Canon Eos Elan Iie 35mm Slr Film Camera Review

Reviewed: Catechism EOS Elan II / EOS 50 / EOS 55

With Nifty Fifty attached, this erstwhile Canon is plastic-fantastic!

I should consider renaming this blog to "Budget Canon Fun" as most of my reviews and so far have been of Canons. I assure you honey reader that while it is a little due to my love of Catechism, it'south more often than not just to keep things more budget-friendly on my end due to already being articulatio genus-deep in EF lenses.

The Canon EOS Elan II is a huge upgrade over the first Elan, which I did a review of back in one of the worst Chicago Winters e'er. Sure issues were fixed (no more viscid shutter syndrome, expanded features, ameliorate autofocus, etc.), though information technology wasn't as much of a game-changer as the start i. That'south ok though, the old one set upwardly the new one to slam-dunk Canon'due south power to produce a cheaper, well-congenital serious-amateur-to-pro-level SLR.

Speaking of "cheaper," Elan IIs go for actually cheap on eBay these days, and versions with Canon's remarkably bad-donkey Centre Control Focus go for $10ish more.

In fact, I like this adequately-bulky SLR and so much that I've endemic 3 in the past 2 months: one I bought off my girlfriend just then sold to a buddy, one is a Nihon marketplace EOS-55 with ECF, and the other is a inexpensive $20 shipped find from eBay considering I missed the champagne color of the 1 I sold. Some people throw effectually money at confined, some at casinos, I throw around money like a fiend on eBay.

The Elan II is a great slice of equipment due to it's size, Catechism button layout, skillful features, dainty-sized viewfinder, battery life and great meter. My buddy who I sold my first one to used information technology during a hymeneals that I recently assisted him at. He shot a whole curl of Portra 160 and attached some really nice Canon L glass to information technology. He remarked that not only was it a breeze to handle and transfer his familiarity of his 5D MkII to, but was too able to create some really excellent images with it. I'k excited to see them myself.

Speaking of creating skilful images, these are a few shots from 1 of the rolls I've shot with mine so far (maybe not the most interesting subject matter, simply nicely exposed!):

From the Northish Shore to beyond South Shore. All completely unedited, and merely 1/3 exposure added or taken abroad from each of them

The 6-zone metering arrangement did a great job, the camera's simplicity kept me focused on my subjects, the lack of an LCD prevented me from taking my heart away from my environment (woo motion picture!), the size/weight was comfortable in my large/skinny hands, the big viewfinder displayed everything clearly… this makes for an accommodating keen shooter!

Some other betoken worth talking nearly: for being a rudimentary three-zone AF system from the mid-90′south it certainly focuses fast! I don't really shoot much motion, and I did shoot the to a higher place photos in good low-cal, but it still felt every bit quick and accurate as my EOS-1N.

Reasons why information technology may not exist the best body for the job: really deadening FPS (2.five), Due east-TTL flash metering (information technology seems like some people similar it, some detest it, it is more updated than A-TTL), movie bay door could un-latch easily, all-plastic construction (though metal mount thankfully), and has congenital-in flash that could become annoying (though I'thou really getting picky).

The only bummer about the Elan II that applies to outdated-engineering-loving-losers like myself is it cannot be programmed with Canon's hilariously rad/useful EOS Bacode Reader. That's right: all of those cool, super-specific custom settings that proud Elan owners paged through in their re-create of EOS Barcodes 101, which gave them the sense that they've one-upped their Nikon/Pentax/Minolta friends in one case once again, would no longer apply to the new model. No more than retrofuture, cyberpunk-similar photographic camera programming for the proud Elan enthusiast. Though I suppose beingness able to become ECF in the Elan IIe makes up for that a little.

The Elan Two is a groovy camera that's piece of cake to observe, cheap to attain, it mounts all Canon EF glass (except EF-Southward of form), handles well, and worth having a look at adjacent time you lot're perusing eBay, or happen upon one in a thrift store.

That's all for this review, I was a lot more curtailed and don't remember I rambled as much! My regularly-updated tumblr page has more shots that I've taken with my Elan IIs, more than of my work can be found at Peter J. Nelson Photography, and a lot of my photos can be purchased at my Society6 page. Thanks a lot for reading!