FPP's Michael Raso, Mat Marrash and John Fedele are joined by The Darkroom's Trev Lee ( thedarkroom.com ) to discuss the BEST VALUE 35mm film camera - the Canon EOS line.
I have a Canon EOS Rebel G. I use my modern day full frame lenses. It takes awesome pics. I like the 40mm lens on it. It’s small, light weight and great for street photography. Only cost me $8 at Goodwill.
They certainly are a great value. The only thing is the older manual cameras can almost always be repaired and kept going pretty much indefinitely. The newer plastic autofocus cameras had a lot of gears and other parts made of plastic that get brittle and break, and replacements are in many cases simply not available.
I have a bunch of EOS film cameras. All of them sit in a drawer because my Canon A2 is simply wonderful. Fast shutter, great AF, fill flash great for daytime use, battery last forever, nice custom features, super reliable and light weight. My L lenses work perfectly but I often have the 40mm STM lens mounted. I have some A2e cams also but I am good with my A2. Now let's stop talking about them before the prices get out of hand. :)
I have a Canon Rebel 2000 that I purchased new in 1999 and it’s still perfectly good. God only knows what the shutter count is. How something with that much plastic can have that much longevity and work so great after over 20 years is amazing.
Well, I have and shoot several Canon eos 35mm cameras, without doubt the 50e (Elan...) is my absolute favourite, its weighty, built like a tank, solid performance, the auto Eye Focusing works brilliantly. I shoot Canon digital too, but there's something about these Canon film Cameras that I just love.
whenI bought a digital camera I stayed with Canon and kept my Elan 7 Ne. I had it out earlier today and am planing on buying a couple of rolls of film to give it a work out. as I just got into large Format 4x5 I am now regaining interest if film cameras. It seems to force me to take more time composing my shots and not just go out running and gunning to hope i get a few keepers. I'm enjoying this a lot!
Thank you for posting. It's hard to see through the preening and prancing and one upsmanship of photography equipment. I sincerely appreciate the straight up, practical, professional opinions.
Which eos film cameras are the most adaptable? I have a first gen elan and with most third party lenses or adapters I have tried, it just pulls up the mirror and shuts off when I try to take a picture.
I totally agree with this conversation. I have some nice older cameras such as the FM2n, the Canon New F1 and the A1 but when I want to actually shoot film and get the best results I reach for my Canon EOS 1V or EOS 7.
I love the Rebel film cameras. They are so nice and light and amazingly cheap, sometimes free. In about 1997 I bought an Elan IIe and am on my third one of them, the film door latch breaks and it's easier to buy another one than to get it fixed. I noticed a film Rebel and bought it off a Goodwill shelf back when they got the nice film cameras and sold them for about $5 and kept picking them up when I'd see them in the thrift stores, so that I'd have a backup. None have broken or quit working. My last Elan IIe has its film door taped shut and I'm currently looking for another one. Do you have a recommendation for someone who works on them?
Have a Elan 7 myself, with the nifty fifty lens is a great combo that doesn’t break the bank! I couldn’t agree more with everyone here, those modern film SLR’s are so slept on, I’ve been saying it for years!
I bought my EOS Kiss (The Japanese Rebel has a data back and panoramic mode) because of your recommendation Mike. It has a nifty fifty on it pretty much permanently. I call it The Canonot.
Aha -- just searched around for the Canon EF 40mm f2.8 lens -- seems that since Mike Raso has endorsed it, the price has skyrocketed -- getting up to around $100 in great shape! Drat you Mike Raso!!!!! :-)
I own a rebel t2 I bought cheap off eBay cause I wanted a camera with more modern feature over the Canon A-1. It works great but I definitely use the A-1 more and that one even survived a splash of muddy water
Big fan of the EOS cameras, while they're not my regular shooters as I have more invested in Nikon. I do have one EOS 650 with the nifty 50 and it is my quick grab-go-just-need-to-work camera. But I have never met an EOS camera I didn't like.
The Canon 30V (Elan 7) is relatively cheap and the light meter is just spot on. That and the way cheaper 3000V (What is with the V's with European models) are my "point and shoot" cameras for times when I just want to concentrate on taking the picture and not fiddle with the settings.
I'm addicted to vintage photography equipment shopping on shopgoodwill dot com -- and there are Canon EOS/Rebel cameras on there every day and a lot of the generic short zoom EF lenses and the 70-300mm non-Canon EF lenses. Don't want to use autofocus? Switch it off! Personally I prefer to shoot older rangefinders, pseudo TLRs, and 1976-before SLRs -- but I also have a Nikon F100, as well as some Minolta Maxxum 7000s, and it is fun to use those AF 35mm SLRs with a lot of auto functions *sometimes*!!!
It's amazing the model number crossover for the EOS/Rebel cameras -- go to camera-wiki dot org and look under Canon, EF-mount AF cameras and see how many different names each model has!!!
