The camera takes immaculate pictures. The portrait mode does a excellent job. The feel with the BP300 is excellent. A great buy for the money.

The custom functions should have been visual not numeric. It needs a spot meter. The auto focus assist should be IR not a bright white

The camera has excellent exposure, fast response to focus. The eye control has difficulty at times. The wheel on the back makes it great to do manual exposure work. Highly recommended.

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

EOS 10s

easy commands especially with the back dail and the 7 points to focus
great design and durabilty

eye contol is not very strong

From intense wrestling shots to delicate macro on flowers to bueatiful wedding portraits the Canon Elan 7E can do it all.

Customer Service

n/a

Similar Products Used:

none

light, compact, great controls and layout
good quality
quite, fast AF
takes great pictures in any situation
great range of lenses and accessries from Canon

Falsh assist should be done with IR

This is one great camera. If you need a system that will grow with your needs/abilities this is the one to get!

I've loved this camera from the day I got it and it's been nothing but great. I highly recommend this camera.

Customer Service

never had any problems

Similar Products Used:

Many manual SLR from Canon and Nikon
Rebel 2000
Nikon 100

ECF with 7 focus points
Size (with battery pack)
Placement of controls
Ease of changing modes

lack of IR focus assist

I get the feeling that many think that the lack of spot metering is a negative. I used the spot metering in the t90, but to use it properly you need to know about the zone system, otherwise whatever you read with the spot will turn out 18%gray. With the evaluative metering or 10% spot in a difficult exposure situation, you can use the exposure compensation or bracket, and have a good chance of getting the right exposure. I think this is one of the easiest to use yet most featured camearas around. I have shot > 40 rolls of film since I bought it, both b&w and color, and the only pictures that came out bad were more my fault than the camera's. The lack of the IR focus assist is a negative, as I agree that the white flashing light is very annoying, although some subjects seem to think it's kind of cool (probably people who used to dance to strobe lights). As far as the plastic vs. metal body controversy, my A2E has taken lots of bumps, and it doesn't have the dents and scratches my old A-1 has. The construction of the 7E is just fine.
I think that anyone from a beginner to a semi-pro would like this camera. Just read the manual a couple of times to take full advantage of its features.

Customer Service

haven't had to use yet

Similar Products Used:

canon t90
canon A2E
canon a1

-DOF preview
-Mirror pre-fire
-Great optics system
-Excellent controls
-Well-built yet light enough to travel with

-Eye control is less than reliable
-No IR focus assist
-No back-lit LCD

It's a great camera for the money and feature-wise, it leaves the Nikon N80 in it dust. It's well built and solid, yet compact enough to take on extended trips without causing severe back strain. The two dials are a plus and the custom functions lets you assign different controls to them which makes them really customizable to suit your taste. The eye control is not 100% reliable but with extensive calibration, it's not too bad. The motor drive is unbelievably quiet, and with a USM lens the camera is virtually silent except for the sound from the mirror firing. This is a huge plus for capturing those candid shots before your subject takes notice. Overall I must say I'm very happy with this camera and I look forward to many years of great shooting with it.

Customer Service

-None needed yet

Similar Products Used:

-Rebel 2000

o Eye controlled focusing
o Nice feel (w/ BP-300)
o *VERY* quiet
o Bright, colorful viewfinder
o Excellent feature/price ratio

o No PC socket
o Can't use "standard" threaded releases

(Both are easily solved -- with a small cost)

First let me say that this is the first auto focus SLR I've owned... So, understand my view of it's features; they're all better than my old Minolta XG-1. :0)

In the past I have mostly been photographing plants, flowers, etc, with a few landspaces, however on the 4th of July I brought my 7e to the parade, which it handled with ease; and the eye controlled focusing came in handy on several occasions.

I've shot about 11 rolls of film through the camera so far, but have yet to see the results. However, I love the camera. Per the suggestion of many reviews on this site, I skipped the kit lens and bought the 7e with the EF 50mm f1.8 (which has gotten pretty good reviews itself). The 1.8 aperature of the 50mm lens allows me to get a little more "background-blur" (which is a problem with a short lens), and the 1/4000 shutter speed on the 7e allows me to use the small aperatures even on sunny days.

The film transport is extremely quiet; I was caught by surprise a few times when the camera just stopped taking pictures... Come to find out, it was rewinding -- I didn't even hear it! And the 4fps is more than enough for me at present.

The autofocus appears quick to me (see first paragraph), though it falls victim to the same small pitfalls as other systems (such as focusing on small leaves in the foreground of a picture). It also has difficulty handling flat, plain objects. There are obviously ways to get around these problems though.

I've calibrated the ECF twice now (a procedure which is quick and simple, by the way), but it worked well even with only one calibration. I find it very helpful; especially since it removes the necessity of pressing buttons to switch the focusing point. ECF is quick, simple, and requires no thought.

On the whole, I love the camera, and it promises to keep me learning for the forseeable future. Definitely a camera that I can grow into -- and I'm not sure that I'll ever outgrow it.

Customer Service

Not needed

Similar Products Used:

None

-Fits Well in my hands
-Fast AF
-Metal front surface
-Fast
-Silence rewinding
-4 fps
-ECF
-DOF preview

-I think that IR Assist would be better
-I wanted it to have a backlit LCD display.

