EOS 1n or EOS 3 - with regards to flash ONLY!

[robert_davis7]

I lost my EOS 3 and booster to the Suwannee River last weekend.

Well, it's not official yet - Canon has it now - but I'm preparing

for the worst.

 

I was thinking of buying another EOS 3 but I noticed KEH has some

1n's for sale at a pretty decent price. So I started thinking -

 

Did I really ever use ECF on the 3? No.

Did I ever actually use all 45 points? Hardly; I always found myself

gravitating to the central focusing point.

Did I ever use the multi-spot metering? Sadly, yes... not much,

though and I can count on my brain to fill in for the M-SM.

 

Did I ever use flash? ALL THE TIME. Wireless, FP, FEL - you name it.

 

So that's the only sticking point. So I guess I'm soliciting

opinions in regards to whether E-TTL (which is now "old" - ha!)

should be the determining factor in my future camera purchase?

 

(BTW - does anyone know if the 420EX supports A-TTL?)

[jimstrutz]

The 420EX supports TTL on the 1n, not sure about A-TTL. Not sure why you would care though. A-TTL wasn't much of an improvement over straight TTL, if at all.

 

You will loose FP and FEL. I don't see any way around that, but you can still do wireless by adding Ikelite Lite-Link TTL slaves to the remote flash units. About $80 each. They work well.

[PuppyDigs]

If you know what you're doing, I found image quality (chromes) with my EOS 1N amd 430EZ Speedlite (A-TTL) equal to my EOS 3 and 420EX flash (E-TTL). However, E-TTL does a little better with point 'n shoot, especially if you leave all 45 AF sensors active. That said, the EOS 3 more strongly biases exposure to the active AF sensor than the 1N, so ECF is a Godsend with flash (if you use lock-recompose you'll need to use FEL for proper flash exposure). You can actually control flash exposure to a certain extent by using ECF to lock onto different tonalities.

 

However, the EOS 3 has one big advantage over the 1N: the center AF sensor is fully enabled as cross sensor with F4 or faster lenses. The 1N needs F2.8 or it degrades to a single axis sensor. That means slower zooms like the EF 17-40 4L USM or EF 70-200 4L USM are stellar performers on the EOS 3 but have difficulty getting an AF lock with the 1N. The main reason I upgraded from a 1N to a 3 was for the better AF performance. And, yes, it was worth it.

 

No, the 420EX doesn't support A-TTL, only E-TTL and TTL (no big loss).

[rmp-images]

Here's my .02 worth. My only flash is a 420EX. I have two camera bodies, a Rebel TI and an EOS-1N. The Rebel uses E-TTL, with the 420EX, and every flash picture has come out perfect. I ususally try to bounce the flash when possible (for those soft pictures of my new granddaughter). Even head-on flash shots come out excellent. I have great sucess with E-TTL. The EOS-1N, when using the 420EX only supports TTL metering and the flash pictures do not come out nearly as well. They could be better if I used an EZ flash instead of the EX cause the -1N would be in A-TTL. I have no experience with A-TTL so I can't comment on it. In fact, I use only the Rebel if I know ahead of time that I'll doing mostly flash. What also helps is that I use Fuji NPH film, which is awseome for people pictures. I love my -1N but am considering trading it for a -3 only because of the -3's superior flash capabilities, compared to the -1N. You might also want to check out the new Elan-7N with E-TTL II. Hope this helped.

[rmp-images]

Here's an update to my previous answer. I just got back several rolls of film (Fuji NPH 400 and Fuji Superia 400) that were shot with the EOS-1N and a 420EX flash (which equates to TTL mode). Overall I am VERY DISAPPOINTED in the quality of the prints because they were way underexposed when the flash was bounced off the ceiling and not very consistently exposed overall. I don't have this problem with the Rebel TI. I used my livingroom ceiling (white) for both cameras.

 

I really like the way the 1N handles non-flash photography but so much of my shooting is done with a flash. I will be selling the 1N and staying with the E-TTL system in my Rebel TI because that combination produces perfect flash pictures, every time. I shot my daughters wedding with the Rebel last January and every picture was perfectly exposed and actually better exposed than the pro we hired who had a Fuji S2 digital body. I didn't think a $200 Rebel could out-do these professional bodies but it certainly does when it comes to flash photos! I know the Rebel is not in the same league as the EOS-1N, as far as buttons to push and custom settings, etc, but I am a believer in E-TTL. I may upgrade the Rebel to an Elan or EOS-3 but the 1N is GONE!