What I want in a film camera - EOS wish list.
Copyright © 2002-2007 NK Guy
Most of us camera users have these self-indulgent wishlists, and so here’s mine. A totally dated one, as I wrote it in 2002 when I was still using film cameras. I suppose I'll remove this page at some point, as it seems extra self-indulgent now, but here it is for the time-being.
Now admittedly these things usually boil down to, “I want every single feature available in the top of the line camera, only I want it at a price I can afford.” But of course it doesn’t work like that in real life. Most features cost money to add. And camera makers also focus on marketing - carefully designing their product lineup to sell the most cameras.
So it’s always a matter of tradeoffs. When I decided to think about upgrading I made an extensive list of what I wanted and what Canon EOS, the system I use, could offer. I was going through some of my files the other day and thought I'd slap this one on my Web site in case it’s of interest to anyone else going through a similar process.
It may not, of course. Everyone has their own requirements and priorities - this is just what I’m looking for. But here it is. And on the extremely unlikely chance that Canon’s product designers come across this list - I hope you find it of interest!
My kind of photography.
Most of my photography could probably be loosely categorized as travel photography. That means I need to be able to travel light and shoot in awkward, cramped, low-light places. I need flexibility, quiet operation and reliability. Rapid speed is not a priority, however - I don’t do sports or action photography very often.
In addition to travel shooting I do a bit of studio portrait photography, landscape photography and candid photography in social situations. I don’t currently do much macro work, though I intend to at some point. And finally, I like shooting with Kodak HIE high-speed infrared film and experimenting with old manual-focus lenses from time to time.
So those are the photo needs which govern my wishlist.
Features I’d like.
Fantasy features.Roughly ordered from most to least important and reflecting my photographic interests, as above.
Small and lightweight.
I don’t shoot with 600mm telephoto lenses, so huge cameras are of no particular benefit to me. In fact, I like carrying my stuff around, so lightweight is good. If I wanted to lug around huge cameras then I’d go for medium format and get higher quality, anyway. To me part of the whole point of 35mm is portability.
Most of Canon’s midrange cameras are fine, weight and size wise. The Elan 7/EOS 30 is about exactly right for what I want - small but not too small, and quite lightweight.
Sturdy.
I’m not interested in fragile. I tend to toss my cameras and lenses in my bag and go on hikes or whatever.
Luckily, Canon’s cameras all seem at least acceptably sturdy enough for my needs, though I obviously prefer the midrange cameras to the consumer cameras. Particularly since I’d want a metal lens mount since I change lenses frequently and plastic mounts wear more quickly. Yes, I really like the tough metal frame of cameras like the 1v, but the cost and weight tradeoff is too high.
Auto and manual exposure controls.
This kind of goes without saying, but a camera should have at the bare minimum both basic programmed AE plus manual controls. At the least this means some point and shoot idiot mode (P), aperture priority (Av), shutter priority (Tv) and metered manual (M). I frankly never find the idiot (PIC) modes indicated by icons on medium and low end cameras of particular benefit simply because they don’t give you much control.
The ability to change metering modes (evaluative, partial or spot, centre-weighted averaged) and motor drive modes (one-shot, continuous, self-timer) at will is also important and a feature that the low-end EOS cameras lack. You can only set these modes indirectly by choosing different pre-programmed shooting modes.
Rear dial.
Whoever invented this feature is a genius. It’s so convenient to be able to adjust lens aperture and shutter speed with one hand while still holding the camera.
Quiet.
I’m not interested in drawing attention to my fancy noisy camera. The quieter the better.
Low-light autofocus.
I frequently do photography in low lighting conditions without flash.
Most midrange EOS cameras are okay as they run from 0 to 18 EV. The Elan 7/EOS 30 is an embarrassment, going from 1 to 18 EV like most of the consumer EOS cameras do. Nikon’s midrange F80/N80, by contrast, goes from -1 to 19 EV. Come on, Canon! You can do better than that!
