Pls advise me is it advisable to trade 1N for the 3. Is it a upgrade or downgrade from 1N to 3

-- Raymond (chiangcs@starhub.net.sg), January 13, 2002

Answers

EOS1n=5point AF vs EOS3 45 point area AF

EOS3=3 years? newer than the EOS1n

EOS3=Faster FPS

Basically you get faster autofocus, and compatability with the newer canon speedlites.

-- Jake F. (JakeF@nowhere.net), January 13, 2002.

Canon introduced the EOS 3 as a camera they considered second in line to the EOS 1n. They marketed it, however, as being built to the same quality as the EOS 1n with a number of updated features. Given these technical upgrades vs the long and outstanding reputation of the EOS 1n, only the individual using the camera can decide which is the more useful. If you shoot a lot of flash photos and are willing to upgrade your flash equipment, if you can use and like eye control focus, etc., then the 3 would be an upgrade. If you're an existing light shooter who only occasionally uses flash and you only activate the center autofocus sensor, the step to the 3 from the 1n would only get you a newer camera. Either will make nice photos if you do your part.

-- Lee (Leemarthakiri@sport.rr.com), January 13, 2002.

Uhh...I would just slightly modify what Lee said regarding flash-You can shoot plenty of good flash without, ' Upgrading,' to the EOS 3. I mean, what is so bad about TTL flash?

-- J.Horton (jhorton@inceptiontech.com), January 13, 2002.

I think Lee's point was that while TTL is fine, E-TTL is better. A bit better metering along with a few great features; FEL, FP, & wireless to name a few. To some people this makes all the difference needed to pay for an upgrade. To others it won't matter a bit. Depends on how much you use flash.

-- Jim Strutz (j.strutz@gci.net), January 14, 2002.

Rgds to TTL vs E-TTL flash, I've been shooting with a Vivitar 283 (or something like that) A-TTL flash on an EOS-630. I also use an EOS-3 with an older 380EX. Tests were made on Fuji Provia 400F. With indoor shots using flash as the main light source, I can see absolutely no difference in exposure or accuracy between the two. In many shots when a wide angle lens was used (28/1.8) and the subject was off center, the EOS-3 and 380EX exposure was way off - probably thrown off by the lights on the ceiling. E-TTL is possibly better for fill flash? When the flash was used at close distances for macro work, a -1 or -1.33 stop flash exposure compensation was needed otherwise the flash was too strong.

Personally I can't find any improvement in flash exposure after "upgrading" to E-TTL.

-- Andrew (nospam@nospam.com), January 14, 2002.

One huge advantage of E-TTL vs. TTL; automatically factors in flash exposure compensation with diffusers or bouncing from the reduced reflectance off of the subject during the preflash.

Other than 1/250th vs. 1/200th flash sync, 100% viewfinder vs. 97%, and incorporated viewfinder blind & dioptric correction, all advantages lie with the 3. I have seen situations of highly reflective unusual subjects where the E-TTL clearly did a better job than A-TTL, but they're few & far between.

-- Jarrod Connerty (jarrodconnerty@hotmail.com), January 14, 2002.

With regard to lee saying that if you only use the centre focus point, you don't gain much...

In my opinion, this is quite untrue. The EOS 3 can AF to F8, as opposed to F5.6 on the 1N with this point. Also, the EOS 3 goes Cross-type, High-precision at F4, as opposed to F2.8. Also, the focus speed of the EOS 3 is somewhat faster, and the predictive AF is much better. Also, you have a custom function to allow predictive AF to span to surrounding focus points, because holding a subject on the centre point exactly can be difficult.

I would say the 3 is a rather superior camera, much more closely related to the EOS 1V than the 1N.

-- Isaac Sibson (isibson@hotmail.com), January 18, 2002.

Raymond, It's an upgrade but with not enough benefit for the money you spent. As others said you will get 45 point autofocus, E-TTL and FEL. Only you can decide if this is important to you and you want to spend your money on this features. I own two 1n and never did the upgrade to 1v or 3 because I didn't see enough advantage for me compared to the cost. The 3 will be an upgrade reason if you own only slow lenses because it will autofocus better as described by some others before. If you already own f2.8 lenses than stay with the 1n and save your money for the 1d (that's what I'm doing right now).

-- Martin (uboot67@yahoo.com), January 20, 2002.