Which camera should I buy; the EOS30 feels terrific is quite and fast but is the EOS5 a professional camera? I have been shooting for a few years now but want to get abit more serious.

-- Peerayot Gwilliam (peerayotnz@hotmail.com), May 28, 2002

Answers

The EOS 30 that you claim fells terrific is a current mid-range camera body. The EOS 5 was a professional camera. It was shooting for a few years now, and it has been seriously replaced by the EOS 3.

It would help if you could give more information about your needs. How much money are you prepared to spend? What subjects do you shoot? What lenses do you need? What lighting is required? What film do you want to use?

-- elan7e-owner@yahoogroups.com (Julian Loke @ .), May 28, 2002.

The EOS 5 was a semi-professional camera, but frankly I wouldn't put to much weight to that label. The EOS 5 is not build to the same structural standards as the current pro EOS 3 and EOS 1v. Nor is it built better than the very nicely built EOS 30. Furthermore, due to its age, the EOS 5 lacks compatibility with Canon E-TTL flash. This alone may dissuade you from going with the EOS 5 if you are an avid flash user. The advantages of E-TTL flash are: E-TTL uses a condition-assessing pre-flash to determine flash exposure, E-TTL allows high-speed flash sync (called FP flash) at speeds up to 1/4000s, and E-TTL allows for Flash Exposure Lock (FEL) which locks in flash exposure to assure proper exposure even if your subject moves off-center.

The EOS 5 does have a PC terminal for connecting studio flash, and it has a true spot meter. The EOS 30 doesn't have a PC terminal, and instead of a spot meter it uses a 9.5% partial meter (which can be equally effective and has advantages of it's own). The EOS 30 also has very good Eye Control Focus, which works in vertical and horizontal orientation and has the fastest activation of all Canon Eye Control cameras. The EOS 5e has a very early version of Eye Control. As a result, the EOS 5e's Eye Control only works in horizontal orientation and is slow to activate.

The EOS 5 will have better low-light focusing than the Elan 7, but adding a Canon Speedlight with IR focus assist will improve the Elan 7's low-light performance greatly. The EOS 5 also allows you to change the focusing screen.

-- Peter Phan (pphan01@hotmail.com), May 28, 2002.

I'd go for the 30. It's newer and supports E-TTL.

-- Yakim Peled (yakim.peled@orange.co.il), May 29, 2002.