Notes on the Canon EOS Elan 7. (Elan 7E, EOS 30/33, EOS 7)

Copyright © 2002-2007 NK Guy

Here’s some commentary on the Canon EOS Elan 7 camera. I don’t own this camera, so my comments are based purely on occasional use of the product rather than extensive day-in day-out use - just like a typical magazine review.

Basic information.

The EOS Elan 7, aimed at “advanced amateurs,” is the North American version of the EOS 33 and was introduced in 2000. Canon’s EOS product lineup currently looks like this, from most expensive to cheapest:

  EOS 1v > 3 > 30/Elan 7*> 300/Rebel 2000 > 3000/88

The Elan 7 is identical to the 33, only it was given a name and not a number in North America for marketing reasons. There was an original Elan (EOS 100) and an Elan II (EOS 50) but no Elans 3 through 6 - the “7” is just marketing silliness, presumably meant to reflect the 7 point AF system.

The Elan 7E is the same camera with eye control, sold as the EOS 30 elsewhere. In Japan the camera is sold only with eye control and, oddly enough, marketed under the EOS 7 name. Very strange, as it precludes Canon from using the name for a future 7 series camera. It also implies that the camera is in a higher product tier than it actually is. Anyway. Here’s the full product matrix:

Market	North America	Japan	Rest of the world
Basic model	EOS Elan 7	n/a	EOS 33
Eye-control model	EOS Elan 7E	n/a	EOS 30
Eye control with date printing	EOS Elan 7E Date	EOS 7	EOS 30 Date

It’s not clear whether there is a non ECF version of the camera with date printing available - it appears not. I’ll refer to the camera in this document as the Elan 7/30, since it’s easier than writing out “Elan 7(E)/EOS 30/33/7” or whatever. As far as I know there are no technical differences between the North American, Japanese and international versions of the camera.

Summary.

The Elan 7/30 is not a technological breakthrough from the point of view of introducing new features. In fact, the pushbutton cursor keys on the rear control dial are about the only new design feature. Instead, the camera is a sensible evolutionary package containing most of the features of previous EOS cameras that advanced amateur photographers look for, all housed in a sturdy and attractive shell.

I was quite interested in this camera when it was announced - it really sounded like the perfect camera for non-professionals, including all the basic features. Sadly, it turned out to be a disappointment for me. The Elan 7/30 is a very good camera for most people - a feature-packed upgrade from its predecessor, the EOS 50/50E/55/Elan II/Elan IIE - but Canon made certain cost-cutting and marketing decisions which limit its appeal to me.

Why? Well, I have a variety of photographic interests, but three particular priorities of mine are infrared photography, low-light photography and occasional use of old manual-focus lenses. The Elan 7/30 is terrible at all of these in ways that its predecessors, the Elan/100 and the Elan II/50/55, largely were not. (the one exception being IR compatibility - all three models have problems in this area) Of course, if your particular photographic interests don’t cover those three areas then those three deficiencies probably won’t affect you.

Finally, and this is more of a general handwaving gripe, the Elan 7/30 just seems... unimaginative. It does everything its predecessors did and a little more. It looks very nice. But compare the camera to the remarkable Minolta Dynax/Maxxum 7, and the 7/30 really comes up short. Admittedly the Minolta product is somewhat more expensive, but it also clearly represents camera designers thinking hard about the ways in which computerized automation can add unique functionality to a camera design.

Stuff I like about the Elan 7/30.

The vast majority of my complaints about the original Elan/EOS 100 are rectified in the Elan 7/30, which is fabulous.

These include a 35 zone metering system, support for E-TTL and FP mode flash, multiple (7) focussing points, manual metering mode simulated match needle scale, readily available battery grip that takes both AA and lithium cells and replicates the shutter release, support for the famous custom function 4 (permitting AF control by a rear button), support for both wired and wireless shutter releases, depth of field preview button, flash exposure compensation settings affect both internal and external flash units, a leader-out custom function, side-style mode dial lock and film plane mark.

Wow. So far it’s sounding like the perfect camera! Here are some details.