Dedicated red patterned AF assist light.
Again, I do a lot of low-light photography and so pulsing the main flash (Rebel 2000/EOS 300, Elan 7/EOS 30) instead of having a proper red AF assist light is unacceptable. So is spending hundreds of dollars on a flash unit or an ST-E2 to fill in for the omission of a 25 cent red LED.
Controls easily operated in the dark.
I frequently find myself changing metering modes (evaluative to partial) and engaging the self-timer when doing nighttime photography, and it’d be great to be able to do this without fumbling for a flashlight all the time.
The Elan II/EOS 50 has the best interface for this sort of thing. Metering mode, for example, is a lever on the left side of the top deck. Since it’s a physical lever it’s easy to remember which position corresponds to which metering mode. By contrast both the Elan/100 and the Elan 7/EOS 30 are horrible to operate in the dark - you have to push a tiny button, then rotate the main dial and peer at the top deck LCD to read off the setting. And it’s a two-handed operation on the Elan/100, so you have to hold a flashlight in your mouth or something. The Elan 7/EOS 30 does have a dial for changing autofocus modes (AI servo, one shot, AI focus) but I never shoot in any mode other than one shot, since I don’t do sports-type photography.
Similarly the self-timer. Here the Elan 7/EOS 30 and Elan II/EOS 50 are both great. On the former you simply move the film advance mode lever to the top setting and on the latter you push a single-function pushbutton. By contrast the Elan/100 is a real nuisance as it has a small button that you have to press repeatedly to cycle through modes until the self-timer mode icon appears in the top-deck LCD.
One interesting camera in the EOS lineup is the EOS 300V/Rebel Ti/Kiss 5, which has a large illuminated rear-panel LCD. The LCD displays the current shooting mode (P, M, Av, etc) so you can tell what mode you’re in even in the dark - a really useful feature which eliminates the need for an illuminated dial.
E-TTL.
TTL and A-TTL flash are okay, but I want FP mode flash and flash exposure lock, both of which require E-TTL capable EOS cameras. Wireless E-TTL flash and wireless ratios are also great features.
Does not fog Kodak HIE infrared film.
I do a lot of photography using Kodak HIE. A camera must not fog HIE or have a hole in the pressure plate that causes reflection problems with HIE.
Sadly this is not a priority with Canon - all of Canon’s current lineup save the top of the line 1V fog HIE film. I realize that HIE users are vastly in the minority of camera users out there, but is it really that difficult to implement an IR sensor that consistently fogs only the rebate of the film and never the image area? Surely a redesign of the LED lens could narrow the beam and eliminate the problem at very little extra cost.
Compatible with manual-focus lenses.
I have a Zenitar Russian-built fisheye lens I like to use, and I may buy converters for some of my other manual-focus lenses sometime.
All EOS cameras except the new Elan 7/EOS 30 can meter correctly when a manual-focus lens is installed. I have no idea why Canon has decided to shut out manual-focus lenses for Elan 7/EOS 30 owners. Surely it can’t possibly be because manual-focus lens owners pose much of a threat to Canon’s lens sales.
Wired and wireless self-timer.
They both have their uses. The RC-1 self-timer, however, is fabulous. Small, lightweight and you can trigger the camera from a few metres away or when using the tripod (you don’t need to touch the camera at all). Sadly only midrange Canons support the RC-1. Higher-end cameras rely on a really expensive wireless system that plugs into the N3 socket.
When it comes to wired releases, I find the system used by midrange Canons - the RS-60E3 with 2.5mm stereo phono plug connectors - to be handier. Unfortunately the higher-end cameras use expensive proprietary T3 or N3 connectors - clumsy lousy and solid lockable connectors respectively, but much less available to hacking.
Custom functions.
The low-end Canons lack custom functions and so are not configurable at all.
Auto-exposure bracketing.
I like shooting infrared, and AEB is a big time-saver.
Multiple focussing points.
