7NE question

I'm seriously Thinking about adding a 7NE to my colection come income

tax return time. Just how well does the "look" and focus thing work? I

tend to do manual most of the time now anyway. Should I stick to that

method with this camera? Is it a decent camera overall?

I've owned an Elan 7N for a few months and love this system. I like the handling with the

vertical grip and horizontal shutter release that it gives. It's pretty fast and not too heavy;

yet heavy enough that it feels solid. I use auto-focus 99% of the time. The canon lenses

are just great. I'm using all prime Canon lenses now except for the 75-300mm. I'm

looking into a 300mm L glass if the price is right (if I can convince the hubby to spend this

kind of money :D ). I had a Sigma zoom 28-135mm lens that was a piece of garbage. The

barrel got loose after a few months (the hubby bought if over a year ago for his Canon

10D).

 

My husband bought an Elan 7N one month ago. He was really impressed with the camera

(from playing around with mine). He owns a few rangefinders and TLR; Leica M6 (i believe)

and a Rolleiflex.

 

After one month, He realized that this camera was too "automated" for him. He missed

the use of manual capabilities; although you can use the Elan 7N glass manually. He didnt

need all the "bells and whistles" that this camera has. I like the bells-n-whistles btw.

 

He sold the Elan 7N and bought a Leica SLR (which I didnt even know existed). He's much

happier.

 

Watching him with this Elan 7, it didnt "fit" him ... it was too "new" and not manual.

Perhaps you want to looking into the Canon AE-1 program of sorts.

 

good-luck with your decision

I shot with a friend's Elan 7NE this summer, alongside a 10D digital and old EOS 630.

 

In my opinion, the eye-controlled focus is a waste of $50 (over the standard Elan 7N). It "generally" can work, but it picks the wrong point often enough that you must pause to verify it has selected the correct point. Once you do that, you may as well be using "manual focus point selection".

 

Others will swear by eye-controlled focus.

 

In all other regards, the Elan 7 is a fine camera. Consider a hand grip if that makes the body more comfortable to hold. Get something better than the $100 kit lens (say, 24-85 or 28-135/IS)

I'm afraid that the only way you'll know if the eye control is good for you is testing. I loved it, and have missed it since I lost it.

 

I have rarely felt the need for manually focussing an auto focus camera, but if I did, I wouldn't buy an autofocus camera. A Canon T90 or F1, top of the range speedlight and a bag full of quality lenses would cost less than a 300d. I can't see what the 7n does that the T90 doesn't do better if you remove the autofocus.

Th ECF--eye controlled focus--of the 7NE is nothing short of incredible. For most people it works as advertised: you look at the sensor rectangle and it locks focus in an instant. It's much faster than manually selecting sensors or doing the retro 80s lock-AF-recompose dance. I really miss ECF on my 10D...

 

However, the nice thing about the 7NE is choice. You can use auto AF point selection, select manually or use ECF. Heck you can even use MF for a really cool retro vibe.

I own an Elan 7E, the NE can be seen as the same camera in my opinion...

 

I simply love this camera, the vertical grip is mandatory, with it you get superb handling an "just the right feeling" when grabbing and using it.

 

Exposure in matrix mode is superb, i have shot a lot of slides recently and i never got an image that was exposed incorrectly.

 

Autofocus is normally fast and reliable with USM lenses, the only disadvantage of this camera is its mediocre low-light autofocusing. This can be perfectly solved when using a Flash unit with infrared light, using that i can instantly focus on a plain white wall in total darkness-sweet!

 

The first 2 years i used the eye focus option almost exclusively and i can say that it worked for me either wearing contactlenses or glasses, but for faster and more convenient focusing i don't use it anymore. So although it really works as promised, i don't see it as a necessity these days.

 

The camera has just the right weight and is rather sturdy having been my companion on two 3 month trips to Vietnam and India without any glitches.

 

Buy it and some good Canon glass for it and you most definitely will be happy :)

"E" works for Me.

 

Great Cam!

I have the 7 and I find it to be a great camera. Fits well in my hands, good control layout, reasonably light, good set of features, decent viewfinder (for an AF camera), great metering and AF (until you get to low light situations, which are not a problem with the external flashes' assist lights as mentioned above). As for ECF, I've tried it but it just didn't quite work for me. YMMV, though, so I'd recommend trying it in store to see if it works for you.

