My EOS30

[kjevans]

After starting back into film using mainly an EOS500n, I must say I was very impressed with Canon SLRs.

The problem was that my wife loved to use the 500n while we were out and about and I was constantly using either my Pentax P30 or my Praktica Super TL, which don't get me wrong they produce some lovely shots but I was feeling a little left out.

So I checked out Canon's range of film SLRs and like most people I was kind of taken by the EOS3 & EOS1, except the cost.

I found a few EOS30's on ebay and read up a bit on them and they sounded just about right.

Well my EOS30 turned up today and it is absolutely outstanding, it is totally mint like it just came from the factory and all for just £40, wow.

I am going to have some great playtime now.

Here are a few images of my 30, images aren't superb but that's down to my point and shoot digital.

 

[snowy]

£40 for that That's an incredible bargain.

The EOS 30 was my last film EOS before going digital, and it's a great camera. I've still got it and had considered selling, but if it's only worth £40 I won't bother! May as well keep it as a backup. Hope you enjoy yours!

 

[kjevans]

£40 for that That's an incredible bargain.

The EOS 30 was my last film EOS before going digital, and it's a great camera. I've still got it and had considered selling, but if it's only worth £40 I won't bother! May as well keep it as a backup. Hope you enjoy yours!

I think I was extremely lucky, there were quite a few with auctions ending on the same day and this one was quite late at night.

I have had a look today on ebay and some are going for £175 buy it now, so there is a heck of a lot of scope.

And oh yeah, I sure will enjoy it.

Cheers

 

[TheBigYin]

Nice camera , now get a roll of film through it and post the results

 

[kjevans]

Nice camera , now get a roll of film through it and post the results

For me it's like going from a Ford Fiesta to a Ferrari, I have read the Magic Lantern guide over and over, read the instructions over and over but the proof of the pudding as they say...

I am off to an Airshow on the 11th so I need to reasonably savvy by then, should be a good test and the week after my brother is getting married and wants me to take a few rolls of off the cuff B&W.

Trouble is I am not getting my scanner until October, so a while to wait to post some shots but I definately will.

Cheers BigYin

 

[snowy]

For me it's like going from a Ford Fiesta to a Ferrari, I have read the Magic Lantern guide over and over, read the instructions over and over but the proof of the pudding as they say...

I am off to an Airshow on the 11th so I need to reasonably savvy by then, should be a good test and the week after my brother is getting married and wants me to take a few rolls of off the cuff B&W.

Trouble is I am not getting my scanner until October, so a while to wait to post some shots but I definately will.

Cheers BigYin

One of the advantages of the EOS system is that you can set it all to automatic and almost forget about the camera, concentrating on composition and timing. I'd start with it on P mode with the eye-tracking turned off and central AF point selected and work from there. If you're familiar with other cameras in the EOS family you shouldn't have any problem getting used to it, and can explore further when your comfortable.

If you fancy the extended battery grip to go with it, let me know...

 

[TheBigYin]

snip... If you're familiar with other cameras in the EOS family you shouldn't have any problem getting used to it, and can explore further when your comfortable.

That's pretty much why I bought a EOS5 from fleabay a couple of weeks ago. I've had a 450D for the last 6 months, after a layoff of 10+ years from anything other than Point-and-Shoot cameras. All my prior experience came from fully manual cameras, which were great, once you had the hang of them. Unfortunately, to get the hang of them, you needed someone to show you, or lots of books and theory behind you, or a large pile of money to dispose of on film and processing.

With the digital i've shot maybe 5-6000 frames in 6 months, allowing me to reead up a technique in a magazine or on the web, then go away and practice it ostensibly for free. As a result i've improved in the technical aspects of using a camera, however, I've found that I tended to take 15 shots and pick the best one, rather than take the time and get it right in the camera first time. As a way of forcing myself to think more, and snap less, I decided to try film again - as an addition to not as a replacement for digital photography.

So - I bought a 35mm that felt and handled similarly to the digital, and as I improve my collection of glass, should be able to share lenses (apart from the EF-S kit job). So far it seems to be working - I ran a roll of film through the EOS5 and took maybe 20 shots to check out metering / lens functions / focusing etc. and then the last 16 or so were a bit more creative stuff. Out of the 16 I got 7 that I thought were "keepers" - the others were similar shots but messing with red/ND grad/Polarising filters which i'd not tried before on film shots. In short - I got a near 50% success rate from my first roll of film through a new camera - probably better than I used to get "back in the day" and certainly a lot higher than I do with digital. Is the experiment a success? I don't know, but I've just shot one roll of Velvia, got a roll of XP2 on the go at the moment, a get-it-while-you-can roll of Kodachrome, and a selection of Ilford BnW to get my teeth into.

