collection of EF lenses that both cameras can use.
I doubt you would be disappointed with an EOS-3. The only issue I ran into, mine was a fairly early version and underexposed by three stops. After getting that fixed, has been a fine camera.
3rd party lenses were mentioned above, later Tamrons ( at least ) do not work, there is no aperture control. Not sure when this started, my Tamron SP 70-200 2.8 G2 would not work. I had a first gen 150 - 600 that worked fine.
I doubt you would be disappointed with an EOS-3. The only issue I ran into, mine was a fairly early version and underexposed by three stops. After getting that fixed, has been a fine camera.
3rd party lenses were mentioned above, later Tamrons ( at least ) do not work, there is no aperture control. Not sure when this started, my Tamron SP 70-200 2.8 G2 would not work. I had a first gen 150 - 600 that worked fine.
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My EOS-3 has the same underexposure problem as well. How did you get that fixed. Can you do it yourself or do you have to have the camera serviced?
...but you'll get the legendary reliability of the EOS 1V!
Really, the 'best' (and that term is very subjective!) of Canon's analogue EOS cameras is not the 3 or the amateur bodies, but the 1, 1N, 1V, 1VHS, etc. You'll note these 'big guns' didn't have, nor would they have benefited from, eye control focus.
I owned a 1V for ~4 years before paring back my system (for simplicity) and keeping the 1N (which I still have, originally purchased in 1994). EOS 3 and its much-vaunted eye control (which Canon improved considerably with both landscape and portrait orientation over the 5's epoch-making, but blighted feature in this regard) didn't hold a great deal of appeal in the market — nowhere near as long as the preceding EOS 5 / A2 / A2E / 50E (the 50E also claimed brownie points for eye control in V/H format) and certainly nowhere near as long as the 1N — mine has passed its 30th anniversary and still chopping along!
I presume you have evidence of the EOS 3 you are getting has been checked and/or serviced? This camera, along with the EOS 5, had its fair share of display driver faults (internal and/or external display that faded in then out on a whim), metering gremlins (losing the metering mode that was set and the mode drifts to a different meter setting) and a shutter button that is prone to gunk, creating the camera equivalent of a sticky keyboard key! Like many other EOS bodies, the seals around the top plate should be examined too — they are not a DIY replacement (my 1N seals were replaced in 2010; it is not known if replacement seals for these cameras are still available OEM).
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I've owned and used several EOS bodies. Let's see.
Two 30v (Elan 7II) - one has a faulty battery indicator (reading empty all the time), but both cameras otherwise work perfectly fine and have done so for years of sometimes heavy (ab)use; I keep them in a flimsy duffle bag where they rattle & bang around when hiking, during travels, on airplanes, in subways etc.
An EOS5, which also worked fine, although it did suffer from the notorious program wheel defect where the wheel doesn't click into the detents. I found it somewhat unwieldy and it always felt less sturdy to me than its more modern and supposedly lower-range siblings.
Two EOS50e's (Elan II). Both have always worked flawlessly, bar nothing. One I gifted to my niece and she managed to lose it (sigh); she now has an EOS300v which in all honesty isn't such a great product. I kept the other 50e and use it occasionally. The main reason I prefer the 30v's is because those use 123A batteries instead of the much more costly 2CR5 (I still have to make an adapter for this so it can use 123A's).
One EOS1000F (Rebel S) that my dad bought new back in 1990 or so. It started to suffer from the sticky shutter problem probably around 2005 or so, after 25 years of regular use. The camera was once banged hard against a beam by an angry moron who tried to destroy it by swinging it at the end of the neck strap - and failed to do much damage. The camera continued to work fine, although the battery door latch broke in that event (surprisingly little damage given what happened). I must still have it somewhere and last time I checked, it appeared to work fine (the sticky shutter issue was dealt with by cleaning the shutter blades, which is relatively easy to do).
One original EOS1. Worked OK, but it was on the heavy side for its compact build, rather noisy (much like the EOS1000F and the older FD-mount T90), and more annoyingly, it's the only EOS I ever had/used that had a viewfinder display defect. I got rid of it because I didn't use it much, and I found the viewfinder problem cumbersome (couldn't read shutter speed well).
Only the EOS1 and the EOS5 from the list above had an actual/true spot meter, which is the reason I acquired them. I no longer have either camera because of the defects they suffered. Overall, I've always preferred the consumer-grade cameras because of their lighter build, lower price and no-fuss operation. They're often argued to be less dependable than the "pro" series, but practical experience has made me weary of such lofty claims. The sweet spot for any individual user isn't necessarily at what the manufacturer claims to be the top of the product line. Overall, the EOS range are dependable workhorses all the way from the low end to the top of the line, which is evidenced by EOS650's commonly popping up on the market in fully working condition.
I've never owned an EOS3. I can't speak of the metering issues; the meters on all EOS-es I've owned and used have always worked flawlessly and dependably. I'm actually surprised to hear of metering issues with the EOS3.
As to the eye-control AF: it's H & V on both the EOS50e and the EOS30v. It still works perfectly fine on my cameras. I never use it because I prefer to use just a single center AF point and then recompose, but I've always been amazed by how well the eye-control AF worked on the cameras I mentioned.
I own and actively use several other camera systems, mostly ones that predate the EOS series and that are considered more attractive by some film photographers, probably because they're more 'vintage'. Every time I go back to the EOS cameras, I wonder why I bother with anything else in the face of having something that works so well, so reliably and is basically just such a joy to use overall.
This.
I upgraded from the EOS 650 to the EOS Elan 7E. Both are affordable sub-$100 cameras. The 7E, aside from a host of useful features, has the advantage of being 10 years newer and so in better condition.
The 7E has one of the most quiet film advances. I've also been pleased with the weather sealing (not an advertised feature of the camera), having taken it out with weather sealed lenses in the rain many times without issue.
It's also lighter than the more "pro" cameras in this line. It's been compatible with every 3rd party lens I've tried (2 sigmas and 2 tamrons).
How true. I came to the party a bit later after spending many years with Minolta, Nikon AF and MF cameras, and then Leica R for the last 15 years.
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