IMO the white light on a EOS30 or Elan 7E quicky becomes redundant once you realise the quality of the built in flashes on SLR's is only really good enough for some fill in flash situations. I found that after using my first roll of film with some exposures using the built in flash, I really needed a separate Speedlight, so I bought a 420EX. My flash photography has since improved massively. The reason why the white light assist becomes redundant is that the speedlight has a powerful infrared assist light built in, (much more powerful that a EOS 50/IIE built in assist) and when you are operating in light conditions low enough to need focus assist, you are likely to be using a flash anyway. Remember you can turn off the white light assist on the EOS 30/7e through Custom Function 13. With this in mind the only advantage the EOS 50/IIe has over the EOS30/7e becomes doubtful. (Also, I recommend the use of a Stofen Omnibounce on your Speedlight, as the results are excellent, something you can't use with a built in flash.)

Does anyone else agree?

-- Sam Hassall (samhassall@aol.com), December 20, 2001

Answers

With 5 years of development, the Elan 7 should be superior to the Elan II. But Canon, in their infinite wisdom, produced a Camera with less low light focusing capability (as per Philip Greenspun) than its predecessor. Canon also cheaped out on the focus assist light.

In low light, if you want to use an external flash all the time (or have the flash mounted just to use the focus assist light), then assuming all your subjects are within range of the assist light, then problem solved. If you want to take available light photos with fast film and fast lenses, the Elan II is better.

-- Kenneth Katz (socks@bestweb.net), December 20, 2001.

In good light, the Elan 7E focuses slightly faster than both my A2 and Elan. With a slow zoom, the Elan 7E and A2 can lock on distant low contrast objects like white clouds without a hitch. The Elan often searches and fails to get a lock. As light gets dimmer, the Elan 7E's performance begins to waver and the Elan and A2 pull ahead due to their near-infrared AF assist lights. Once outside the Elan's AF assist light range (25-30 feet), the Elan 7E is better at low light AF than the Elan. The, A2--even with a disabled AF assist light--is noticeably better at low light AF than the Elan 7E.

In all fairness, if there is enough light to hand hold the Elan 7E for available light photos, AF works fine. Last night I shot a couple rolls of Provia at the Honolulu City Lights Christmas Display. I used the Elan 7E and EF 28-105 3.5-4.5 USM on a Bogan tripod. My shutter speeds ranged from 20 seconds to 1/15 second at F3.5-F8. Although it was too dark to consider handholding, AF never failed once. I didn't use an AF assist light.

With the AF assist light of the 420EX Speedlite, low light AF performance of the Elan 7E is as good as or better than the Elan or A2 (I don't have an Elan II to compare it to).

-- Puppy Face (doggieface@aol.com), December 20, 2001.

In this post, I broke my own rule by commenting on equipment I don’t own or have extensively used. Philip was under whelmed by the Elan 7’s low light AF capability, and continued his negative comments when he reviewed the N80 (that the N80 focused reliably in low light unlike the Elan 7).

The question was, is the white AF light redundant when you attach a flash. The answer would be yes.

The post continues with: “when you are operating in light conditions low enough to need focus assist, you are likely to be using a flash anyway”. This statement would only be true if when shooting available light, using fast glass and fast film, you can reliably AF. Philip had problems doing this with the Elan 7. I know the Elan II would perform well, with or without its focus assist.

-- Kenneth Katz (socks@bestweb.net), December 21, 2001.

>when you are operating in light conditions low enough to need focus assist, you are likely to be using a flash anyway.

Depends on the type of photography you do, really. I frequently shoot in low-light conditions without flash. For me the Elan 7's lack of an AF assist light is a crippling disadvantage and a disappointment.

-- NK Guy (tela@tela.bc.ca), December 21, 2001.

I think the Elan 7's AF assist light issue is a bit overblown. Yeah, I prefer the near IR light of my former Elan II, but the fact is my Elan 7 focuses fine in most situations without the assist. The Elan 7's 35 segment meter and 7 focusing points arew much more of a plus than the one downside a lot of people heap disdane upon - the white focus assist light. I don't like it either; I simply don't use it. In those rare cases where AF struggles, I use an old-school solutiton - I switch over to MF.

-- Jim Hicks (jhicks992@aol.com), December 22, 2001.

I agree i used the Elan 7 in indoors basketball and outdoors night HS football without a flash the Elan 7 focuses well w/o the assist light. I mean it must be a very dark situation where the light will go off, i mean after that and the flash actually going off it shouldn't be much but an annoyance.

-- Jake F. (jakef@nowhere.net), December 23, 2001.