Preferably approximating the positioning of the rule of thirds rather than being closely spaced together like on earlier cameras. The Elan 7/EOS 30 looks good.
Spot metering.
The ability to do true spot metering rather than just partial metering would be great. Unfortunately Canon reserve this feature solely for their pro and semi-pro (single digit) models.
Weatherproofing.
I like to shoot outside, often in light rain or dusty conditions such as deserts.
Canon’s cameras have two grades of weatherproofing - heavy (EOS 1N, 3, 1V) or none at all (all the rest). It’d be nice if they put at least simple O-rings on the controls of their midrange cameras - the way cheap consumer portable CD players do these days.
Battery pack grip.
With duplicate controls, including command dial, AE lock and shutter release. The ability to use AA batteries is really important, as it means you can keep using your camera in the Middle of Nowhere if you happen to run out of lithium power - AA batteries are available anywhere on the planet but camera batteries aren’t.
Illuminated mode dial and top-deck LCD.
Very useful for night photography. Unfortunately, historically very few Canon SLRs have illuminated top-deck LCDs - mainly the pro models, with the early EOS 620 and 600/630 as odd exceptions - and none have illuminated mode dials.
Luckily this appears to be changing. The EOS Kiss III L, a minor revision to the Kiss III (Japanese name for the Rebel 2000/EOS 300) sold only in Japan, has an illuminated top-deck LCD, as do the digital D60 and the EOS 300V/Rebel Ti/Kiss 5. Let’s hope Canon continues this through the line. It’s a fairly inexpensive way to add genuinely useful functionality to a camera.
The EOS 300V/Rebel Ti/Kiss 5 even has a backlit LCD panel which shows you what shooting mode you’re in, as noted above. However, one strangely stupid feature limits the utility of this backlighting somewhat. The function button icons are silkscreened onto the LCD bezel and aren't part of the LCD itself. Instead you get triangular arrows on the LCD pointing to the printed icons. This approach has always struck me as being informationally redundant over simply using icons in the LCD itself, but in the case of a backlit screen it's really stupid UI. If the icons were on the LCD then you switch functions in the dark. Since you can only see backlit triangles you have to memorize icon positions if you want to switch functions in the dark. A minor issue, but a bizarrely unnecessary one.
Built-in dioptre adjustment.
I wear glasses, so this option could occasionally come in handy. It would need to be adjustable rapidly to preset positions. Canon appear to be migrating this capability down their product line - the Elan 7/30/33/7 and the 300V/Rebel Ti/Kiss 5 both have it.
Black finish.
Black and silver or all silver doesn’t work for me - black is more inconspicuous. Plus the silver paint scratches easily and looks horrible quickly. It looks great in the shop to draw the fickle eye of the consumer, but hasn’t got much in the longevity department.
Interchangeable finder screens.
At the very least I’d want to put in a split circle screen for manual focussing, since I do that from time to time and I find it’s basically impossible to focus manually with any accuracy with a standard autofocus screen.
Real hinge on battery door.
Some EOS cameras, such as the 10s and D30, have an actual hinge on the battery cover door - it swings open on a rotating hinge. Others, such as the Elan/100 and the Elan 7/EOS 30, have a chunk of plastic that flexes to open. Flexy fake hinges are a terribly bad idea since the cover will, one day, break. No question about it - the question is when, not if. And cold weather heightens the risk.
Intervalometer.
I like them, though so far I’ve only used the one on my 10s a couple times. It’s an interesting feature.
Zero battery drain shutter.
For long exposures it’s nice to know you won’t run out of battery power, even if it’s cold. The 600 series, 10/10s, 3 and 1V are in this category.
Flash and ambient metering displays.
So you know what you’re getting - separate displays for flash metering and ambient metering in the viewfinder. Only available on the 3, 1V and 1D, I think.
Prewind as an option.
Low-end EOS cameras prewind the film - that is, they wind the film to the end of the roll when you install it and then shoot backwards, as it were. Midrange and pro EOS cameras shoot from the front to the end and then rewind.
