50e & 380EX - AF Assist question

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Hi,

I have a quick question about the 50e in conjunction with the 380EX speedlight. I have already tried scouring the manuals, a Hove guide and the rest of the web with no success.

I know that the AF Assist beam on the speedlight is only active when using the centre focus point - the problem is that I am unsure on the exact details of operation. Another thread here seems to indicate that the AF assist from the speedlight will work with both eye-controlled and manually selected centre focus point. I can only seem to get it working using the manual selection of the centre focus point (using eye-controlled the camera AF assist still seems to be illuminated if the centre point is selected). Am I doing somthing wrong? Is this feature dependent on a certain camera mode? FYI: I have been trying using the 'Creative zones' (mainly the 'P' setting) and I have made sure that the CF for AF assist is enabled.

Is the 380EX AF assist visible?

This isn't a really important issue but I am curious - and the manuals are all particularly vague!

Many thanks,

John.

-- John Matthews (john@matthews-net.org.uk), September 01, 2001

Answers

It doesn't matter what any other thread said about how to activate it. I read the one that says it can be activated by eye control too. The simple fact is, the 380EX AF assist light only works if you select the center point manually. You are correct that the manual does not specify this though.

-- Brad Hutcheson (bhutcheson@iname.com), September 01, 2001.

Many thanks for the answer above.

Does the situation change with the EOS 30 so that if an external AF is attached via a speedlight then it will use the external AF assist while using the ECF?

Personally I hate these white light AF assists that seem to be the norm now on Canon's mid range cameras. This was one consideration when purchasing my 50e. If I was to think about upgrading my EOS body it would only be if the 30 could use the external AF assist for all focus points with ECF as the 30 has the dreaded white light.

Even then it would require a new flash unit as the 380EX only uses the AF assist for the centre focussing point - the 420EX (or better) could use AF assist with all points... correct? The EOS 30 was produced after my 380EX manual so I'm making assumptions based on other models in the range.

Thanks again,

John.

-- John Matthews (john@matthews-net.org.uk), September 01, 2001.


The other nice thing about the 50e/Elan IIe is that the focus assist projects a patterned beam which seems to be better than a non- patterned beam. The 380EX focus assist doesn't throw a pattern. I don't know about the 420EX. I was really disappointed that the 30/Elan 7 discarded this great on-camera feature. That's why I'll always hold onto my Elan IIe even when I upgrade -- for it's great little patterned IR focus assist.

-- Peter Phan (pphan01@hotmail.com), September 04, 2001.

The 380EX does throw a pattern, but it is only big enough to cover the center point. Also, the patern is vertical, so it wouldn't work with the other points anyway. I've never used the 420EX, so I don't know how it works with the Elan II/50E. For what it's worth, the 550EX works perfectly with the Elam II, and the EOS 3 (don't know about the Elan 7) in eye control mode with all focus points.

-- Brad Hutcheson (bhutcheson@iname.com), September 04, 2001.

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