• The basic feature set is very complete. All the usual metering modes - manual, full auto, time and aperture priority. Built-in flash, fine for fill flash when you don’t feel like lugging around a big external flash gun. Second-curtain shutter sync. Lots of custom functions. Plus piles of other stuff, like the usual idiot modes (portrait, landscape, macro, sports, night), auto exposure bracketing, depth of field exposure mode, multiple exposure settings, “AI Servo” focus tracking, etc. Suffice to say that Canon has all the basics covered.


• Sophisticated 35-zone metering system.


• Supports E-TTL and FP mode flash. Also supports the latest Canon flash features - wireless flash ratios and modelling flash.


• 7 widely-spaced focussing points. You can select these points by using the rear-panel cursor keys or, if you have an ECF version of the camera, by looking at the appropriate point.


• Rear quick control dial. It’s great to be able to be in manual mode and adjust the aperture and shutter speed values with one hand - thumb for the back dial and index finger for the top dial. You can also use the dial for program shifting. The Elan 7/30 adds a new feature to the dial as well - small pushbutton “cursor keys” that can used to select the focussing points manually.


• It’s very quiet. At least for an SLR. Canon claims, in fact, that the Elan 7/30 is the quietest SLR they’ve built. I’m not sure about this myself - the Elan 7/30 seems pretty quiet, but it also has a distracting higher-frequency mirror-click noise than the original Elan/100, which was the previous record-holder for quiet cameras. Still, the Elan 7/30 is very quiet compared to deafening tanks like the EOS 3. It is not, however, silent, no matter what Canon’s promotional material may claim.
  I like quiet cameras. I suppose noisy cameras are good at impressing people with their solid clunk sound, but I really don’t find that personally interesting. The only advantage I can think of for a noisy camera is in fashion photography, because apparently models are familiar with changing poses when they hear the camera click.


• The Elan 7E, EOS 30 and EOS 7 support Canon’s eye-control system, ECF. I haven’t used it enough to offer opinions on it, but views tend to be in two camps on this one. Either it’s a hugely useful system or it’s not. These views tend to be based around whether ECF is capable of reading your particular eyeball reliably or not.


• Manual metering mode has a simulated match-needle scale.


• Optional battery grip BP-300 which can contain either four AA cells or two lithium CR123A cells. The grip also has AE lock and shutter release buttons, with a separate switch to disable the duplicate controls to avoid accidental triggering. The grip also has a tripod mount, though offset from the lens axis. Unfortunately it lacks a second control dial.


• Support for the famous Custom Function 4. This lets you move autofocus control to a rear button rather than relying on the shutter release halfway push.


• Support for both wired and wireless remotes. The wired RS-60E3 remote uses the small phono jack, not the expensive T3 and N3 sockets employed by the higher-end EOS models. (I know some people think these sockets are a good thing, particularly the newer locking version, but being a geek I’d prefer to have a cheap phono plug that’s open to inexpensive hacking) The wireless is the wonderful RC-1 remote - compact and handy, with both immediate and 2-second delay releases. In bulb mode you can press the RC-1 button once to open the shutter and once again to close it, and since it’s wireless you aren’t bumping the camera.


• Built-in dioptric adjustment. Very cool. If you wear glasses you can adjust the viewfinder to compensate, then look through the finder without your glasses.


• Independent depth of field preview button, located near the lens mount. The same button also triggers the modelling flash.


• There is a custom function supporting leader-out on film rewind.


• The mode dial has a side-mounted release lock which is hopefully less vulnerable to the breakage problem suffered by the EOS 5/A2 and Elan/100.


• For a non-pro camera, it seems quite sturdy. The top shell is made of textured aluminum, which gives it a solid quality feel (particularly compared to its predecessors), but the inner shell is still polycarbonate plastic. It has a steel lens mount, not plastic (polycarbonate) like the low-end Canons.
  Keep in mind, however, that since the mount is attached to a plastic frame it’s not as sturdy as a pro EOS camera that’s metal all the way through. The key advantage of metal mounts is that they’re superior to plastic in terms of wear resistance, which is important if you change lenses a lot.


