I'm an amateur photographer looking to buy my very first SLR. For the past week I've been pouring over hundreds of web pages to find a decent camera, one that I can begin serious photography on and that I can grow with. Everyone has an opinion, so it's taken me a while to figure out what's good and what's not. For a person of my photographic stature, it looks like the Canon EOS Elan IIe would be a good bet. The only substantial complaint I've heard about it is that it only does partial metering--not spot metering. Given it's features, ergonomics, accessory selection, and price, I am strongly in favor of purchasing this camera over something else. A lens that everyone appears to agree on is the EF 28-105mm USM. The Elan IIe, the 28-105mm USM and the speedlite 380 and I'm set to go. I would greatly appreciate any opinions on this set of equipment or on any specific part of it. Thank you for your time and feedback!

Regards, John Bescup Captainjohn42@hotmail.com

-- John Bescup (Captainjohn42@hotmail.com), April 09, 1999

Answers

John-

Last year I bought an Elan IIe & 28-105, and I think it's a terrific camera- the lens is as sharp as any zoom has a right to be, and a very handy range & size; I don't think you can go wrong with it as a first lens. I do wish I had spent the extra $70 for an A2, however. The Elan is fine, but a real spotmeter is a powerful tool which can teach you a lot about exposure if you care to learn how to use it. The Elan's "fat spotmeter" is a rather poor substitute. Also, I wound up shooting lots of skiing & snowboarding this winter, and a faster advance would have been nice at times. As for the Eye Control, well, yes, it works, but I find I leave it turned off most of the time- for fast moving subjects, it's not quick enough, and for static subjects, it's unnecessary. I thought it would be a lot more useful than it turned out to be, for me anyway. YMMV.

If I were doing it again, I'd buy the A2 (not A2e), but again, the Elan is a great body, so if you do buy it, you won't be sorry.

-- Dave Beekman (beekmand@up.lib.mi.us), April 09, 1999.

I am happy with my IIE, it is about 1.5 yrs old. Instead of the A2 you might read about the 5E (I think), its the European version. From what I gather (I have not used one and it's been a while since I read the articles myself) it has better exposure compensation. Check out the articles about Canon on photo.net.

Always buy USM lens (especially if you are shooting sports), third party lens don't focus as quickly Happy buying, BV

-- Brian Vega (vega@micron.net), April 10, 1999.

John: I would second the recommendation to try and stretch your cash a bit and consider the A2, because this camera will offer you more growing room. If you really get the bug, you may soon wind up wanting more camera if you start out with the Elan. With the A2, you can then concentrate future funds on more EOS lenses, tripod, head, etc. In general, you should anticipate the most common symptom of "the bug", which is a growing lust for other lenses. Enjoy!

-- kurt heintzelman (heintzelman.1@osu.edu), April 14, 1999.

I own the Elan II and am very pleased with it. There is a lot you can do with it and plenty of room to grow. When originally looking at buying into the Canon system, I too wanted something with a true spot meter, however, I have found that I am not as limited as I thought I would be with the Elan II's partial spot meter. I shoot wildlife photos, and rely exclusively on the manual metering and partial spot. It works very well for me and I have no regrets.

It is easy to get caught up in equipment fever (wanting the best, the latest, debating merits etc.). I truly believe that if I stuck with the camera I originally started with more than 15 years ago (a mechanical, center weight meter Minolta SRT102) I would still be able to produce a majority of the pictures I have taken. I just catch the fever once in a while and buy newer equipment.

Having said that, the Elan II(E) camera has tons of features, has performed well for me in a variety of extreme weather conditions and has a lot of bang for the buck!

-- Yuri Huta (yhuta@essential.org), April 16, 1999.

I have the Elan II and have been very happy with it. Spot metering is strongly advocated by some but is certainly not essential. In it's price range I think the Elan II/e is the best body. With the introduction of the EOS-3 prices have droped on the A2/E and you may wnat to consider that option. The A2/E is available as a kit with the 28-105 lens that you have chosen. I bought the A2/28-105 kit last week to suplement by Elan II and 5 Canon primes. You may also want to look into the grey market EOS-5. Check the what camera to buy site here on photo.net for more details.

-- Peter Foiles (pfoiles@ibm.net), April 16, 1999.

