Users perspective on E function of Elan 7e?

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I know many regulars must be sick of the question -- I have handled the Elan 7 and tried some USM lenses and am confident I will like them, but have never used the 7e with the "eye control" function. If I buy, I plan to buy mailorder -- I don't want to waste a saleperson's time with just going to the store...

Any users have perspective? 7e users -- do you use the E function, or turn it off?

thanks... w.b.

-- william blake (linhof666@hotmail.com), April 26, 2001

Answers

I have a IIe and not a 7e but perhaps I can contribute. When I first bought the IIe I tried it both ways and quickly got used to eye controlled focus. Now that's the mode I use exclusively except in certain very low light situations. I understand the 7e offers improved eye controlled focus. For the difference in price, which as I understand it is small, you could get a 7e and simply disable the function if you didn't like it.

-- Victor (Catmanman@aol.com), April 26, 2001.

Eye control is great on the A2e and Elan IIe. I don't use it all the time, because sometimes I don't want any delay & I can predict which AF point I will want active. But most of the time ECF is the way to go. My little experience with the Elan 7e seems to verify what everybody else says about it; the Elan 7e's ECF is faster & more reliable than any previous Canon camera.

It's a great feature much of the time, but you'll want to turn it off for the other times. It's well worth the extra cost, even if it's only for the improved resale value.

-- Jim Strutz (j.strutz@gci.net), April 26, 2001.


When the Elan II came out I looked at and used both the II and IIe and opted for the plain II.

I now use an EOS-3, but 99% of the time I have ECF turned off. In fact 90% of the time I just use the center focus point.

I'm sure ECF must work for some people, but I don't find it particularly useful. I may be in the minority of users on this topic though.

-- Bob Atkins (bobatkins@hotmail.com), April 26, 2001.


After having used both the Elan 7E and the EOS 3, I have quite a bit of experience with ECF.

"do you use the E function, or turn it off?"

Yes, I do. I mean, yeah, both. I use it and I don't use it.

The ECF on the 7E works very well for me. Especially out of doors or in brightly lit conditions. All you need to do is calibrate it. Do this often, with all of your lenses in different lighting conditions.

ECF is a funny thing. You need to learn its limits. But when you do, you will love the benefits.

It can be considered a risk. Maybe you won't like it. But for the extra $50, isn't it almost worth finding out if you do?

-- Roger Shrader (rashrader@hotmail.com), April 26, 2001.


I own both the EOS 3 and the Elan 7E. The ECF in the EOS 3 hasn't been very useful for me. It misses the correct sensor about 30 or 40% of the time (even after dozens of calibrations). Thus, I normally leave ECF off. However, EFC in the Elan 7E is wonderful. It engages or detects faster than the EOS 3 and nails the correct sensor nearly 100% of the time in normal light. So, I leave ECF on most of the time. I turn it off only when I wear sunglasses and during low light situations.

However, you should be warned that ECF simply does not work for certain eye types and/or contact lens/eye glass prescriptions. Moreover, if you tend to look around the edges of the frame when shooting EFC will cramp your style.

-- Puppy Face (doggieface@aol.com), April 26, 2001.



I use ECF on my Elan IIE except (a) when wearing sun glasses, (b) in very low light , and (c) when selecting servo focus mode (sports).

In Servo mode, the Elan IIE will shift the focusing point if you try to scan the frame, while in one-shot mode, focus is locked and you are free to look anywhere you like. I thought this was changed in the EOS 3, whereby once a focus point has been selected (by ECF), that selection is retained until the user lifts off the shutter button. I would hope this change would have been incorporated into the 7E.

-- kenneth katz (socks@bestweb.net), April 26, 2001.


This has been the subject of some discussion on both the EOS and Elan 7E mailing lists.

My Elan 7E handles ECF in several ways. The best is the hybrid ECF in "Green mode". It will focus on the chosen spot, and then indicate what else is in focus at the same time. It will always try to find focus over any of the 7 AF points.

I also use "Regular" ECF, which is about 90% effective. For the other 10% of the time, I can pull my face away from the viewfinder just enough to engage Automatic AF selection without having to switch ECF on and off.

Cheers

-- Julian Loke (jul.loke@home.com), April 26, 2001.


When I tried to set up the eye control on my EOS 5, I found myself glaring a glare of pure death into the eyepeice thinking that a serious glance would surely confirm the focus. Nothing happened. I set up CF 4 and am happy as can be. Never would consider using it even though I have it on two bodies.

-- Chris Gillis (chris@photogenica.net), April 27, 2001.

The eye control on the 7E covers more area (7 versus 3 spots)on the Elan IIE. I have both cameras and the eye control on the Elan is MUCH slower. On the Elan IIE, I use the eye control 50% of the time, and turn it off whenever I'm not shooting people. With the 7E, its a real pleasure to use, because 1) It seems like its 10 times as fast, (actually its 15% faster than an EOS3 which was twice as fast as an ElanIIE), and 2) because I get it to focus where I look almost everytime!! Also, when shooting people (read portraits) with a wide aperture and relatively close distances, you have a very shallow depth of field, like a few inches with certain combinations of focal length, aperture and subject distance. In such situations, I get much better control of focussing with eye-control by placing the focus point where I want in the scene (like a persons eyes, or tip of the nose, etc.) and not having to re-compose, if I were using the center point to focus only. Also, I think you have more accurate focus when you don't re-compose the picture with such shallow depths of field. Also, I think one should turn off a few focussing points out of the 45 on the EOS3/IV (unless you are following action) to shoot portraits and people pictures. Just my Thoughts! I would definitely use eye-control esp. on the 7E.

-- Anant Dabholkar (anantdabholkar@hotmail.com), May 24, 2001.

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