• It’s an excellent size - just slightly smaller than the Elan II, and definitely sleeker. A bit big for a lot of occasions, perhaps, since people tend to get apprehensive when they see a large camera looming towards them (compared to a typical consumer camera, it’s fairly big. Compared to a pro camera it’s small) and tend to associate big camera with professional photographer. So it’s not that great for casual snapshots, even though it’s a bit smaller than its predecessors - the Elan/100 and the Elan II/50. But neither is it a monstrously heavy solid metal beast like an EOS 1 or 3. It feels solid in the hand; good heft. Like all cameras these days it’s designed for right-handed people, but frankly left-handed users haven’t got much choice in that regard.
  Physically the Elan 7/30 is much more rectangular and blockier than the rounded early 90s EOS cameras - Canon seem to have decided that the Luigi Colani curved look is over and are now going back to more sharp-edged lines, starting with the EOS 3.


• Mirror lockup, enabled by a custom function. Unlike with previous Elan cameras it’s not mirror prefire - it’s true electrically-controlled lockup, activated by pushing the shutter release once. Push once more to take the photo. However, it’s not manual mirror lockup like on an old manual camera - you can’t lock the mirror indefinitely.


• Flash sync of up to 1/125, and since it’s a type A camera you can go as high as 1/4000 sec in FP mode if you use an external E-TTL compatible flash unit.


• AE lock button on the back, by your right thumb. If you’re used to older EOS cameras such as the 10/10s you should note that the selection point button and lock button positions are reversed.


• There’s a film plane mark printed on the top deck.


• You can switch between the three available metering methods - evaluative, partial and centre-weighted averaging - as you like. For the record, the Elan 7/30 uses the same less than entirely intuitive iconic system for identifying the various meter modes as the old T90. Evaluative metering appears as [(*)] in the LCD, partial metering appears as [( )] and centre-weighted average metering appears as [   ]. Unfortunately this information is not displayed in the viewfinder - just the top-deck LCD. Also, you have to press a rear-panel button and rotate the command dial to switch modes, unlike the dedicated lever used by the Elan II/50, so it’s a nuisance changing metering patterns in the dark.


• Whether you set the shutter speed value using Tv mode or M mode or the aperture value using Av mode or M mode, the Elan 7/30 remembers the values, even when turned off. It appears to store the two values as two variables. (ie: the M mode settings are not retained independently of the Av and Tv mode settings) This is in contrast to older cameras like the 10/10s which stupidly always forget your settings when you go back to them.


• Moderately fast 4 frames per second shooting speed. (3.5 frames in AI Servo mode)
  

Stuff I don’t like about the Elan 7/30.

As noted in my introduction, the camera is an excellent product with five crippling limitations, from my point of view and in terms of my needs as a photographer. And they’re really a shame because the Elan 7/30’s predecessors, the original Elan/100 and Elan II/50/55 did not suffer from most of them. (they only have limitation 3 - incompatibility with HIE film - in common)

In several important (to me) regards, therefore, the newer camera represents a step back in quality and functionality. I think this is really unfortunate.

• Serious limitation 1: lousy low-light autofocussing performance.
  I have no idea why Canon decided to take this disappointing cost-saving measure. Their advertising emphasizes the speed at which AF can work, so perhaps they focussed primarily on speed over low-light. It may also be because of the wide AF point spacing.
  Whatever the reason, the camera’s AF system is rated at performing between 1 and 18 EV, just like the cheap Rebel 2000/EOS 300. Compare to 0 and 18 EV for its predecessors - the Elan/100 and Elan II/50/55. And -1 and 19 EV for the similarly priced Nikon F80/N80. I do a lot of low-light photography, and so this limitation is a huge problem. You can’t even rely on manual focussing, because the viewfinder isn’t very bright (limitation 5) and lacks any manual focus aids like split screens.
  Canon have an excellent reputation for fine AF performance. I don’t understand why they’re undermining this reputation by releasing products like the Elan 7/30 and the digital D30 (which has even worse AF at 2-18 EV). Hopefully things are going to improve in this area. The D30 was roundly criticized for its poor AF and its replacement, the new D60, has an AF range which allegedly starts at 0.5 EV, though this is apparently primarily due to changes in its AF assist light.


