On Sat, 24 Feb 2001, Dave Buyens wrote:
> Lawrence Wald wrote;
> > I know the EOS 3 has 45 point AF but just
> > how many ECF
> > points does it have? Which has a better (this is
> > subjective!) ECF system
> > for sports like soccer, the elan II, the EOS 3, or maybe the
> > elan 7e? And why is one better than another?
>
> The EOS 3 has 45 ECF points (these ARE the AF points).
>
> The EOS 3 also autofocuses much faster than the other two cameras mentioned.
> For sports this is important. Further, focusing is faster with ECF turned
> off. I shoot with the center focusing point selected and don't miss ECF.
For sports I'd probably use manual selection... for two reasons. For me
the EOS 3's ECF isn't working as well as EOS 5 or EOS 50e (I never had any
problems with them, but EOS 3 has much more points...), so in a fast
situation I don't like to start the AF procedure again because I messed up
the ECF somehow (either the camera picked slightly wrong point, or I was
looking at the wrong point). Also I try to figure the shot out before hand
so that I'll know what focusing point I'd like to use.
In the case of EOS 3, I'd probably set the CF's (I don't remember which
one) so that the thumb weel at the back is not controlling exposure but
the horizontal AF point selection. It very fast, but unfortunately only
the horizontal direction is available easily. To change the point in
vertical direction it's much harder (I think EOS 1V can be much better in
this due the one added button). But still you can set the AF point to the
second row (for instance) and then use the thumb well to select points
from that fast. Try it. I didn't believe it could be as good before I
tried it!
What comes to the ECF systems. Well, the EOS 30 (Elan 7e) probably
(Just guessing here) has the fastest ECF of them as it's the most recent
camera. The EOS 50e is clearly slower then the EOS 3. I haven't tried EOS
30 ever... but I have both the EOS 3 and 50e. The ECF in EOS 50e was
practically flawless. Always picked to right AF point. But this isn't true
with EOS 3 anymore. I think the problem is the huge number of AF points to
choose from (and the fact that I can not keep my eye at the same spot all
the time in the heat of the moment...). The camera does pick the wrong
points much more often. This can be remedied by limiting the AF points to
11... but then you loose many points, so.... If I'd have to choose
from these cameras I'd probably go with EOS 3. But not because of ECF, but
because of the other qualities. For instance, focus tracking... I haven't
shot soccer either, but I'd imagine AF tracking would be more important
than ECF.
I can not really tell you what you should do as you really have to get
some of these cameras to try out to see if ECF really does work for you in
a situation like this.
Best regards,
Hugo.
************************************************************
** Hugo Gävert **
** [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.hut.fi/~hugo **
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