I actually kind of like prewind. Why? Well, first off if you accidentally open the camera back for some reason you won’t wreck all your film since the bulk of the exposed shots have been safely wound back into the canister. I’ve never opened my camera back by mistake before, but I can certainly see it happening. And second prewinding means the camera counts the precise number of frames available on the roll of film - 25 or 37, say, and then shows you that exact number of frames remaining. This is also kind of useful, since it obviates the problem of you forgetting if you have a 24 or a 36 roll of film in there.
Prewind seems so obviously useful, then. So why don’t pro and midrange EOS cameras have it? Just habit, I would guess. Plus it’d be a real nuisance if one camera wound one way and your backup wound the other and you wanted to change film. The solution seems obvious to me - make it a custom function. Admittedly this might require some hardware engineering and it’s likely that film spooling would be faster in one mode than another (in the case of cameras with separate rewind motors) but I still think giving the user the choice is a very handy feature.
There’s a lot of stuff that EOS cameras don’t have or rarely have but I wish they did. Here’s a sort of wishlist.
Lots of eye relief.
Canon’s SLRs generally have very poor eye relief for glasses wearers. You have to bob your head around to see the whole image area plus the viewfinder display. Do all of Canon’s designers have perfect vision? Or do they all wear contact lenses?
Separate focus beep and self-timer beep controls.
Beeping is either on or off on EOS cameras. However, there are times when I’d like to enable the self-timer beeper without the annoying beep every time I achieve focus. Ironically the EOS Elan, which lacks a focus-confirm beep unlike its international version, the EOS 100, is perfect for me in this regard. But choice is good.
Adjustable timeout settings.
EOS cameras have timeout settings all over the place. 6 seconds for the shutter release metering function, 4 minutes or so for the RC-1, 16 seconds for FEL, 10 seconds for the self-timer, etc. None of these can be user-altered on most EOS cameras.
I think that’s unfortunate as it wouldn’t be hard to implement at all. You’d have a custom function for each setting that would let you adjust the timeout value within a fixed range by rotating the command dial. It’d just be a matter of a few more lines of code and a few extra bytes of memory, surely.
Data backs that don’t impinge on the image area.
Most of Canon’s date backs are useless for just about any application other than snapshots, as they stamp all over the corner of the picture. I wouldn’t mind time and date stamps if they discreetly marked the strip of film between photos. Even better would be shutter speed, aperture and focal length data.
Programmability.
Canon used to sell a very interesting accessory - the Technical Back E for 600 series cameras. This device let you hook up the camera to a personal computer and adjust all kinds of fun settings - even alter the program curves for the built-in programs, for example. Presumably it never sold since they haven’t sold any such back since.
I’d love to be able to tinker with internal camera settings, and I’m sure a lot of other computer geeks would as well. Sadly I suppose the camera geek market is just too small for Canon to consider this a worthwhile product to build.
Reconfigurability.
While we’re talking about programmability, why not the ability to redefine all the input controls? I wish camera designers would stop thinking in terms of cameras being single-function machines. They aren’t - they’re computers. And computers mean reprogramming and flexibility. Custom functions are a step in the right direction, but still involve too many compromises and limited options. The digital 1D has some configuratibility of functions, but still in a limited fashion.
Now obviously the ability to rewrite the camera’s OS would be asking too much. But think of more modest configurable options. Imagine a set of three or four buttons on the back that can be linked to any feature. You could assign, say, FEL to one button, autofocus stop/start to another and AE lock to the third. This way you could tailor the camera to fit your specific needs. If there’s a feature you never use you can move that to some obscure button or shift-button combination. And if there’s a feature you love but which most cameras don’t make easily accessible you could bring that to the front.
Of course, there’s the risk of users screwing up the configuration and forgetting things work, so you’d have a factory default reset button. (Nikon have this on some of their cameras) And the reconfiguration API would be simple and published, so that camera users could write their own programs to do it if they wanted.
