Which Canon EOS?

[msvsl]

So far, I used Canon FD cameras, since my dad's old AT-1 was the first analog camera I picked up. I upgraded to a T90 at some point.

The catch is: I really really like super wide angle. And wide angle glass for the FD system is harder to find. Canons EF mount on the other hand seems perfect. I can pick up a Samyang/Rokinon/Walimex 14mm 2.8 for cheap, giving me all the wide angely goodness I grave.

Now all I need is a body. Problem is: There are so god damn many analog EOS bodies. Which one to pick?

Basically all I want is a good light meter, a fully manual mode with easaly accesable controls to change exposure quickly, a build in exposure time of at least 30 seconds up to 1/2000, and idk... a good view finder? And a body that takes normal batteries would be neat, I love that about the T-Series.

Any help? Anybody knows which models to look out for, whoch ones to avoid?

 

[vlasta]

EOS 30 or 33.
For AA bateries there is batery pack for 4 of them.

If money is not problem than EOS 3 or more expensive 1N.

No EOS body takes normal batteries.

 

[baachitraka]

EOS 650 - The first EOS tank

 

[Anon Ymous]

EOS 30 or 33.
For AA bateries there is batery pack for 4 of them.

If money is not problem than EOS 3 or more expensive 1N.

No EOS body takes normal batteries.

This. There are also the more recent 30V and 33V variants if you are interested in a modestly priced body.

 

[lensman_nh]

What vlasta and Anon Ymous said.

 

[cb1]

I enjoy using the 630 a lot. $35 at KEH for excellent condition,

 

[Paul Howell]

As you planning on using super wides I would want a body with interchangeable focusing screens, a really bright 100% viewfinder. My pick would be a EOS 1, first generation, with a battery grip. Think of the EOS 1 as the autofocus version of the T90.

 

[cooltouch]

I have an Elan IIe that I picked up in almost mint condition for next to nothing about 10 years ago. It's a good, reliable, full-featured camera that can do most of what anyone needs. It even has the Eye-Controlled focus feature, if you're into that sort of thing. If you're not, there's the Elan II. Shortly after I bought it, I picked up a BP-50 battery pack for it. It takes four AA batteries instead of that camera-specific battery that it otherwise requires. The Elan IIe is a light camera, and adding the BP-50 gives it a bit more heft with those four AAs. One nice feature about the BP-50 is it has a vertical shutter release, which makes portrait shots a bit easier to do. About the only drawback I've found to the Elan IIe is its integral motor advances the film at a rather slow rate -- maybe 3 fps or so? But I never fire off strings of shots anyway,

I tell you what though -- one of these days I'm gonna get me an EOS 1V. I wish the price would drop a bit more on it, but it doesn't seem like it's going to. The 1V has it all and is built like a tank.

 

[vlasta]

EOS 650 - The first EOS tank

600 / 630 / 650 build like tank but all are early, first, models with pretty slow AF.
And battery hungry.

 

[lensman_nh]

I tell you what though -- one of these days I'm gonna get me an EOS 1V. I wish the price would drop a bit more on it, but it doesn't seem like it's going to. The 1V has it all and is built like a tank.

The 1V is indeed a real work of art, and the pinnacle of film camera design. It's AF system is better than any of contemporary digital camera, and is blindingly fast. I have a EOS 5D digital, released 5 years later, and the AF system on that is a poor cousin to the 1V.

I only bought the 1V this year because I finally had the spare cash to do so after lusting for close to 10 years. Given demand for them, I doubt the prices will drop so long as 135 film is available.

If someone wanted to get into the higher end EOS bodies, the 1N is much more reasonably priced, and is also a true workhorse.

J.

 

[gordrob]

I have an EOS 3 with motordrive. Heavy beast but fun

 

[vsyrek1945]

. . . . . Basically all I want is a good light meter, a fully manual mode with easaly accesable controls to change exposure quickly, a build in exposure time of at least 30 seconds up to 1/2000, and idk... a good view finder? And a body that takes normal batteries would be neat, I love that about the T-Series. . . . . .

