I am about to purchase a A2 new for $599 Cdn, I intend to spend an additional $45 on a 5 year warrantee. Is anyone aware of a any changes made to the command dial to prevent premature failure over the years of production? According to the production code inside the film chamber this body was made in Dec of 1999.

-- Russell Boate (rboate@eagle.ca), March 05, 2002

Answers

nothing has been done and nothing will ever be done. fyi -- on the EOS yahoo e-list, they announced that Canon has now apparantly officially stopped production on the EOS A2/5 for good.

has been and still is my favorite EOS.

> Flicked to page 9 of EOS Magazine and the headline 'Last exposure for EOS 5' caught my eye. > > Canon has stopped the manufacture of the EOS 5.

-- m. lohninger (anavrin@mac.com), March 05, 2002.

My 1992 A2's command dial has never failed.

On the other hand, the dial in my 1996 A2 failed twice, once in Summer 1998 and again in Summer 1999. Canon felt sorry the second time and charged me $60 instead of $120. Interestingly, the first repair involved changing the whole top deck along with the dial. The second time, they only changed the dial. The tech explained that it was a new and improved dial design. True, something changed as the dial was separated from the top deck. However--knock on wood--the "improved" dial has lasted nearly 3 years whereas the old replacement dial barely lived on year. So, maybe there was an improvement. I certainly used the hell out of the camera and it still works fine.

With all that said, the A2 is a wonderful camera in every other way. The grid focusing screen is a Godsend. Buy the 5 year warranty and take great images!

-- Puppy Face (doggieface@aol.com), March 05, 2002.

The EOS 5 is a great body, but I would consider a Elan 7 at this point. Not sure what 599 canadian is, but the price for the EOS 5 new is a bit much now that the lessor Elan has most of the features. Also, the dial will fail, but a warranty will not help. Mine has cost 120 to repair and made it better actually! I would not get the extended warranty if I were you. But, I have said I would get the Elan 7.

-- Chris Gillis (chris@photogenica.net), March 06, 2002.

"I would not get the extended warranty if I were you. But, I have said I would get the Elan 7."

The warranty is a toss. They will fix your camera under warranty, however -- and you won't have to pay to have the dial fixed. Canon fixed my dial for free while still under normal warranty.

The only thing that the Elan 7 has going for it is E-TTL (I don't shoot with on-camera flash) and slightly faster AF in daylight (not in low-light, however!). That's pretty much it.

The 5 has many more important features: true spot metering (how can you live without one?), a faster "Whisper" drive (5 fps), an auto zoom TTL popup flash with 1/200 second X-sync,1/8000 second top shutter speed, PC terminal (!), A-TTL ability, interchangeable focusing screens, T3 release terminal and 16 custom functions. The Elan 7E's BP-300 lacks a Main Dial, which the VG-10 for the EOS 5 has.

Also, the viewfinder of the EOS 5 is brighter and larger, and AF and metering is more sensitive in low light, and it has a much better AF-beam than the Elan 7.

The A2/5 has a more substantial feel to it, which i prefer. i also think that the elan 7 lacks the x-mode on the command dial, which i found to be very useful in the studio environment (it's like M-mode, only it doesn't allow you to accidentally go over your max sunc speed, when connected to a strobe.)

-- m. lohninger (anavrin@mac.com), March 06, 2002.

Interesting to hear Puppy Face's experience....

I have just sold my old EOS 5, which I bought second hand in 1996. In all my time of owning the camera, the command dial never broke. I'm fairly certain it didn't break for the previous owner either, since at that time Canon did not provide a fix for the problem.

My personal opinion is, although I have no evidence to back this up, that canon changed the production process or location at some point in the EOS 5/A2's lifespan, and the later process/location made a change that caused the problems. Later in the life of the EOS 5 it was being sold at a much lower price point, which can partially be explained by the recouping of the development costs, but perhaps they were also constructed with the lower price point in mind later?

Like I said, that's just what I think, and other than anecdotal evidence that earlier bodies were unaffected by the problem, I have no evidence that it is the case.

-- Isaac Sibson (isibson@hotmail.com), March 07, 2002.

I bought two A2E's in 1999. Both had the Command Dial to break. There was no effective changes in the production of the camera. ALL of them are subject to breakage. Get it repaired at Horizon Electronics, Union City, California, and you can rely on the camera thereafter.

-- Lee (Leemarthakiri@sport.rr.com), March 07, 2002.

I used Canonnet, Canon A1, Elan 2e, Elan 7 and now Canon A2e. For the advise about getting the Elan 7 over Canon A2e, I used the Canon Elan 2e and I decided to switch to Elan 7 to try the latest technology. However , that was the wrong decision. The Elan 7 has a darker viewfinder and its AF has a prolem to focus at the low light( i mean not a really low light, just so so). Elan 7 hunting a subject like crazy. Moreover, the metering system is not accurate. Finally, I changed back to Canon A2e. I felt in love with it immediately. Better feel, better viewfinder and better mettering system. Go with Canon A2e or EOS 3, forgetting Elan 7

-- Anh (anht1706@hotmail.com), March 26, 2002.