Which EOS should I buy?

[MattKing]

OTOH- the Rebels, A2s, and Elans may not be "top of the line" but they can be had for the price of dinner for two

In some cases, dinner for two at the hot dog bar at Costco.

My 7N was free, whereas my 7Ne was $25 with the kit lens.

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

I don't understand this comment. The camera follows whatever focus point i'm looking. In fact from all my cameras my EOS 5 is the most "transparent" of all, in the sense that i can just forget the technical side and just shoot; since i don't even need to specify the focus point, and the metering is very reliable.

Contrary to your opinion, i find eye-controlled focus a great feature, since i seldom place the subject at center, and with other AF cameras (such my EOS 5D) i find slower to have to change the focus point depending on the shoot. Due to this, i prefer manual focus cameras!!

The EOS 5 is the camera i take to friends' weddings, since it's the quickest to operate camera i own. Not my favorite camera, of course, but very effective.



I don't remember any problem using eye controlled focus on vertical!! I'll do some tests to be sure, however.

The EOS 5 most certainly did not have provision for programming ECF in vertical orientation as later cameras did.
If somebody gets the EOS 5 ECF to flick on in the vertical format, good for them; that's not necessarily an endorsement that it was meant to operate that way, because the technology did not extend to that -- a known fact. Many of us viewed the EOS 5 (myself as a 15 year user of it) as ground breaking for its time (a long time ago!) but in terms of the restrictions of ECF, blighted and annoying, with ECF purely superfluous and better turned off.

You say: "I seldom place the subject at center and with other AF cameras..."

But you do. You actually are restricted to placing your subject along a "horizon line", central in the viewfinder in order for ECF to work. How or why is this "transparent"? Later incarnations had ECF moveable/selectable along a centrally-placed matrice; other than a swag of additional points, the matrice was still in the middle of the viewfinder! How is this useful or effective on a bird that you have locked onto in the frame that suddenly shoots to the upper left, out of focus lock, out of the ECF matrice? Experiments like that have been tried and it highlights a major failing of centrally placed multi ECF control. True, we must consider technology that the time was not up to the point it is today where focusing points in many cameras (particularly digital) extend all over the screen (e.g. Fuji's X-series cameras). And this technology is so utterly effective and prediction and tracking that it makes ECF look like something written up in a Jane Austen novel.

Yes, metering is very reliable across all EOS cameras and that's their shining point -- I speak of long experience with all of the cameras with the 1N and 1V the best of the beasts. If we could ask for anything, it's a multispot/Hi/Lo function that is not constrained to the central viewfinder spot. If we want that sort of feature we have to look to digital, and well and good for all of us that such a wide choice is available.



Sent from my SM-T805 using Tapatalk

 

[flavio81]

You say: "I seldom place the subject at center and with other AF cameras..."

But you do. You actually are restricted to placing your subject along a "horizon line", central in the viewfinder in order for ECF to work. How or why is this "transparent"?

Placing the subject at "extreme left, middle position" is not placing it at the center. So with the EOS 5 i am not restricted to placing the subject at the center. My point is still valid. If the subject is at top left, i can select the left point, focus using the left-middle sensor and recompose; and the focus inaccuracy will be way smaller than using the center sensor, focusing on the subject, and recomposing. I think any photographer that has used AF cameras with only central sensors would understand.

Yes, there are more modern AF cameras which have sensors in more parts of the image frame. However, i have to manually select the sensor if i want the camera to really focus on it. With the EOS 5 ECF, i don't need this procedure, i just look and shoot.

As you point out, it is not good for following birds or action subjects, but for me, doing general people / street photography, allows me more freedom in an AF camera, being quick to operate.

As for vertical orientation, i will test it. There is no reason it shouldn't work in vertical, because the human eye and iris is round, not square...

 

[landzaat]

You can't go wrong with the EOS 30/33/30n/33n a.k.a. Elan 7/7e/7n - but I much prefer the EOS 50/50e a.k.a Elan II/IIe. It is less plasticky and the grip is much better. I find the EOS 30/33 grip a bit small.

The EOS 1/1n/1v are much heavier then the others. If your okay with that, they're great. That is why I own an EOS 1v next to a EOS 30 and EOS 50.