 

[kjevans]

One of the advantages of the EOS system is that you can set it all to automatic and almost forget about the camera, concentrating on composition and timing. I'd start with it on P mode with the eye-tracking turned off and central AF point selected and work from there. If you're familiar with other cameras in the EOS family you shouldn't have any problem getting used to it, and can explore further when your comfortable.

If you fancy the extended battery grip to go with it, let me know...

Program mode is where I was going to start and build up from there, the basic functions are exactly the same as my 500n, it's just getting my head around the extras.

Cheers

 

[kjevans]

In short - I got a near 50% success rate from my first roll of film through a new camera - probably better than I used to get "back in the day" and certainly a lot higher than I do with digital.

50% is damn good and your absolutely right saying that film really makes you think about what you are having or trying to do.

I have digital also but I find that good intensions quickly get overtaken with the ability to just keep pressing the shutter.

Only until recently getting back into film the last film camera was a point and shoot but before that anything more indepth was knocking on for 25 years or more ago at school, so the old brain needs a dusting off.

 

[kjevans]

If you fancy the extended battery grip to go with it, let me know...

I will let you know, I will have to pass it by 'She who must be obeyed :rules:' first.

Ta.

 

[TheBigYin]

snip... film really makes you think about what you are having or trying to do.

I have digital also but I find that good intensions quickly get overtaken with the ability to just keep pressing the shutter.

I'm lucky really, I've a mate who's an ex-pro 'togger who left the business after a ill-thought out diversification into running a minilab. He's done all sorts of stuff - from advertising & studio work, through weddings right the way to cruise liner 'togging. He's just getting back into taing photo's again, for fun this time. Luckily he didn't sell up all his equipment, and kept back the 35mm kit (3 EOS3's from same vintage as my EOS5 + some nice L lenses. He also kept his Bronica 120 format box and a few other bits.

Anyway, He's usually on hand for the odd bit of advice, and as I've got back into shooting more, it's got him out and having a go as well. Usually, if we're going for landscape stuff he'll take the Bronica, and the pace that working with one of those cameras entails, tends to make me slow down and think about things more. Best bit of advice he gave me was "Use your tripod more - you may not need to have it for stablility but the extra thinking time it'll make you take will let you improve the composition."

It's been interesting learning some stuff from him, about filters etc. and getting it right in the camera. He's also learning, of course, and picking up a bit about digital using my camera, and strangely seems to be developing a fondness for doing digital HDR stuff!

 

[kjevans]

I'm lucky really, I've a mate who's an ex-pro 'togger who left the business after a ill-thought out diversification into running a minilab. He's done all sorts of stuff - from advertising & studio work, through weddings right the way to cruise liner 'togging. He's just getting back into taing photo's again, for fun this time.

Dead lucky

Luckily he didn't sell up all his equipment, and kept back the 35mm kit (3 EOS3's from same vintage as my EOS5 + some nice L lenses. He also kept his Bronica 120 format box and a few other bits.

Very nice indeed.

Usually, if we're going for landscape stuff he'll take the Bronica, and the pace that working with one of those cameras entails, tends to make me slow down and think about things more. Best bit of advice he gave me was "Use your tripod more - you may not need to have it for stablility but the extra thinking time it'll make you take will let you improve the composition."

Spot on.

 

[kjevans]

Well I took the 30 for a test run today with a roll of HP5 plus 400 and I am extremely pleased with the results.

I didn't do anything fancy just some Macro, Landscape, Program and Tv modes changing between my Sigma 70-300mm APO Macro lens and my Canon 28-80mm USM.

All negatives came out beautifully and in focus, a very easy camera to use but like I said, I haven't tried all the functions yet.

I didn't find the camera heavy or awkward after extended use as some reviews say.

Only one issue I found which I can live with, when I use my Sigma lens everything works fine, metering, AF etc.. but after shutter release the cameras battery icon flashes empty.
If I switch the camera off then back on it's back to full.

I don't have this problem with my Canon lens and I don't have the problem using the same Sigma lens on my 500n.

Like I said, no real biggy, just have to persuede the missus that I really, really need a Canon zoom. lol.

By the way, has anyone got any advice on using Tv mode cos I was trying to take a long exposure of traffic on my local dual carriageway, you know the shots where there is a long stream of red light etc.

No matter how much I fiddled I could only get down to a shutter speed of 1/60 at f22, not slow enough I think.

Long exposure is something I have never tried before and really need a few pointers i.e. best film speed and lens.

Cheers..,

 

[TheBigYin]

Glad to hear it's worked well for you

Sigma's aren't noted for having the best implementation of canon firmware - there are loads of stories about lenses going from film>digital and failing with various error messages because they reverse engineered the firmware rather than paying canon a licence for it. (something I've fallen foul of - got a Sigma 28-200 that works fine on the film camera, but only works in MF and with the aperture wide open on digital - still it was only £20 ) Maybe it's a similar one with the recent lenses and a older film body. Either way, personally, I reckon I could live with it, especially as something like a Canon EF 70-300mm f4-5.6 IS USM Lens would be 400 beer tokens.

can't help with the long exposure stuff - other than to say i'd look at using something with a lower speed than HP5's 400 - maybe fp4+ and under-rate it to 64?

