Eye controlled focus

I am planing to purchase an Elan ll and I am not sure weather to spend the extra money for the E model. I have heard mixed reviews, mostly negative. Any opinions?

Tom - I have used eye control focus on an A2E and it was splendid.

There are serious advantages to using eye-control focus particularly

with long lenses. Trying to manually focus a long lens/tc combination

can cause hand-induced shake. Holding the whole plot steady and

letting the eye-control do the work is much much smoother. However be

aware that some folks dont seem to like the function, and cant make it

work properly.

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Tom,

the "E" version is worth every cent. I've been using an ElanIIE now

for a year, and I've never turned the feature off. It's a very easy

way to avoid recomposing shots. Yes, you may still have to recompose

some, but it's a lot faster to use the right or left eye focus marks

than recomposing from the center. I'm pretty satisfied with the

feature.

When I bought an ElanII I tried both versions and eventually chose the

non ECF version. While I don't doubt that some find ECF useful, I

didn't. You may of course!

I'm really glad I opted for eye-controlled focus when I bought my Elan

IIe. It's really easy to use and set up (ie. calibrate). I find it

makes me faster and more efficient in location photography. In

addition, eye-control solves some classic autofocusing problems, such

as having to recompose because something or someone is standing closer

to your camera than your subject.

 

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Now that I've had eye-control I would not want to do without it. I've

had no problems with it whatsoever, it's a breeze to set up

(calibration takes only a few seconds) and my camera really is getting

more responsive to my eye the more I calibrate it in different light

levels (owing to what is apparently called "self-teaching

technology"). I'm faster at metering using eye-control as well as

composing. It's a godsend in a crowd or any situation with a lot of

people or things (c/b a forest) that will drive you crazy if you use

traditional autofocus methods and workarounds. While others are

wasting time turning off AF to go manual or aiming off to refocus or

meter, I've "captured the moment" and am on to my next shot. I've

caught several pictures that would otherwise have been missed if it

weren't for eye-control.

 

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By the way, some don't realize there are three calibration settings on

the ElanIIe. You, your spouse and a third camera user can each have

their own setting (meaning it will respond to each person), or do what

I've done: 1. for use with my glasses , 2. for contact lenses and 3.

for my naked eye!

 

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Finally, in Full Auto (point and shoot mode), eye-control switches

off, so you can hand your camera to a snapshooter (who still benefits

from standard AF).

 

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I NEVER use the other autofocusing options available because

eye-control is faster, more accurate and puts control of autofocus in

MY hands, not in the "hands" of the camera.

 

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Roy Kekewich

a nice feature of the Elan IIE is the DOF preview. after focusing,

you glance up to the upper left-hand corner of the viewfinder, and

the lens will stop down to the selected aperture, showing you the

exact image that makes it to film. some think it is a bit hokey, but

I like the hands-free aspect of it.

 

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it is a wonderful camera.

I own an Elan II E and an EOS 3. I don't think the Elan's ECF system

is evolved enough to be useful enough to give me an advantage in my

genre of photography, bird shots. It is not fast enough. I bought

the EOS three because I was ready to move to a pro level camera, and

the EOS 3's focusing system is possibly the fastest available. BUT,

even with the 3, I do not find the ECF to be reliable. If you have

to nail the eye of a shorebird in focus as it feeds or moves around,

you cannot afford any mistakes. I find as good as the Eye Contol

Focus is, sometimes it will choose the wrong focusing point. One

that is out of my depth of field(which is millimters at 420mm at 5

feet) Time spent getting close and into the "right" position for an

awesome shot is too important to risk missing the shot because the

ECF chose the wrong focusing point.

 

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Now for shooting people and other large 'in the frame subjects', I

think the ECF is an excellant choice. It all depends on what you are

shooting.