• Serious limitation 2: poor AF assist.
  Not only is the camera bad at focussing in low light, but it doesn’t have a proper AF assist light. Instead it simply pulses the main flash tube at a blinding and epilepsy-inducing rate, which is unbelievably annoying. Not to mention battery-draining. You can, of course, turn this strobing feature off using a custom function but then you have no AF assist at all unless you attach a flash unit.
  I much prefer the patterned red light employed by its predecessors, which bothers subjects considerably less. I guess Canon moved to using the flash since large lenses can block a body-mounted AF assist light, putting an AF assist light in the flash would mean affecting the pretty svelte lines of the flash head, and eliminating the high-intensity LEDs probably saves a few yen - two would probably be required to cover the camera’s full autofocus sensor area.
  Of course, you can attach an external flash unit or ST-E2 controller and use the AF assist light on that. But if you do any non-flash photography in low light, as I frequently do, this is not an optimal solution. Pay many dollars extra plus have a large cumbersome unit sticking out the top - yeah, that’s an attractive idea, all right.


• Serious limitation 3: IR fogging.
  As with all of Canon’s current lineup except the top of the line 1V, the infrared positioning diode that senses film sprocket holes also fogs the lower edge of Kodak’s HIE infrared film. This is a huge problem for users of HIE and irrelevant to everybody else. I have another page dealing with high-speed infrared film and EOS cameras for those interested.


• Serious limitation 4: no manual lenses.
  The Elan 7/30 does not support stop-down metering for manual lenses. Previous EOS cameras let you attach manual focus lenses through special lens mount adapters, but the Elan 7/30 does not meter correctly when a manual lens is installed - it apparently meters about 3 stops out. So you have to compensate for this yourself when shooting. Note that I say “apparently” since I’ve heard conflicting reports as to whether the camera metering error is linear or not. A non-linear error is obviously much more difficult to compensate for.
  I have no idea whether this design flaw was due to obscure technical reasons (maybe entry angle of light in the metering system, affected by the presence of ECF or diopter adjustment?) or whether Canon marketing decided it’d be a good idea to lock camera buyers into using EF-compatible lenses only, but either way it’s frustrating for those of us who like to use manual lenses from time to time. I can understand a limitation like this being built into low-end consumer models, but come on! This camera is sold as the perfect advanced amateur camera. And advanced amateurs are the most likely crowd of people to want to use manual-focus lenses. Certainly more likely than either beginners or professionals.


• Serious limitation 5: Poor viewfinder.
  Finally, the Elan 7/30 viewfinder is dim and murky. I did a side-by-side comparison with the original Elan (EOS 100) and the Elan II (EOS 50/55), and they’re both bright and clear compared to the Elan 7E. The newer camera’s viewfinder may be a step up from Rebel class consumer cameras, but sadly it’s a big step back from its predecessors.
  So. Not only does the camera have difficulty focussing in low light but you can’t see quite as well either. And oddly enough, there’s a strange yellowish (warm) cast to the viewfinder image. No idea why - perhaps Canon had to make some serious compromises in the finder in order to jam both dioptric adjustment and ECF in there.

Now, I don’t own an Elan 7/30 and so in all fairness can’t judge exactly to what extent these limitations may be a problem on a day to day basis. However I do know the type of photography I do, and limitations 2, 3 and 4 represent real stumbling blocks. Limitations 1 and 5 are more subjective, but I own the Elan/100 and the 10s/10, both of which are better than the Elan 7/30 in these specific areas. And I know how frustrating it is already that the low-light AF performance of these cameras isn’t better. I really don’t want a brand new camera that’s worse than these ten-year old cameras; even slightly worse.

The remaining problems aren’t as serious as the first 5, in my opinion. But they’re still unfortunate.

• Like its predecessors, the Elan/100 and the Elan II/50/55, the Elan 7/EOS 30/33/7 battery door doesn’t have a proper moving hinge. Instead you flex open the plastic itself, which inevitably will break some day. Idiotic design. This is a problem especially in cold weather, because plastic tends to become quite brittle at low temperatures. And if the door breaks the camera will stop working unless you keep the battery pushed into place with one hand.
  Now I realize you don’t change the battery all that often. And I’m sure the hinge has been tested at room temperature to work a certain number of times. But it’s more a reminder that the camera simply isn’t built to last. Like a modern car, it’s designed for the first owner only - maybe five years. Then it’ll break and will cost so much to fix you have to go out and buy a new camera instead. My 25 year-old mechanical Pentax Spotmatic would probably have been working just fine decades hence had some scum not stolen it. An Elan 7/30 will be a useless lump of plastic.