Think you're going to need to bring forward that scanners purchase though

 

[kjevans]

Glad to hear it's worked well for you

Thanks

Sigma's aren't noted for having the best implementation of canon firmware - there are loads of stories about lenses going from film>digital and failing with various error messages because they reverse engineered the firmware rather than paying canon a licence for it.

I didn't know that, thanks for the info.

Either way, personally, I reckon I could live with it, especially as something like a Canon EF 70-300mm f4-5.6 IS USM Lens would be 400 beer tokens.

Mmmmm BEER

can't help with the long exposure stuff - other than to say i'd look at using something with a lower speed than HP5's 400 - maybe fp4+ and under-rate it to 64?

I'll give that a shot, ta.

Think you're going to need to bring forward that scanners purchase though

Believe me I would love to but it's a gift for my big 'four o'.

I have had a look through your Flickr account, some really great shots there, I guess they're a mix of digi and film, eh?

Cheers..,

 

[TheBigYin]

To be honest, the stuff on Flickr is pretty much all Digi, with the exception of 8-9 images from the EOS5 and one from my old, long departed Practika MTL3. Indeed, that shot from the Alps of my mate crossing a rope bridge was on the last reel of film I got out of the MTL3, as later that evening, it fell from a Bivouac Ledge on the Aig. du Midi and landed about half a mile vertically away from me.

There's been a bit of an explosion of entries on the Flickr account this year as I set myself a personal challenge to take create one image a day for the entire of 2009. So far there's been photo's from 2 point and shoot cameras, one camera phone, one slidescan from 1983, one digital SLR and one 35mm SLR. All I need now are a X-Ray and a Speed Camera, and i'll have the set!

 

[Blapto]

There are a few different kinds of ISO 25 B&W film. Get a panchromatic one though (not Adox) because otherwise exposures of red car lights might not work so well.

If you were getting 1/60th at f/22 at ISO 400, then ISO 25 would give you:

400  200  100  50  25
1/60 1/30 1/15 1/8 1/4

What were you metering off of? I suspect that you'd be unlikely to actually properly expose an entire image at that in the dark and that the camera meter was trying to correctly expose a streetlight or similar.

Bear in mind that HP5+ has a reciprocity failure curve of something like:
Actual exposure (in seconds) = Indicated exposure (in seconds) ^ 1.48.

So if you think you need a 10 second exposure to get what you want, then reciprocity failure says you really need 10^1.48 = 30 seconds.

 

[kjevans]

To be honest, the stuff on Flickr is pretty much all Digi, with the exception of 8-9 images from the EOS5 and one from my old, long departed Practika MTL3.

Very nice shots

Indeed, that shot from the Alps of my mate crossing a rope bridge was on the last reel of film I got out of the MTL3, as later that evening, it fell from a Bivouac Ledge on the Aig. du Midi and landed about half a mile vertically away from me.

Looks like there is a possible opening in the market for a camera bungee, sorry to hear of your loss.

There's been a bit of an explosion of entries on the Flickr account this year as I set myself a personal challenge to take create one image a day for the entire of 2009. So far there's been photo's from 2 point and shoot cameras, one camera phone, one slidescan from 1983, one digital SLR and one 35mm SLR.

Keep up the good work.

All I need now are a X-Ray and a Speed Camera, and i'll have the set!

I sure you could live without the Speed Camera shot. lol

 

[kjevans]

There are a few different kinds of ISO 25 B&W film. Get a panchromatic one though (not Adox) because otherwise exposures of red car lights might not work so well.

If you were getting 1/60th at f/22 at ISO 400, then ISO 25 would give you:

400  200  100  50  25
1/60 1/30 1/15 1/8 1/4

What were you metering off of? I suspect that you'd be unlikely to actually properly expose an entire image at that in the dark and that the camera meter was trying to correctly expose a streetlight or similar.

Bear in mind that HP5+ has a reciprocity failure curve of something like:
Actual exposure (in seconds) = Indicated exposure (in seconds) ^ 1.48.

So if you think you need a 10 second exposure to get what you want, then reciprocity failure says you really need 10^1.48 = 30 seconds.

Yeah, thanks for the advice, I was just doing a little messing around but long exposures are something I have been thinking of doing for a while now, i.e. a starry night sky but I am guessing that even 1/4 would be too fast.

This subject is all new to me so I am trying to get my head round it all.

Maybe I require a lens with a greater, (or smaller depending how you look at it) aperture than f22.

By the way, what does the ^ symbol stand for?