I bought an A2 earlier this year, and while it was the right choice for me, I'll offer a few things to consider:

1. The spotmeter on the A2 covers 2.5% of the viewfinder area. Sit down and graph that out. The center-weighted pattern on the ElanII is 9.5% (I believe). Graph that on the smae paper. What you end up seeing is that "spot" on the A2 is more of a narrow center-weighted. I was disappointed to learn this, as I expected a finer spot pattern, but it hasn't been too much of a liability. Also, the spot on the A2 isn't placed dead-center, and this takes some getting used to (not sure of the positioning on the ElanII).

2. I find that the depth-of-field preview custom function on the A2 is one of the most often-used features for me. I'm not sure if the ElanII has this as a custom feature or not. If this is important to you, you should confirm...

3. Do a search of the photo.net forum (or the EOS mailing list) for info on the command dial problems of the A2. I haven't run into this yet personally, but it's been a big enough gremlin that it's definitely something to consider. I don't know if there are any analogous problems with the ElanII; I haven't heard of any, FWIW.

If you have access, go to a camera shop and play around with both. See how you feel about the weight, layout, and feel of each. Consider the advice people have given you here, and you can decide if it's worth the extra $$. Good luck.

-- Scott (bliorg@yahoo.com), April 16, 1999.

Two comments: 1. I believe the A2's spot meter is 3.5%, not 2.5%. 2. 3.5% is larger than a lot of people think -- it's delineated by the smaller faint circle visible in the A2 finder, which most people think is far too large to be 3.5%. Nonetheless, it is 3.5% of the area of the frame. (Remember too that you're not seeing the whole frame with the A2 viewfinder.) The original Elan has a 6.5% partial meter; I thought that was too big. The Elan II's 9.5% meter would be way too big IMO.

-- Russ Arcuri (arcuri@borg.com), April 16, 1999.

Thanks, Russ, you're exactly correct - the A2 is 3.5%, which translates into a spot which is 6.21mm in diameter (as opposed to 5.24mm in diameter for a 2.5% spot). However, without trying to resurrect the A2 spotmetering thread, I'll submit the following:

1. The A2's spot is 6.21mm in diameter. A 9.5% spot would (on the A2's viewinder) would have a diameter of 10.22mm, which is only ~2mm broader in any direction. To me, this is not a substantial difference, but that's way subjective.

2. I think the viewfinder coverage is different on the two models, though I haven't thought much about what effect this would have on relative comparisons.

3. While the inscribed circle does match exactly the spot meter coverage areaon the A2, the spot does not reside within that circle. On my A2, the spot is higher in the viewfinder than the center circle, a fact which cost me significant frames to learn. (There's been a long-running thread on this in the EOS mailing list.)

4. I've been told (by reputable sources) that the A2 doesn't have a circular spot pattern. Allegedly, the A2 has a rectangular 'spot' meter, 4.5 x 6.75mm in size.

For what it's worth, anyway...

-- Scott (bliorg@yahoo.com), April 19, 1999.

the A2 "spot" is in fact a rectangle. all it is, really, is the center section of the matrix meter. (which is a bunch of rectangles, not several wierd shapes like most matrix meters) i'd call it a small partial too. you can link it to the focus cells though, and then you get the rectangle that is at that portion of the frame.

on the 1n you get the center matrix cell (called wide spot) and a seperate real spot meter (called narrow spot)

-- Sean Hester (seanh@ncfweb.net), April 19, 1999.

I own ElanIIE for 2 years now. There are two thing I love about this camera: 1) It's cheap 2) It accepts EF lenses and one thing I hate about this camera: Automatic flash exposure compensation: As soon as ligh levels reach 7ev(not sure about exact value) Elan starts applying flash exposure compensation(from -1/2 stop at 7ev to -2 stops at 11ev, I belive). Even worse, camera does not indicate it in any way. This feature alone resulted in literally hundreds of black frames during several macro sessions on sunny days. Concerning "fat spot" metering: it hasn't been a limitation for me: just get closer to your subject or zoom-in for exposure reading.

-- Ilia (ichetov@aecom.yu.edu), April 20, 1999.

there's a custom funtion on my eos-5 that prevents the automatic flash exposure compensation in bright light conditions. is there not one on the elanII?

-- Sean Hester (seanh@nchweb.net), April 20, 1999.

<< there's a custom funtion on my eos-5 that prevents the automatic flash exposure compensation in bright light conditions. Is there not one on the elanII? >>

No, unfortunately, the Elan II doesn't have this custom function/feature. I wish it did - I have to use my brain instead. :)

-- John McCormack (jpmccormac@aol.com), June 07, 1999.