• I do a lot of low-light and night photography, and being able to change camera modes in the dark is pretty important. The Elan II/50 is great in this regard - it has a physical lever to set metering patterns; something I actually do fairly often. Since it’s a physical lever you can tell by feel what setting you’ve got. The Elan 7/30 is bad in this regard - you have to push a rear-panel button, then rotate the main dial whilst peering at the top-deck LCD. Though the Elan/100 is far worse - you have to press the metering button and turn the dial simultaneously, which means you have to hold your flashlight in your mouth or something.
  However, the Elan 7/30 lets you set self-timer mode using a lever, which is handy.


• The six-second timeout on the exposure settings. If you’ve pushed the shutter release halfway and have customized the exposure settings and then let go, you’ve only got about 6 seconds before the viewfinder display shuts off and it forgets whatever you’ve put in. That’s a bit short sometimes. All EOS cameras seem to do this, yet only the 1V and 1D have a function to let users extend this time if they want.


• There’s also a timeout on the remote-control sensor. The camera won’t recognize the RC-1 control signals unless you’re in self-timer mode, which can be annoying in itself, but after a few minutes it shuts off the remote sensor as well. I presume this is some sort of power-saving measure, but it’s certainly one that eliminates the possibility for many fun hacks.


• This is an extremely insignificant point, but Canon’s promotional material goes on and on about the sophisticated and elegant appearance of the Elan 7/30. Yet it actually has a smaller LCD than its predecessors - a tiny panel surrounded by a big silver bezel. And it also uses cheesy triangular arrow symbols which point to printed icons on the bezel, rather than actual symbols on the LCD for some reason. This works just as well as a larger LCD, but boy does it look cheap. And on a very minor and purely aesthetic grumble, the mode dial doesn’t have the off position printed in red like previous EOS models do. It’s now called “OFF” rather than “L”, which makes more sense, though.


• As with all of Canon’s cameras the Elan 7/30 lacks a (post-exposure) flash confirmation indicator in the viewfinder. This is apparently for patent reasons, but still annoying. The 540EZ and most EX series external flash units have a flash exposure confirmation lamp, but that means you have to check the back of the flash unit after each picture - you can’t just look for a light in the viewfinder.


• The partial metering mode covers only 10% of the image area, compared to 6.5% for the original Elan/100 and 9.5% for the Elan II/50. Odd that the Elan/100 is better than the newer cameras in this regard, but there you go.


• No manual focus indicator in the viewfinder. A little MF symbol in the viewfinder, not just the top-deck LCD, would save you that extra second of wondering whether the lens is in auto or manual focus mode and fumbling for the switch to double-check.


• Viewfinder has only about 90% coverage (90% vertical and 92% horizontal, to be specific). Oh, well. Consumer camera. It also isn’t very easy to look into if you wear glasses. Nikon’s cameras generally do a much better job of accommodating spectacles wearers.


• This applies to pretty well all cameras these days, but the LCD itself is only supposed to last 5-10 years or so before it fails. My EOS cameras are about a decade old, and still have working LCDs, but the fact that they might fail and have to be replaced at my expense is pretty annoying. See my complaints above about the flimsy battery door.


• The latch on the camera back is made of plastic, not metal. And the catch is exactly the sort of thing that will snap off with use. For that reason I always push the door in and release the catch, then open the door with the catch open, in an attempt to minimize stresses placed on the catch and thus the chances of it breaking on me. Maybe I’m paranoid, but it doesn’t take any extra effort, and I’d hate to have the catch break in the middle of a shoot.


• The Elan 7/30 uses two CR123A lithium cells, rather than the single 2CR5 lithium battery used by most previous EOS cameras. The CR123A configuration offers no power advantages over 2CR5, but costs more. Canon presumably switched since two CR123As take up a tiny bit less room than one 2CR5, but it’s definitely a move which inconveniences customers. If you have another EOS camera and want to use the Elan 7/30 as a backup camera you’ll need to take two sets of incompatible backup batteries with you.


• No backlit top dial and LCD. Makes it a bit of a pain to operate in the dark. Would’ve cost peanuts to add a couple surface-mounted LEDs in there for night operation. Or, for a bit more money, an EL backlit screen like on the EOS 620. (one of the oldest EOS models around)
  Hopefully this will change in the future. 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 camera and the new Rebel Ti/EOS 300V/Kiss 5. Let’s hope Canon continues this through the line.


