Question: If you're photo intrests centered on taking CANDID black&white group-shots and portraits (often in lower light or from a distance) and you wanted to spend less than $1500 on a camera body and a lens(es), what would you buy?

I previously owned an ElanIIe (which was stolen) and I have some Canon lenses (100mm 1:2, 50mm 1:1.8), so I'm looking to continue with Canon.

The two main issues I am trying to "solve" if possible are: (1)SPEED: my ElanIIe seemed very slow to lock in and focus on moving people, especially in low-light, and (2)CONTRAST/CLARITY: my images often seemed more grey than b&w. These issues were no doubt user error, but I was never able to isolate the cause (technique, camera, lens, film, paper...).

Thanks in advance for the help!

-- Ben Willis (BenWillis@Hotmail.com), January 24, 1999

Answers

A2 with 75-300 USM IS.

Cheers

-- Bill Wyman (Bill.Wyman@utas.edu.au), January 24, 1999.

I'd figure out what's causing problem #2, which isn't the Elan II, before spending money in the hope it will just go away.

-- Bob Atkins (bobatkins@hotmail.com), January 24, 1999.

Not to suggest you jump ship, but for $1500 you could get a Nikon N70 and their excellent 80-200 f2.8 and still have about $300 left towards replacing your Elan IIe for your other lenses.

-- Mark Hubbard (hubbard@humboldt1.com), January 28, 1999.