 

As for manual focus... that depends on the lens. Some MF well, others not so well, and none will be able to match the feel of the old MF only lenses. As others have pointed out, don't skimp on lenses: go for a lens with ring USM which permits full time manual focusing. Then you set the custom function to put AF control on the AE lock button, just under your right thumb, and you're set.

 

Cheers - Josh

I would also like to re-interate the accuracy of the light meter.

 

I shoot color film, slides, and b&w film. I have NEVER had a wrong exposure. With other

cameras that i've owned, I screwed up a lot; even with hand-held light meters.

Thanks for the responses folks. Too many positive answers to be a bad camera, so I think I'll go for it. As for the extra 50 for the ECF, if I find that I don't like that part...meh!, it's only 50 bucks and worth the slight off-chance.

OT: Why do you want a new body? What's wrong/not satisfying in the old one? Wouldn't it be better to invest that money in better lenses?

 

Happy shooting,

Yakim.

I first thought that ECF would be something useless so was looking for the cheaper one. Luckily I found a 2nd hand one with ECF so bought that and am I glad I did! ECF does work, I use it most of the time outdoors and in good light, and is very handy for portraits and general shooting. You need to calibrate it around 15-20 times before it does work reliably so it would not be possible to test it in a shop. I have calibrated it with every lens and 3-4 times each so the accumulated info is from about 18-20 calibrations and it now get the focusing point I'm looking at ***every*** time.

 

I would say get the ECF one, $50 is not a lot and you will always have the choice to turn it off.

I have the 7NE, and use the ECF quite often. It comes in very handy for general shooting, though with sports I suggest leaving the focus on the center focus point. Other than that, ECF should work great.

 

Have fun -

 

Luke

Yakim,

 

My original is a Rebel 2000, and in all honesty there's really nothing wrong with it. The reason I am getting a new body is because I gave the film Rebel ,and the original kit lens, to my daughter because she leaves to go to college in Virginia come January, and it'll fray some cost for her (and me) in the end.

 

I figured the 7NE was a small step up for me, so I'll go for it and a couple of lenses I've had my eye on to add to my collection.

I have used the EOS 7 in the past, and the 7N recently. Very solid and reliable little cameras, quite capable of "serious" stuff. The ECF works pretty well too, but it will also depend on lenses.

 

In the current EOS film camera world, this is probably the best choice, if you don't need the bomb-proof construction of the 1 series.

<p>You'll have to try it and see. It is very reliable for me on my Elan 7E, and the complete lack of ECF on Canon's digital bodies is the main reason I don't own one yet. It's that useful.</p>

 

<p>I demonstrated it to two friends (cleared a calibration set, had one calibrate it, had that person try it, repeated with the second person) and it worked flawlessly for one and not at all for the other. It works very well for me with either naked eye; it is very unreliable through my glasses (which is OK since I prefer to shoot without glasses). But I know many people use it with glasses with good results.</p>

 

<p>This is in line with some of the gazillion responses to previous versions of this question over the years. It works very well for some people and not so well for others. Even among those for whom it works, some try it out and then go back to the old focus-recompose-shoot dance, which makes one wonder why they bothered buying a multiple-point AF camera in the first place.</p>

 

<p>The focus-recompose-shoot dance is also responsible for some (though not all) of the questions about flash exposure problems; since flash exposure is generally done at exposure time, and since it's linked to the active AF point, doing the dance throws off flash metering since it's now trying to meter on something other than the subject. If you get an E-TTL flash unit like the 420EX, you can fix this by using flash exposure lock, but if you use the pop-up flash, or other TTL (or A-TTL) flash, there's no FEL available.</p>

 

<p>As for the camera in general - it's a very capable advanced amateur camera.</p>

I'm thinking of a new Elan N. I think I've narrowed down a problem I'm having with my old Elan 7, after about 6,000 shots. Three scratches

that I think are coming from the pins on the pressure plate. Anyone else

have this problem?<div></div>

I've noticed the scratches during the last 500 shots. At first I thought it was the scanning, but now I think it's the pins or the three lines in the shutter. If you get scans from the Elan N, are they clear? I like the comments that the exposure is right on. I've also heard that the autofocu

sa tracking came from the EOS one V. But, I haven't confirmed that.