Canon EOS-3 soft touch shutter stincks

[hjoseph7]

Although I love my Canon EOS-3 I find the soft touch shutter very

frustrating. What were the folks at Canon thinking about when they

developed this gimmick. That Canon users are old and have arthritis

of the shutter finger ? That Canon users are 90 pound weaklings and

pushing the shutter might cause serious strains and physical

damage ? I find this soft touch mechanism totally useless, and

frustrating. I have wasted more frames of film that I can remember

trying to "gently" press on the shutter while the camera auto

focuses then slightly and gingerly pushing on the shutter again to

get the picture. When is enough technology enough ! Tell me what you

guys think...

[paul -]

I, along with untold millions of users, don't seem to have a problem with it.

[ed_olson]

I have had no significant problems with this; however, I have had the occasional incident when I tripped the shutter prematurely. You might want to try one of the settings of CF-4 to see if this helps.

[jonathan_traupman]

I like it compared to the two-stage shutter in my Elan 7. Once you get used to it, it just feels much more responsive. I find it especially useful when tracking moving subjects with servo focus -- it fires with just the slightest increase in pressure resulting in nearly no shutter lag.

 

If you really hate it, you might try moving AF to the AE-lock button with CF-4. That way, you almost never have to push the shutter halfway.

[alan_chan4]

Every camera feels a little different, just takes a little while to get used to it.

[PuppyDigs]

The EOS 3 shutter button is the best of any EOS body I have owned. It's extremely fast and

responsive, especially compared to my EOS 10D and Elan 7E. Once you get ued to it, you'll

find you can nail images a split second sooner that deep plunge shutters. Nevertheless, if you

don't like it, you can pay Canon Service to make it less responsive as pressure and depth may

be adjusted for lead digits or those with long fingernails.

[brian_potts]

Once you get accustomed to it, you won't want to go back. It is more responsive than the shutter releases on the lower end bodies. Give it some time...you will see for yourself.

[andrew robertson]

I'm actually with Harry on this one. I like my 1n's shutter release OK, but it doesn't have the

crisp, jewel like feel that other shutters do.

[robin_sibson1]

I am a great fan of the soft-touch shutter button. I reckon that the button on my 20D is worth about one stop of 'negative IS' in critical situations, and on whatever my next DSLR is, I look forward to regaining the type of release familiar from my EOS-1-series film cameras. The only problem I ever had with that was that even in one-shot mode, pressing the shutter very gently often resulted in two frames being fired. This is NOT an inevitable consequence of the light pressure and the readiness to fire again from half-press, more a matter of designing the release so that some slight relaxation of presure is required before it will fire again - hardly a difficult problem to solve!

[rustymadd]

>The EOS 3 shutter button is the best of any EOS body I have owned.<

 

Mine is the worst shutter button I have ever owned. Mine likes to creak and moan when I press it. I've tried lubricating it with graphite, a slight bit of teflon, etc. I've tried pressing it hundreds of times with the power off, and nothing has ever changed the horrible feel and sound of the button mechanism.

 

I've had a 1vHS, 5, d30, 10d, and 20d, and all of them are far better than my EOS 3.

 

Perhaps this was a brand new production design first implemented in the 3.

 

At any rate, I feel for you.

 

C Painter

[timages]

Iv just recently purchased an EOS 3, and the shutter does not feel much different to my A1 or T90's. Iv had no problems with it and on the whole Im quite impressed with the Camera.

[carlo_cayetano1]

I love the response time on my EOS-3 shutter release, nice and fast. I do notice that the attached PB-E2 has a slightly different response time and make more inadvertent releases while shooting vertically. Which isn't much at all, may be once or twice across several rolls.

[athinkle]

Although I'm sure it's a matter of personal taste, I'll have to go ahead and defend the 3's shutter button. Granted, it took some getting used to, but now I simply adore it. I got so used to it that I considered the 20D's shutter button to be an almost unacceptable "downgrade." Of course, once I got used to that button I grew to appreciate it as well. Oh, and by the way, the 3 can't be that overly sensitive considering the fact that I have a condition which causes a pronounced tremor in my hands.

[jim_j2]

I, like Tim and Carlo have found the shutter on my EOS to feel natural/normal.

 

I too was previously an A-1 user also and I don't notice an extreme amount of difference in my 3 and my Elan 7E.

 

I do however get some occasional unwanted exposures when in the vertical position with my PB-E2, it really has a "hair trigger!"

[iori]

I'm a life-long user of Canon cameras, starting with the original AE-1, and felt the shutter button quality went down with the autofocus bodies. For example, the button on my 10s creaked and took effort to press; not what one needs when striving for smooth, steady shots. The 3 was much better, and that alone was worth paying hundreds more for. But then, I happened upon some fellow travelers who wanted me to take their picture with a Nikon SLR (I believe it was the N70). The shutter button was so sensitive, that I accidentally shot off two exposures. That was a wake-up call for me that there are better shutter buttons out there. I've recently migrated to digital with the XT, which I've found to be much better, but still short of Nikon standards.

[dexonwerks]

I have had no problem with my EOS 3 shutter button. But if you cannot get used to the touch why don't you set drive to single so if you accidently fire off a shot it will only be one and not five. Just a thought.

[jim_simon3]

You want to know what we think. I think that the shutter button is a selling point and fantastic. The feel is professional all the way. I have shot other Canon's and I was shocked at crudeness the Rebel/Kiss button. The Elan was okay, but 3 is more like the 1 series, and it makes me feel connected to the camera. I guess this is over the top, but some parts of the cameras really do make the experience of using it different from other cameras.

 

I opened the thread because I figured that the subject was sticking shutter buttons. I suppose that even though I think that the shutter is intuitive after getting used to it, my guessing at spelling isn't.