Dot-matrix LCD panels.
Rather than a hardcoded panel think of the advantage of dot-addressable displays. You could then have textual equivalents for all the settings. Or a realtime readout of focussing distance and depth of field. Minolta’s new Dynax/Maxxum 7, for example, graphical displays brightness values for each cell in its exposure matrix - an amazing feature, since it helps open up the mysterious black box of metering algorithms to the photographer.
My options.
So. What does that give me? Well, predictably, no single EOS camera fills all of my requirements. So it’s a matter of priorities and compromises. Here are my basic choices.
600 series cameras.
These cameras are sturdily built (metal chassis) and have all kinds of excellent accessories available - interchangeable finder screens, etc. Unfortunately they’re quite old, dating back to the late 1980s. They therefore are missing a lot of modern conveniences such as rear command dials and a decent UI for manual mode and exposure compensation.
They’re also suffering from the effects of age - disintegrating shutter bumper foam is a common problem - and parts are no longer readily obtainable. So I’ll give them a miss.
Entry-level (Rebel, x000 series camera)
Unfortunately I find these cameras a bit too limited. Most are missing certain key features, have no custom functions and have plastic lens mounts. They are commendably small and light, however.
The 300V/Rebel Ti/Kiss 5 comes close to consideration - it’s an interesting camera with the biggest UI change to EOS cameras in quite a while. It has a large backlit LCD, a thumb-operated mode dial, a metal lens mount, dioptric adjustment and many other features, but still lacks a rear dial, directly settable metering modes and custom functions.
An older camera, but still great. Main drawbacks are no E-TTL, just one focussing point, lousy interface for metering modes and self-timer. No wired release and no battery grip option.
However, I already have one and don’t want to get another of the same model.
Another early 90s camera. Very fast, very nicely built. Lots of unusual features - built-in intervalometer, zero battery drain when the shutter is open. Doesn’t fog HIE film. Unfortunately it’s also missing a lot of modern conveniences, such as a decent exposure compensation interface, battery grip or a rear dial.
However, I already have one and don’t want to get another of the same model.
EOS A2 (5)
A pretty feature-filled camera. It’s quiet, has spot metering, has a built-in flash, a PC socket, high X-sync and top shutter speed. But unfortunately no E-TTL, no compatibility with HIE film and no RC-1. Also somewhat heavy and stupidly won’t illuminate the AF assist lights of external flash units. The external grip can’t contain batteries. It has interchangeable screens, but frustratingly Canon never made a split-circle screen for manual focussing.
Most damning, however - a design flaw in the command dial means they always break. I’d hate to have that happen in the middle of a shoot. A simple Web search for “EOS A2 dial” reveals huge numbers of unhappy A2/5 users with broken dials. Still, there are third party repairs for this problem and nimble-fingered hobbyists can fix them at home, so it isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker. It just makes the camera slightly less attractive from a financial point of view, since you have to factor in the repair costs.
This was such a disappointment. I was really interested in it when it was released. It’s a nicely-built camera with rapid AF, 35- zone metering, E-TTL flash, super-quiet operation, multiple focus points, built-in diopter adjustment, modelling flash support for new EX flashes...
Unfortunately, it turns out to have five problems from my point of view, most of which aren’t present on its predecessors - the Elan/100 and Elan II/50/55. First, it has poor low-light AF. Second, it lacks an AF assist light, making low-light AF performance even worse. Third, it’s the only EOS camera designed not to work with manual lenses. Fourth, it fogs HIE film (the only problem also seen on the Elan/100 and Elan II/50/55). And fifth, its viewfinder is surprisingly dim.
On top of that a few minor points - it has poor nighttime interfaces for the metering modes, it lacks a proper hinge for its battery door and the battery pack lacks a duplicate dial. Sigh. This could have been the perfect camera for me. Note that I’ve posted a more extensive grumbling critique of the Elan 7/30 on my site.
