Old Eos film cameras ... Boo, hiss

T

Thardy

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In my closet I now have TWO Eos film cameras with problems. With prices coming way down on film bodies (a gift from digital some say) I bought a couple of cool Eos film bodies.

A little while ago I bought a "like new" Eos 3. What a beauty! Ran a roll or two of film through it and came back later to play again and got a bc error. So I change the battery thinking it was bad, still nothing. Some on the net mentioned bad shutter. Playing around I gently lifted the mirror for some reason and the thing starts working. I find out that the motor which lifts the mirror can go bad. Darn ebay seller got me!

I looked up my records to find that close to two years have passed. OK, I forgive the ebay seller. But having the thing repaired is probably not economical. Well I did have a recent offer from a Canon supplier to send me the parts for a DIY repair. Anybody here handy enough to try? Email me a quote.

Hanging out on Pnet a conversation came up about Elan 7e cameras. So, OF COURSE I had to have one. I went with a retail store and got a beautiful camera in the mail. "Near mint" would be how i would describe it.

Batteries go in and in 48 hrs ... dead. New batteries today, no go. Camera won't power up, but the lcd flickers very sporadically.

Looks like I'll be looking to send that one back. Glad I caught it early. It is a beautiful little evil camera though.
 
Now, Keith. ;)

I have an original EOS Elan (the first one) that still works fine after hundreds of rolls and an EOS 1 (the original one) still clicking along just fine. I suspect a lot of stuff out there for sale, though, includes many of other people's problem cameras. They are worth so little financially, now, that many people with working ones don't bother to try and sell them. Just put them on a shelf.
 
Keith said:
I can only make one comment ....."NIKON!" :D
Click to expand...

I do have a whole bunch of Nikon film stuff. The Canon thing happened when I bought a Canon 20D (still an excellent camera BTW) instead of the misunderstood D70. We then got a Canon Digital xti, Canon lenses, flash.

Our girls have Nikon dslrs and use the lenses from our old Nikon film cameras.


I figured I would get a Canon film camera in order to use those lenses we had accumulated.

I just looked at that stupid EOS 3, turned it on, and it now works.

sign me,

Disgusted
 
Our bartender has a write up on his site about a Canon Eos (not sure what model) and claims it's a superior product to the equivalent Nikon in many areas.

I've always thought they looked strange but can't really say why! :p
 
Don't mean to start a tiresome/pointless Nikon-vs-Canon flamewar...BUT - 20+ years of shooting both a lot professionally in a newspaper environment has led me to conclude Canon's quality control is just not there. A co-worker put it very well: Canons are good cameras...when they work.
Nikons last, albeit from my personal observation. That's been the case in film days up to digital work now.

I will only add that more moving parts = more things to go wrong, that's the case with any machine. Oh well...if you want to keep using EOS at least there's a few more cheap used ones out there.
 
Keith said:
Our bartender has a write up on his site about a Canon Eos (not sure what model) and claims it's a superior product to the equivalent Nikon in many areas.

I've always thought they looked strange but can't really say why! :p
Click to expand...


I really liked the look of that Elan 7e in photos on the web. But, when i opened the box, I thought wow "what a beautiful camera". I think it looks better than my N100, but last time I checked, the N100 worked.

Looks like I'm being haunted by my own words of a few days ago about old film cameras being cheap not because of the effect of digital, but just because they're old.
 
Bought my EOS 50 second-hand for $60 with complete kit lens, then bought a 75-300 for it. More than a hundred rolls passed in my hands, no problems.
 
I was talking to a guy the other day who's wife works for a company that repairs a varity of digital cameras. After seeing what comes in and goes out the door she wouldn't have a Canon apparently and would choose a Nikon every time!
 
Original owner of an EOS 3. It's always been very reliable for me, and has taken many of my best photos. Only problem I've had even related to it was a Tokina 19-35 lens with sticky aperature blades--- gave me a BC error on the camera, apparently because whatever moves the aperature was pulling too much juice. I got the lens fixed under warranty, and now the Tokina 19-35 pretty much lives on the EOS 3 as my ultrawide setup.
 
I use a rebel eos k2 (rebel kiss) when I want to use the same lenses i use for my 5d with film... many rolls later.. no problems... I've owned 6 canon slrs (film or digital) and only 1 crapped out on me... it was a 20D with 75,000 shutter clicks!! so it was time for it to die neways
 
heespharm said:
I use a rebel eos k2 (rebel kiss) when I want to use the same lenses i use for my 5d with film... many rolls later.. no problems... I've owned 6 canon slrs (film or digital) and only 1 crapped out on me... it was a 20D with 75,000 shutter clicks!! so it was time for it to die neways
Click to expand...

I have pretty good luck with gear that I buy new. I'm probably buying other people's problems.
 
Keith said:
I was talking to a guy the other day who's wife works for a company that repairs a varity of digital cameras. After seeing what comes in and goes out the door she wouldn't have a Canon apparently and would choose a Nikon every time!
Click to expand...
However ... anecdotally - Dad has an EOS 10 that still goes along nicely after 20 years of constant use (not so much in recent years), my EOS 30V gives good (if only occasional) service and between us Dad and I have heavily used 300D, 30D, 40D, 50D and 5D DSLRs from Canon that have had nary a hitch.

Perhaps we're just lucky.

...Mike
 
My canons have been tanks. I've had problems with shutter firing with nikon d300, had olympus e-3 that had screws fall out of it. All my canons have been faultless.
 
I was alway a Canon user. Funny I always had good luck with older/used ones over the brand new ones. Still have what I think are great EOS RT and 600/630. Awsome cameras, even with older technology - they have gone on many trips with me and never had any problems. Newer non-pro EOS cameras do seem to have "lesser" built, though. I like old FD-mount Canons too - great built and super glass. I have tried Nikon a few times - good glass but could never get their ergonomics - seem so backwards to operate - to me.
 
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