nilantha

You may try following link: Elan II with vertical grip

http://www.photo.net/gc/view-ad-history.tcl?classified_ad_id=603273

The person who is selling the camera Jim Strutz is a well known person in photonet community and I have no personel gains here anyway.

I would highly recommend Elan II (Elan 50 or Elan 55 which are similar) just because you can get it for very good price, equipped with features like mirror lock up (after activating custom function) and most importantly you can spend money on glass rather than a body. I would suggest you to look at www.keh.com or even this website for used body. Elan 7 is the replacement model for Elan II which is tad smaller and there are some concerns about low light focusing capability.

I got it fixed at the local camera shop. Although I open the outer skin on that side I was not sure that I could do it my self. Do you have to open both top cover and bottom cover as well? Thank you very much for your responces.

Yesterday I realized that my trusted Elan II got a broken film door

latch. It had a half-exposed film in it too and I realized the door

is not properly locked. I tried to close to does not lock in, then

later found a small piece of (3 mm) plastic came off from the body

which hold the film door in place when locked. Any body got a

similar problem?

Darren

I would second what Bob recomended Elan 7/50 mm 1.8 system and try to get a used one from keh.com. Other than Elan 7 you may also lok at Elan II. Elan 7 is known for to have a low light focusing problems and IMHO the only advantage over Elan II is dedicated DOF button. Also elan 7 is slightly smaller. BTW if you care about how the camera body looks, Elan 7 is black body while Elan II is silver and black.

If you are willing to look at the used market Elan II would be the way to go, more than a basic camera which has lot of rrom to grow. Also try to get 50 mm prime, you just can not go wrong. For baby pictures I would not use flash available light photography with this combo should be fine. Look at keh.com for used items.

I was shooting an award ceremony (Elan II, Sigma 70-200 2.8 HSM, 540

EZ mounted on camera, 400 ASA) under relatively low light

conditions. Most of the participants, even the ones not directly

looking at the lens/camera got red eye. I have done nighttime

photography but not have seen this much red eye. What went wrong

here is a puzzle to me. Any suggestions are welcome.

Marc,

I own Sigma 70-200 f2.8 HSM and really like it. I compared the Tokina to Sigma when I was buying and it seems that Tokina focuses slower, hunts a bit too. I can not comment about optical quality though. Sigma comes with a tripod ring also.

If you have EF lenses I would go for ElanII (Elan 50) and I do not think you are going to miss too much by not going for Elan 7 which slightly smaller and black body. A reliable place to buy used is www.keh.com, just in case if you want to know.

If you really want to go with Elan II (or IIe), it is worth looking at keh.com for used prices. They have very good reputation and you can not certainly go wrong. You even may be able to trade in your broken one for parts.

You can find a decent K1000 at www.keh.com and they have few available now. As far as used equipment go you can not go wrong with them, they are very reliable.

I own the Canon version (HSM, APO)and very happy with it. I almost always use tripod with it. My set up is a Elan II. Have used it with ex tubes for macro with good results. I get interesting results with 12mm ex tube when used for portraits. I will be posting couple of those pics in photo.net soon. Once I was shooting my hood fall and lost it but ended up getting normal rubber collapsable one which does cause any issues ether.

Your PC is capable of handling the job! What I have is Athlon 2.0 GHz, 512 RAM, 120 gb 5400 rpm HDD and I added firewire through PCI slots and system works fine! Dien not drop a single frame. I have been using Pinnacle, rather basic system for editing and buring. If you want more details let me know.

I did compare Tokina (ATX) and Sigma (HSM) before I settled on Sigma. Tokina did hunt little bit while Sigma (HSM) focusing was fast also Tokina felt bit heavier too. I have been using 70-200 f2.8 Sigma for over a year now and very happy with it. Color is very natural may be bit warmer depending on how your eyes like to interprit. I am a Cannon EOS user though.

Dan,

 

Are you looking only at Nikon or open to other possibilities?

Canon Elan II is a great one, meets your mentioned needs and whole lot more. You can get a used at keh.com for a good price. The black body of the same is Elan 55, same capabilities and panorama.

In both Tv and Av modes you are exposing for ambient light. Change the aperture until shutter speed blinking stops.

Tom,

 

I have been extremely happy with Elan II. Bit heavier than Rebel but lots of features that are nicely laid down on the body. You may want to get BP-50, which provides you with a vertical shutter plus other benefits.

Every now and then I hear about compatibility problems with that combo. However, I have been using Tokina 28-105 with Elan II without any problem what so ever. There is another version, i.e. 28-70 Pro SV 2.8 which may be compatible, or Tokina may rechip it for you. You may want to ask them before buying.

I saw cople of 10Ds at the Fry's Electronics few days ago.

I have a very similar set up like yours. I use TRV 250 and most importantly I use firewire (1394) connection rather than USB. Even with sony's image sofeware did not perform well when I tried to get a VCD done. In the play back (in the DVD player) there were blurred lines. I ended up using Pinnacle studio, a software came with video transfer USB/coaxial video/audio hook up devise. Then the VCD had decent quality, nowhere close to original digital8 quality though. That is the quality of VCD I think and SVCD is better.

You probably have a PCI slot available in your PC to install a firewire PCI card.

If you need further assistance contact me off the photo.net

I think that you are bettet off by purchasing ext tubes. I have them for EOS (Kenko), set of three tubes from B&H. Nice thing about the set is you may change tha magnification by grouping the different combinations of tubes. Either way you got to have a decent tripod for macro work!

I have been using 70-200 2.8f Sigma for more than a year on Elan II. Very good performance, however bit soft at 2.8f. Beyond that no complains. I use it without filters. It comes with matching hood and tripod ring.

Focuses faster than comparable Tokina lens.

 

Happy shooting!

Try this link:

http://www.pcphotoreview.com/4,to,6,Megapixel/PRD_130407_3098crx.aspx

 

Nilantha

If you want to enjoy macro world, you also can use extension tubes. Although you will loose infinity focus, you can still use your collection of Canon lenses you own. Set of Kenko tubes (36, 24 and 12 mm) would cost you little over $100.

Happy shooting!

It ought to work. I have used the same tube with 50mm 1.8f.

You can get the set of Kenko tubes for just about $100. To determine the ideal DOF you may have to fool around little bit. Other than for macro I use 12 mm tube with 80-200 2.8f to take interesting close up shots of people!