• The camera supports the latest EOS wireless flash features, including ratio support. But unfortunately the camera itself cannot serve as a master flash unit. If you want to trigger an external 420EX or 550EX Speedlite unit you need either an ST-E2 or a 550EX to do the mastering. It’s a shame that the camera can’t use its built-in flash to control slave units. That would save the nuisance and bulk of carrying around an extra piece of equipment.
• No textual or mnemonic explanation for what the custom functions are. If Canon were to use a simple dot-addressable LCD they could easily throw a few bytes of extra data into the ROM that would actually explain what CF 1 or 7 does, so you don’t have to tape a photocopy of the manual onto your camera bag. The digital D30 and D60 have full text of custom functions displayed on the rear screen, which is handy.


• No frame counter information in the viewfinder - just on the top-deck LCD panel.


• If you’re into astrophotography you should know that the Elan 7/30, like most Canon EOS cameras, appears to use power to hold the shutter open in bulb mode. And that can drain the battery flat in a few hours. I say “appears” as I’ve not seen any information to the contrary, and all EOS models similar to the Elan 7/30 suffer from this problem. Here’s a useful table comparing the various EOS models in this regard.


• The metal tripod socket is not in line with the lens axis. It won’t affect most people but if, for example, you want to shoot a QuickTime VR panorama and need to locate the camera on a bracket so that it rotates around the lens nodal point this might be a minor issue, depending on the type of bracket.


• Back isn’t removable. So you can’t replace it with a bulk-loader or Polaroid adapter or date-printer or whatever. This doesn’t affect me at all, but as above, I suppose it might affect someone. There is a date version which includes a date-printing back, but since the backs aren’t interchangeable you either have a date-printing camera or you don’t.


• No interchangeable finder screens. The 600 series cameras were the last non-pro EOS cameras to have interchangeable viewfinder screens.


• It ain’t sealed. Okay, so I’d have to spend two or three times the money and get a top of the line EOS 1V or 3 to get a fully-sealed weatherproof camera, but it’d be nice to have some basic rubber seals around things, even if they weren’t up to the 1v standard.

Conclusion:

What can I say? I want to love this camera, but I just can’t. No camera is perfect for everyone’s needs, but this one has just too many flaws from my point of view. Especially for the money involved - the flaws would be acceptable on an entry-level camera, but this is not.

The chief designer of the Elan 7/30 was previously in charge of designing the Rebel 2000/EOS 300/Kiss III. And, well, I get the feeling that he brought too much of his consumer-market thinking with him, like the dim viewfinder, poor AF and pulsing flash AF assist. That’s purely speculation on my part, of course, but these problems are all seen on the Rebel 2000/EOS 300/Kiss III, but not on the Elan/100 or Elan II/50/55.

If Canon fixed the weak autofocus, added a proper AF assist light, brightened the viewfinder and permitted the use of manual focus lenses I’d be completely thrilled. I’m sort of resigned to Canon treating high-speed infrared film users as an irrelevant minority and also reserving spot metering as a marketing tool to sell their high-end cameras, so I’m not hoping for anything there. As it is I’m sticking with my older gear for the time being.

Now, having said that, my criticisms of the Elan 7/30 stem purely from my own photographic requirements. It’s entirely possible that your photographic needs wouldn’t be so directly affected by the Elan 7/30’s limitations - in which case the camera could be absolutely perfect for you. As noted above, there’s a hell of a lot going for it, and it has a very impressive feature list.

For more of what’s important to me in a film camera have a look at my wishlist document, for what it’s worth.

Links.

Photo.net’s Philip Greenspun has written a brief review.

A site called Steve’s Digicams has a pretty short review that also has a lot of photos of the product.

EOS fan Julian Loke runs an Elan 7E mailing list. The mailing list site also contains an extensive list of links to useful pages and reviews.

My comparison of the EOS 5/A2/A2E, the EOS 50/50E/Elan II/Elan IIE/EOS 55 and the EOS 30/33/Elan 7/7E/EOS 7.

Canon’s Camera Museum has an entry for the EOS 50/50E/55/Elan II/IIE.

- NK Guy, PhotoNotes.org.

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