Consistant metering on the Elan 7 compared with Rebel 2000?

I have been using my Rebel 2000 ever since it was first available

and have loved the resulting prints and slides I have made with it.

Most of the pictures I have taken with it were in Aperture priority

or manual modes, relying usually on the camera's meter to guide me

to a correct exposure then over- or under- exposing the shot here

and there with my guessing ability when needed. I usually use my

Rebel with either my 28-105 version I f/3.5-4.5 or my 50 f/1.8 II,

and the 50 usually gives a very high yield of good shots.

 

Last year I got an Elan 7 as I felt I was limited by the Rebel's

novice features. I was initially impressed with the Elan's

performance and mostly grateful of it's increased durability as I am

often in tight spots with my camera getting lugged along. However,

after taking many shots the same way as I have done witht the Rebel,

the Elan's meter seems to be somewhat inconsistant. What it says is

a dead on center correct exposure often looks overexposed but yet at

other times it looks just right. I use evaluate almost all the time

and am questioning it's abilities, sometimes I wonder if I wouldn't

be better off using centerweighted average or spot but rarely is

there a situation where I thought I needed either one of those. No,

I don't use filters often and when I do I compensate by the

suggested amount and from experience, and I have been using the same

processing lab most of my life, a trusted source. Plus I use the

similar films consistantly and have used DX-code settings not manual

film speed settings.

 

Lately I took a trip to Florida, and took my Rebel instead due to

it's lightweight and compactness, and "careless" loss factor due to

it's low price/value. The resulting pics were wonderful, a real

hit. The Elan lately hasn't been as such, so what could it be?

1. Perform a test. Use a tripod and meter from both bodies with the same metering pattern. Use Av or Tv modes to see if the other parameter changes. Do not use AF.

 

2. I never tried Evaluative so it's just a feeling. I'd like to have as much as possible control so I use partial and link it to the active AF point.

 

Happy shooting ,

Yakim.

 

BTW, None of the Rebels or Elans have spot metering. Partial is the closest thing.

One thing you said that troubled me was that when you use filters you "compensate the suggested amount". Filter factors are automatically compensated for by the camera's TTL metering modes. In this case, compensation will result in exposure errors.

<p>Never having used the Rebel, I can't compare the two. I usually shoot colour negative film in my Elan 7e, but from time to time I use slide film. I virtually always use evaluative. I've found that it underexposes backlit subjects, and occasionally it will underexpose a shot that has a large expanse of bright sky in it. Other than that, it pretty much never yields an unprintable negative, and the vast majority of slides look fine to me.</p>

Since both cameras have a similar (identical?) 35 segment evaluative meter system, I would not expect that they are designed to behave differently. I would compare both cameras, at the same time, with the same lens, to see if they provide different results. It certainly is possible that one camera is consistently different than the other, and you could then just adjust the ISO settings to compensate (if the EOS 30 consistenty recommends 1/3 stop more exposure than your Rebel, then increase the ISO by 1/3 stop on your EOS 30).

 

Hopefully your using slide film to come to your conclusions. I can't determine overexposure using print film, and only by the pick up in grain and reduction in contrast can I tell if I have underexposed print film by more than 1 stop.

great thread.. and just when i was considering upgrading to the Elan 7..

 

From what I recollect, the partial meter on Elan is 10% and that on the Rebel is 9.5%!! could that be the difference??

I don't regret buying the Elan one bit, although saving up a while longer for a EOS-3 would have probably been wiser. I think my problem has been identified, most of the exposure problems came when I had acidentally shifted the exposure the with back wheel usually to the overexposed side. The reason I know this is because I noticed I acidentally did it yesterday, twice, since I have started recording exposure, I was aware of my mistake just before I took the picture. Perhaps my hands are too big to be turning the rear wheel on all the time.

 

By the way I was calling the partial metering "spot" out of habit, since most all the cameras I have owned up until now called anything other than full screen metering, spot metering. I know it's not technically spot since it convers such a large area, compared with the 3 an 1v which is something like 3.5%, right? My dad, has a 3 and I use it when I can, but it's not "mine" so I have to rely on my Elan and Rebel.

 

As for the post just above I was under the impression that NO Rebel has partial metering?