I am planing to purchase an Elan ll and I am not sure weather to spend the extra money for the E model. I have heard mixed reviews, mostly negative. Any opinions?

-- Tom Weistar (ropes@jps.net), November 03, 1999

Answers

Tom - I have used eye control focus on an A2E and it was splendid. There are serious advantages to using eye-control focus particularly with long lenses. Trying to manually focus a long lens/tc combination can cause hand-induced shake. Holding the whole plot steady and letting the eye-control do the work is much much smoother. However be aware that some folks dont seem to like the function, and cant make it work properly.

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-- (John.MacPherson@btinternet.com), November 03, 1999.

Tom, the "E" version is worth every cent. I've been using an ElanIIE now for a year, and I've never turned the feature off. It's a very easy way to avoid recomposing shots. Yes, you may still have to recompose some, but it's a lot faster to use the right or left eye focus marks than recomposing from the center. I'm pretty satisfied with the feature.

-- William Juliano (wjuliano@uol.com.br), November 03, 1999.

When I bought an ElanII I tried both versions and eventually chose the non ECF version. While I don't doubt that some find ECF useful, I didn't. You may of course!

-- Bob Atkins (bobatkins@hotmail.com), November 03, 1999.

I'm really glad I opted for eye-controlled focus when I bought my Elan IIe. It's really easy to use and set up (ie. calibrate). I find it makes me faster and more efficient in location photography. In addition, eye-control solves some classic autofocusing problems, such as having to recompose because something or someone is standing closer to your camera than your subject.

Now that I've had eye-control I would not want to do without it. I've had no problems with it whatsoever, it's a breeze to set up (calibration takes only a few seconds) and my camera really is getting more responsive to my eye the more I calibrate it in different light levels (owing to what is apparently called "self-teaching technology"). I'm faster at metering using eye-control as well as composing. It's a godsend in a crowd or any situation with a lot of people or things (c/b a forest) that will drive you crazy if you use traditional autofocus methods and workarounds. While others are wasting time turning off AF to go manual or aiming off to refocus or meter, I've "captured the moment" and am on to my next shot. I've caught several pictures that would otherwise have been missed if it weren't for eye-control.

By the way, some don't realize there are three calibration settings on the ElanIIe. You, your spouse and a third camera user can each have their own setting (meaning it will respond to each person), or do what I've done: 1. for use with my glasses , 2. for contact lenses and 3. for my naked eye!

Finally, in Full Auto (point and shoot mode), eye-control switches off, so you can hand your camera to a snapshooter (who still benefits from standard AF).

I NEVER use the other autofocusing options available because eye-control is faster, more accurate and puts control of autofocus in MY hands, not in the "hands" of the camera.

Roy Kekewich

-- Roy Kekewich (roykekewich@yahoo.com), November 14, 1999.

a nice feature of the Elan IIE is the DOF preview. after focusing, you glance up to the upper left-hand corner of the viewfinder, and the lens will stop down to the selected aperture, showing you the exact image that makes it to film. some think it is a bit hokey, but I like the hands-free aspect of it.

it is a wonderful camera.

-- Daniel Taylor (aviator@agalis.net), November 15, 1999.

I own an Elan II E and an EOS 3. I don't think the Elan's ECF system is evolved enough to be useful enough to give me an advantage in my genre of photography, bird shots. It is not fast enough. I bought the EOS three because I was ready to move to a pro level camera, and the EOS 3's focusing system is possibly the fastest available. BUT, even with the 3, I do not find the ECF to be reliable. If you have to nail the eye of a shorebird in focus as it feeds or moves around, you cannot afford any mistakes. I find as good as the Eye Contol Focus is, sometimes it will choose the wrong focusing point. One that is out of my depth of field(which is millimters at 420mm at 5 feet) Time spent getting close and into the "right" position for an awesome shot is too important to risk missing the shot because the ECF chose the wrong focusing point.

Now for shooting people and other large 'in the frame subjects', I think the ECF is an excellant choice. It all depends on what you are shooting.

-- Rob Pailes (rpailes@peganet.com), November 20, 1999.