 

[kjevans]

can't help with the long exposure stuff - other than to say i'd look at using something with a lower speed than HP5's 400 - maybe fp4+ and under-rate it to 64?

Just a quickie here but I have pushed film in the past but never had to develop it myself.
If I push or under-rate film, what allowances do I need to make with developing? I can't seem to find any info on this.

 

[TheBigYin]

Just a quickie here but I have pushed film in the past but never had to develop it myself.
If I push or under-rate film, what allowances do I need to make with developing? I can't seem to find any info on this.

To be honest i've just used one of those ilford pre-pay mailers and ticked the push/pull box as -1 stop

I'm sure someone who knows their way around a darkroom will be able to help - i'm still psyching myself up to (re)buying the gear for BnW developing - used to have it, but it seems the box of kit has gone walkabout in one or another house moves!

 

[Blapto]

There are often times for push/pull dev on the massive dev chart. If you can't find any times then you can start by adding or removing 20% for each stop you add or remove.

^ means "to the power of". 3^2 means 3 to the power of 2, i.e. 9.

On your calculator the symbol may be x then a superscript y.

 

[kjevans]

There are often times for push/pull dev on the massive dev chart. If you can't find any times then you can start by adding or removing 20% for each stop you add or remove.

^ means "to the power of". 3^2 means 3 to the power of 2, i.e. 9.

On your calculator the symbol may be x then a superscript y.

Thanks

 

[happyhomer]

Great camera, the EOS 30. I've got 2; the one you've got and the slightly updated 30V which I bought new a year ago, just before Canon stopped making it (not hugely different, but it has an illuminated control panel which comes in handy sometimes). I'd suggest you have a go with the eye-control focussing; I didn't bother with it for a while, but I find it very intuitive and a great way to save time. It took me around 10 mins to calibrate and works perfectly. A lot of people didn't get on with it, but it is a significant factor in why I'm not interested in going digital at the moment.

For the long exposure shots have you considered some Neutral Density filters in conjunction with slow film to get the shutter speeds you want? 7 Day Shop have some cheap 'n' cheerful ones which will do the job without breaking the bank.

 

[kjevans]

Great camera, the EOS 30. I've got 2; the one you've got and the slightly updated 30V which I bought new a year ago, just before Canon stopped making it (not hugely different, but it has an illuminated control panel which comes in handy sometimes). I'd suggest you have a go with the eye-control focussing; I didn't bother with it for a while, but I find it very intuitive and a great way to save time. It took me around 10 mins to calibrate and works perfectly. A lot of people didn't get on with it, but it is a significant factor in why I'm not interested in going digital at the moment.

For the long exposure shots have you considered some Neutral Density filters in conjunction with slow film to get the shutter speeds you want? 7 Day Shop have some cheap 'n' cheerful ones which will do the job without breaking the bank.

Thanks for replying.

I love my 30, I think that it is a superb camera in all respects.

I have not tried the eye control as yet but I think I will give it a go after reading your post, possibly the only positive remark made about eye control.

Do you have the web address for the 7 Day Shop?

Cheers..,

 

[happyhomer]

ND filters at 7 Day Shop are here

As for the eye-control, I avoided it for a year or 2 as I could only find negative comments about it. In a bored "let's try something out for the hell of it" moment I set it up, and I'm well pleased that I did. Certainly give it a go, there's nothing to lose

 

[kjevans]

ND filters at 7 Day Shop are here

As for the eye-control, I avoided it for a year or 2 as I could only find negative comments about it. In a bored "let's try something out for the hell of it" moment I set it up, and I'm well pleased that I did. Certainly give it a go, there's nothing to lose

Great, thanks for the link, looks like a really good shop.

I'll be getting the Cokin 'P' stuff from there as it is real cheap.

Ta..,

 

[TheBigYin]

I tried the eye-control and found it pretty good to be honest. Having said that I only switch it on if i'm going out just with the film body. If i'm swapping between the EOS5 and the 450D I find i'm looking into the digital's viewfinder and wondering why the point of focus isn't shifting. Okay - so i'm a bear of little brain, and easily confusticated .

7dayshop are pretty good on prices (for film too!) - they'll usually ship things in letterbox friendly packages where possible as well, and try to keep each shipment value under the custards and eggpies radar

 

[kjevans]

I have managed to setup my eye control after a bit of fiddling and yes, it seems quite good but I think I need to practice a bit more with it yet.

7dayshop.com do seem to have very good prices, I have been looking into the Kood 'P' system, basically the same as Cokin but a heck of a lot cheaper.

I would like to know peoples views on using Polarizers with BnW photography though, I have heard differing opions.

Also, is it only the 'L' series EF lenses that use internal focusing as both my lenses rotate at the end when focusing.

Although this is not a major problem it just means fiddling a bit when using a graduated filter or a Circular Polarizer.

Cheers..,