Pro-level EOS (1, 1N, 1V, 3)
Too big, heavy and most importantly, expensive. They don’t support the nice little RC-1 remote system, they’re really noisy in operation and their focus sensors are optimized for fast (large aperture) lenses. Since I’m not a full-time photojournalist I’d rather spend my limited budget on better lenses than fancy cameras.
Conclusion - Canon’s product lineup gap.
Basically, I feel there’s something of a gap in the current EOS lineup. Back in the early 1990s the Canon 5/A2 would have fit my wishes handily. It isn’t a full-on pro camera, but is more than capable enough for most photographers. It supports a wide range of features and, badly designed command dial aside, is well built.
Unfortunately it’s now rather out of date. It doesn’t support E-TTL or FP mode flash, the ECF version is slow in operation and doesn’t normally work in portrait configuration, it won’t illuminate the AF assist lights on external flash units and so on.
Canon then replaced it in the lineup with the EOS 3, which is something of a giant leap in terms of functionality and technology. The 3 is much closer to the 1 series in that regard. It’s also incredibly noisy and lacks a built-in flash, which is a shame. Built-in flash units are useful for the occasional touch of fill flash or for emergency situations where you don’t have time to dig out your external flash. However, the Elan 7(E)/EOS 30/33/EOS 7 camera definitely fits in a two-digit spot in the camera lineup and isn’t a replacement for the EOS 5 either. The result is what I consider something of a gap.
Now I’m sure Canon have done their research and believe that they have their proverbial bases covered. But I’d like to think that there are a lot of photographers out there who’d really want something more along the lines of a replacement for the 5/A2. I commented about the idea of an EOS 5N on Photo.net recently and a few people responded positively, so I don’t think I’m the only one who thinks such a product would be a good idea. Of course, as Canon turn more and more of their attention to the digital field it’s possible that film cameras will not receive the development priority that they once did. Particularly not film cameras which appeal mainly to a bunch of hobbyist.
Still. Consider Minolta’s innovative Dynax/Maxxum 7, for example. It clearly represents camera designers thinking hard about the ways in which computerized automation can add unique functionality to a camera design, and also fits my idea of an advanced amateur camera quite well. A shame there’s nothing similar in the Canon system. Who knows, though? Canon recently introduced the 300V/Rebel Ti/Kiss 5, which fills the gap between the EOS 300/Rebel 2000/Kiss III and the Elan 7/30/33/7 and brings a number of significant user interface changes with it.
In short, I’m looking for either:
An EOS 5N - basically an updated and possibly physically smaller Canon 5/A2 with E-TTL and FP mode flash, wireless ratios, depth of field preview button, fixed command dial, 35 metering zones, optional split-image screen, illuminated top deck LCD and support for the RS-60E3 wired remote and RC-1 wireless remote. The grip should be updated to contain batteries.
or:
A EOS Elan 7E/30 with its low-light focussing problems fixed, a true AF assist light added and the ability to use manual lenses put back. (ie: just like the Elan II/50!) In addition it’d be nice to see a bright viewfinder, spot metering, interchangeable screens with split-image screen and an updated BP-200 grip with a command dial. I admit, however, that it’s extremely unlikely I’ll ever see such a camera.
I’d also really like a camera that could use HIE infrared film without fogging, but I realize that’s even more of a long shot. The 1V is the only camera in the current lineup that doesn’t fog HIE.
So. I realize that my wishlist is pretty well fantasyland as it doesn’t fit what Canon have decided to do. Oh, well. For now I’m sticking with my ageing Elan and 10S. I really want to love the Elan 7E, but don’t see the point of buying something that’s worse at much of the kind of photography I do than my existing gear. It’s possible that I’ll pick up an old EOS 5 at some point. Still, the introduction of the EOS 300V/Rebel Ti/Kiss 5 does put some pressure on the Elan 7E/30 position, so we’ll see what Canon choose to do next.
- NK Guy, PhotoNotes.org.
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