Manual mode operation is where EOS camera lines differ.

The EOS 650/620/630/600 set shutter speeds from the handgrip control wheel, and required holding down a front-panel Manual Aperture button for setting tle f-stop. AFAIK, all the Rebels and rhe 10/10s operate the same way.

The 1989 EOS 1 introduced the Rear Control Dial for setting aperture in manual mode, and it became a standard on the Elan/100/50/30/7 series, and the EOS 5/A2/A2e as well. I found this easier and more intuitive to use.

Thanks and regards,
Vince

 

[MattKing]

I'm not sure, but I think that a built in 30 second shutter speed may limit your choices somewhat.
Two of the cameras I have - the Elan IIe and Elan 7e - both offer it.
If you intend to use such times, you will want to look as well for the accessory electronic cable release that works with the model you choose.
And I agree with vsyrek1945 - I heartily recommend one of the models with the additional rear control dial.
If you are looking for lenses as well, ronwhit has an A2 with some zoom lenses and accessories listed in the Photrio classifieds.

 

[film_man]

I'm sure everyone will point you to their favourite model but a couple of points to consider:
1. If you want to use adapted lenses (ie other brands with adapters) the EOS 30/33 do not do stop down metering accurately, ie you won't be able to meter with the camera (but everything else works fine).
2. If you want to use manual focus lenses I would strongly recommend a Canon 1/1N/1V/3 with the Ec-S focus screen.

Personally, I've owned the 300, 300V, 300X, 30E, 3, 1N, 1V. I still have a 300 and from the rest the 1N was my choice, it has an amazing 100% finder and is a bit lighter and smaller than the 1V. The 3 is great too but if you don't need the faster AF the 1N wins on the finder. The 30E would be the minimum I'd look at for manual focusing. The 300 I keep because with a 40/2.8 on it I get a tiny, super light, fully automatic point and shoot with an amazing lens.

 

[msvsl]

Okay I just bought a 650 and 300 in 1€ Auctions on eBay. I'll keep looking for a better model, but for now let's try those two, one is bound to do the job.

 

[baachitraka]

Okay I just bought a 650 and 300 in 1€ Auctions on eBay. I'll keep looking for a better model, but for now let's try those two, one is bound to do the job.

I am not disappointed with 650...

 

[msvsl]

I am not disappointed with 650...

The 650 arrived today

Shutter sounds weird to me but seems to work fine. Stay's open during bulb, long times seemed kinda matching and fast times seem to work, too. Just a weird noise... I don't know, sounds weak.

What's very weird is the light meter. I don't know if it's because I use a fully manual lens, but the reasings are way to low. I compared it with my G70, and while the G70 gave me 1/80th at 4.0 the 650 suggest's 1/6. That's about 4 Stops off... That's a lot!

For now I just compansated via tellin the camera it has an ISO of 3200 instead of 200. Now the readings seem to be similar. Still, this worries me a bit.

Anyway, I guess I'll just have to shoot a test film and see.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

No EOS body takes normal batteries.

This. There are also the more recent 30V and 33V variants if you are interested in a modestly priced body.

EOS 300 and like takes ones which are sold now as rechargeable, on ebay,

 

[Deleted member 88956]

I have an Elan IIe that I picked up in almost mint condition for next to nothing about 10 years ago. It's a good, reliable, full-featured camera that can do most of what anyone needs. It even has the Eye-Controlled focus feature, ...