Great camera. It is my first SLR 35mm. A great camera for amateurs and even professionals!!! It is fast and silent. I havent noticed an exposure error yet!The custom functions are a bit hard to remember but I got used to them.It is light and fits well in my hands. The ECF works good for me even with my glasses! I usuallt dont wear my glasses because of the diopter correction provided. I have had only great results with this camera. It works great with my 28-135mm USM IS lens. Get it and you wont regret it!

Customer Service

None used

Similar Products Used:

None

Very quiet AF
Very quiet film rolling

Probably lack of spot meter. I guess Canon would not let that to happen. If not, all the prices for the professional EOS Cameras would fall definitely
Shutter speed at 1/4000 instead of 1/8000.
The question is - do you really need 1/8000? what occasion? tell me about it!

I purchase this camera in stead of Rebel 2000. I believe I can grow with this camera. Very sharp pictures with 28-105mm USM MKII (not enough $$ for 28-135 IS) No regret. My fellow classmates in photography are impressed with the sharpness, even under back lighting.

In principle, rebel 2000 also has 35 zone evaluative metering. The poor results may be becasue of the lens provided in the kit. To get 28-105mm lens is like getting another camera body.

I believe the same sharpness can be achieved by rebel 2000 with 28-105usm or 28-135 IS. Correct me if I am wrong. ThANKS.

Similar Products Used:

None

Flexible control of AF.
ECF (Eye-Controlled Focus)
ECF combined with metering at that point (custom fcn 8)
Available inexpensive remotes, both wired and wireless
Built in flash, PLUS IR focus assist, TTL and full range of synch speed to 1/4000 w/ EX external flash.
4 fps (3.5 when using predctive AF)
Mirror lock-up (Custom fcn 5)
Mid-roll rewind with film leader out (Custom fcn 2).
AF functions in reasonably dim lighting without needing focus assist.
Ergonomics of QCD, Well-positioned AF controls.
Made in Japan.
EOS systm of today, with diffractive optics on the way. ;)

On board flash strobing for AF assist; (can be inactivated, custom fcn 7)
Lack of 1% spot meter (although selecting around a focus point fine enough for most situations.)
On board flash does not support evaluative TTL metering.

I am delighted with this wonderful camera. To upgrade from my older manual focus slr gear I initially bought a Nikon N80 and got good some good results, but became impressed with the Canon Elan 7E when handlng it in a camera store. I used both side by side for a couple weeks -- the result: My N80 went on Ebay and the Elan 7E stayed home. Why: see strengths; also: Although the N80 AF focus assist of a bright light is better than the strobing flash on the Elan 7E, the threshold for the Elan 7E to fire focus assist is significantly dimmer. I believe this is a 1 EV diff in spec, which doesn't sound like much; but in most most common situations the Canon Elan 7E does not need focus assist at all, while the N80 fires its (less) irritating focus assist quite often. My test rolls indicated Elan 7E evaluative metering to be slightly better than the N80, particularly in some backlighting situations, although both seemed to do pretty well. Elan 7E AF handles moving objects much better than Nikon N80. The AF/MF switch on Canon lenses, and USM with FTM makes AF on the Canon Elan 7E much, much easier to control as needed. Far from being a gimmick, ECF works great, a powerful tool giving fast control over AF behavior. Example: in a candid portrait of our cat held by my daughter I used ECF to bring the cat's eyes into focus as desired in an instant without having to fiddle with a paddle wheel to select an AF point. Mirror lockup is easy to turn on and off and indispensable for macro and tele work. The wired remote is handy in the field, and solidly supports half-depressing the shutter release. Rating is an enthusiastic:

Customer Service

Not used

Similar Products Used:

older manual focus SLR; Nikon N80

Limitless creative options, easy to use, good grip feel (I got the battery pack- definitely recommend it), besides, it looks awesome- oh, and it produces professional- looking results. :-) Didn't think I would like the eye control thing, but I am glad I chose to spend a few extra bucks ($50)because you can turn the feature off when needed.

I think this camera will grow with me and complement the "L" series lenses I have recently invested in. Great value for the money. If I had limitless $$, I would have jumped right to the D-30 or a 1-V, but this camera is no amatuer player. It can take mountains and forests and even parades in stride and not miss a beat.

Shot some pics for a friend of mine who's running for office and some other candidates were so impressed they hired me to shoot some events for them!

None I can think of.....don't know where that guy gets the idea that there is no eye control DEP, I have used mine several times.

I use it with Canon's EF 70-200mmUSM 2.8L and get incredible results! Use it with a teleconverter (saving up for an IS 400mm), it's great for wildlife because it is so quiet. Teamed with a USM lens, this camera is great for candid people shots.....another reason I chose the 70-200mm zoom over a prime tele lens right now. I use a 22-55mm for landscape shots.

I would definitely pass on the junker 4.0/5.6 zoom lens kit and buy only the 7e body. I recommend the EF 50mm/1.8 - an incredible buy at only $90, even if it isn't a USM!! At that price, I don't even bother to keep a UV filter on it! Get this lens if you can only afford one short lens and ZOOM with your FEET! That is, unless you can afford the 50mm/1.4 ($300) or even better, 28-70mm/2.8L ($1000)- probably my next lens buy if I don't get a 400mm first.

Customer Service

Have not had to use it for any 35mm equipment, but they did a fine job with our Digital video camera, a GL-1.

Similar Products Used:

Canon Rebel, Canon AE-1, Pentax K