AF assist light on EOS 30 (= Elan 7E)

[jespdj]

Hello all,

 

I have read that a weak point of the EOS 30 (= Elan 7E) is that it's

autofocus doesn't work well in low-light conditions, and it doesn't

have a red AF assist light - instead it's going to use the flash as

an AF assist light. I don't have the EOS 30 (yet; I've ordered one),

but this sounds a bit annoying...

 

But Canon's EX speedlites all have a red AF assist light.

 

My question is: If I put a Canon speedlite with a red AF assist light

on the EOS 30, is it going to use that red light even when I'm not

using the flash at all? If so, wouldn't that be a reason to always

have the flash unit on the camera in low-light conditions, even if

you're not going to flash? (just to avoid flashing only for

focussing?).

 

regards,

Jesper

[michael_hanisch]

Yes, that's correct - the camera will use the Speedlight's "red beam" as a focussing aid. BTW, I also found the Elan's built-in "focus assist" (read: popup flash) annoying, but fortunately there is a custom function that disables it. So far, I haven't noticed any real focussing problems even at lower light levels even without any focus assist light (using fairly fast primes).

[yakim_peled1]

When it gets really dark (e.g. one candle in a big room) even a fast lens (e.g. 85/1.8) is not enough. The AF assist from my 550EX does miracles in this situations.

[jespdj]

Thanks...

 

I've also found the answer myself on photonotes.org, in Part III of the Flash Photography article. There's some more interesting information there:

 

"The EOS 30/33/Elan 7/EOS 7 is most suitable for use with an external flash unit�s AF assist light, since this camera has a custom function which disables the external flash while maintaining the operation of the AF assist."

 

Also, it seems that the 420EX is the only flash unit which works really well with the EOS 30, because the AF assist light on the 420EX is the only one which works properly with all 7 AF-points of the EOS 30 (the 550EX apparently doesn't cover two of the 7 AF-points).

 

Jesper