While I have not touched my Elan IIe in years, eye control was for depth of field preview. I'm not aware it could do anything else. It was novelty at the time, predecessor of things to come in all electronic cameras. It worked, DOF activated with a flick of the eye ball, still a gimmick though, yet kind of fun. Today I don't think there is any difference in price between II and IIe. Power grip came with AA battery holder in addition to holder for 2 Li batteries that camera takes one of without the grip. But camera itself is fine and always worked well for me.[/QUOTE]

 

[MattKing]

The eye control focus allows you to choose the point part of the scene that the auto-focus focuses on by merely looking at it - or at least the viewfinder focus point closest to it. The movement of your eye does the work - no buttons to push, dials to turn or screens to touch.
Once Canon stopped including it in cameras, due to the fact that some customers could not get it to reliably work for them, the feature was unavailable anywhere other than in fighter jets.
I believe that it may have been recently incorporated again in some of the newest digital cameras (please correct me if I misunderstand this) but for many years the feature was unavailable.
As it works for me in my Elan IIe and 7e, I really like it.

 

[Deleted member 88956]

The eye control focus allows you to choose the point part of the scene that the auto-focus focuses on by merely looking at it - or at least the viewfinder focus point closest to it. The movement of your eye does the work - no buttons to push, dials to turn or screens to touch.
Once Canon stopped including it in cameras, due to the fact that some customers could not get it to reliably work for them, the feature was unavailable anywhere other than in fighter jets.
I believe that it may have been recently incorporated again in some of the newest digital cameras (please correct me if I misunderstand this) but for many years the feature was unavailable.
As it works for me in my Elan IIe and 7e, I really like it.

Aha, I forgot that part. But am still correct on the DOF, point eye ball to the corner to activate.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

The eye control focus allows you to choose the point part of the scene that the auto-focus focuses on by merely looking at it - or at least the viewfinder focus point closest to it. The movement of your eye does the work - no buttons to push, dials to turn or screens to touch.
Once Canon stopped including it in cameras, due to the fact that some customers could not get it to reliably work for them, the feature was unavailable anywhere other than in fighter jets.
I believe that it may have been recently incorporated again in some of the newest digital cameras (please correct me if I misunderstand this) but for many years the feature was unavailable.
As it works for me in my Elan IIe and 7e, I really like it.

Where is eye focus within digitals, but it is focus on the eye, not by eye.

 

[Deleted member 88956]

Where is eye focus within digitals, but it is focus on the eye, not by eye.

You move your eye ball to activate a focus point by looking at it, same to activate DOF preview, these two features apply to Elan IIe, I don't know if DOF preview was put onto any other Canon from those days.

 

[baachitraka]

The 650 arrived today

Shutter sounds weird to me but seems to work fine. Stay's open during bulb, long times seemed kinda matching and fast times seem to work, too. Just a weird noise... I don't know, sounds weak.

What's very weird is the light meter. I don't know if it's because I use a fully manual lens, but the reasings are way to low. I compared it with my G70, and while the G70 gave me 1/80th at 4.0 the 650 suggest's 1/6. That's about 4 Stops off... That's a lot!

For now I just compansated via tellin the camera it has an ISO of 3200 instead of 200. Now the readings seem to be similar. Still, this worries me a bit.

Anyway, I guess I'll just have to shoot a test film and see.

What do you meant by fully manual lens? My 650 didn't like the adapter with EF chip (what ever they call it for focus confirmation). You may test with a proper EF lens and see you have the same behavior.

 

[Deleted member 88956]

The 650 arrived today

Shutter sounds weird to me but seems to work fine. Stay's open during bulb, long times seemed kinda matching and fast times seem to work, too. Just a weird noise... I don't know, sounds weak.

What's very weird is the light meter. I don't know if it's because I use a fully manual lens, but the reasings are way to low. I compared it with my G70, and while the G70 gave me 1/80th at 4.0 the 650 suggest's 1/6. That's about 4 Stops off... That's a lot!

For now I just compansated via tellin the camera it has an ISO of 3200 instead of 200. Now the readings seem to be similar. Still, this worries me a bit.

Anyway, I guess I'll just have to shoot a test film and see.

Check if your 650 was in right (manual) metering mode before comparing "readings" with another camera, which also would have to be in manual mode. Not saying you did not, just in case you did not. 4 stops difference does not exists between modern and any most ancient metering camera for same settings. So it was either comparing different fruits, or something is badly wrong.