I decided to purchase the Elan11E, thanks for the advice. Here's my question. Many of the reviews talk about some problems, i.e. batterie power failure and control knob breakage. Has Canon corected these problems or do I have this to look forward to?

Thanks, Tom-

-- Tom Weistar (ropes@jps.net), November 13, 1999

Answers

You need not to worry about those dial. If you'll just turn them mildy i assure you it will last you a long time.

-- Alvin S. Granada (granada666@yahoo.com), November 13, 1999.

You will always hear more from the people who have problems than those who don't. The Elan IIE is a very reliable camera. I have never heard of the control dial problem on this camera. It is frequently reported to be a problem with the A2E though. I have had the battery problem myself however. There are 3 ways to fix it in the unlikely event that Canon has not corrected it in production. 1, send it back for warranty repair. I have only heard of one case where this did not fix the problem. 2, cut a small piece of cardboard from the package your battery was in. Place it between the battery and battery door. This worked for me, and it should work for almost all users who experience this problem. 3, purchase a BP-50. I did, and have never had a hint of lost battery contact, except one time when my tripod head flopped, and exerted a good bit of torque on the camera. Of course, you can hardly blame the camera for that one! Everything went back to normal after removing the pack and then reinstalling it.

So relax, chances are nothing will go wrong with your camera for a long time as long as it is not abused. If something does go wrong, that is what warranties are for. On that note, one reason to buy the U.S. version is the availability of a genuine Canon extended warranty. When I bought my camera from B&H I bought the warranty for an extra $40. It extends the warranty to 5 years total. I have not used the warranty in the 3 years that I have had the camera, but it was a small price to pay for peace of mind.

-- Brad Hutcheson (bhutcheson@iname.com), November 14, 1999.