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- From: sutherland+@osu.edu (Scott Sutherland)
- Subject: Re: Canon EOS A2 or A2E?
- Message-ID: <sutherland+-260193112923@graham.dance.ohio-state.edu>
- Followup-To: rec.photo
- Sender: news@cgrg.ohio-state.edu (Usenet News Poster)
- Organization: The Ohio State University, Department of Dance
- References: <74311@cup.portal.com> <1993Jan25.021717.28954@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>
- Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 16:48:49 GMT
- Lines: 62
-
- In article <1993Jan25.021717.28954@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>,
- acs@csri.toronto.edu (Alvin Chia-Hua Shih) wrote:
- >
- > In <74311@cup.portal.com> HERMES1@cup.portal.com (Douglas Brian Opfer) writes:
- >
- > >I'm considering purchasing one of the Canon A2's and am interested in any
- > >opinions regarding the eye controlled focus on the A2E. Is this really a
- > >worthwhile feature or something that would rarely be used? Also, is this
- > >the ONLY difference between these two cameras? Any comments or opinions
- > >would be helpful, especially from those who have already made this choice.
- >
-
- [stuff deleted...]
-
- > If you wear glasses, you may find that the eye-controlled focusing
- > doesn't work well for you. (At least it doesn't for me, so I haven't
- > felt compelled to get an A2E. Astigmatism and contact lenses just
- > don't go together that well.) So, it's best to try it out yourself
- > before buying into this feature.
-
- At least one review I've read says that the Eye Controlled Focus works well
- even with glasses on. I don't wear glasses, but I can report that it works
- very well without. The only problem with it is that it sometimes takes me
- a couple of
- tries to get it calibrated well. This only takes a couple of seconds, and
- you
- can store the calibration when you are satisfied with it. One more thing
- about
- ECF - it does not function with vertical pictures. When you turn the
- camera vertically, it automatically reverts to the A2 type of autofocus.
-
- >
- > 1) The "usual" way of getting a shot is to focus first and then
- > compose. The A2/E prefer that you do this in the opposite order. That
- > is, compose and *then* focus. Because the exposure/flash metering is
- > biased towards the active focusing point, focusing and recomposing may
- > throw the metering algorithm off a bit.
-
- I rarely find that one of the five auto-focus squares is dead-on the object
- I
- am interested in, so I consider it to be just a faster way of choosing the
- point where I want to focus and meter. I still focus and then compose, I
- just have
- far less distance to move the frame between the two. That time savings is
- very important to me, it may or may not be to you.
-
- > 2) The "peripheral" AF points are detect only horizontal detail. So
- > it is preferable to have subjects with horizontal detail. One can
- > still compensate by tilting the camera. (I do this for my EOS 630 when
- > I get no vertical detail since my AF sensor is horizontal.)
- >
- > 3) Eye-controlled focus may save you in those situations where there
- > simply isn't time to recompose. (I know I could have used it last
- > week... Arg.)
-
- Weigh the price difference and consider the type of shooting you want to
- do. I think both the A2 and A2E are great.
-
- ---
- Scott Sutherland -- sutherland+@osu.edu
- Macintosh Software Development - Dance Photography - Computer Graphics
- The Ohio State University, Department of Dance
-