To sell or not to sell

[Tom W]

I'm thinking of placing my Elan II on the market, along with my old favorite lens, the 28-105. But, I'm grappling with whether this is a good move or not. I know that the Elan is compatible with my present set of lenses, and serves as a good backup to my 10D (though I do have the FT as well, which will operate without batteries). But I don't see the film camera market getting any stronger any time soon.

As for the lens - well, its an exceptional copy and its light and easy to carry. I may just decide to keep that one, though it mates up very well to the Elan II. Then again, I have that range covered easily with other faster lenses.

Decisions, decisions.

Anybody have any compelling advice?

[CyberDyneSystems]

I don't have a film body at all anymore.. and I'm not missing oine.. but then I never really shot with film.. nor did I have an EOS film body in the first palce.. so no helphtere,...

But I do find amongst all these big heavy high end lenses .. there are times I want a compact alternative. It is for this reason I recently aquired the 70-300mm DO.. and I am looking to at some point add to that a small prime at the wide end.. like maybe 24mm... or 28mm... but not a big fast one.. something very small and light.

Anyway.. maybe that zoom will be handy on the 10D minus "BiG-ED" for certain occasions?

[eric1]

how are you Tom? i just sold my Elan7 for the reason yo just stated. brought $150, from this board. speaking for myself, everytime i go out with a small lens, i'm kicking myself for not bringing a bigger one. went to the park the other day with the 100 2.8. a Big GBH flew up to feed at the lake. the 70-200 would have been perfect. i was p!ssed.

[DaveG]

I'm thinking of placing my Elan II on the market, along with my old favorite lens, the 28-105. But, I'm grappling with whether this is a good move or not. I know that the Elan is compatible with my present set of lenses, and serves as a good backup to my 10D (though I do have the FT as well, which will operate without batteries). But I don't see the film camera market getting any stronger any time soon.

As for the lens - well, its an exceptional copy and its light and easy to carry. I may just decide to keep that one, though it mates up very well to the Elan II. Then again, I have that range covered easily with other faster lenses.

Decisions, decisions.

Anybody have any compelling advice?


My plan - right from the beginning - was to buy a 10D and then pick up a compatible film camera, preferably used and preferably cheap. Then 18 months later (which will be November 2004) I'd buy the 10D's replacement and that film camera would be relegated to the backup bag. This was the only way that I could afford to do this since I had to build my entire system as I switched to Canon from manual focus Nikon.

I would love to have two DSLR's but economics reared its ugly head. I also guessed - correctly as it turned out - that at least a few clients would still insist of film being shot. And in December 2004 I think that I'll be much happier having a 10D AND a 20D (I made that up); rather than two 10D's.

So I bought a used - and pristine - Elan II for not a lot of money and it's been my backup. It also got used last month when one client did insist on film being shot. Thus it has given me a little security and a film shooting capability when I need one.

One of the things for you to consider is if you NEED to take a picture today, or if someone is going to INSIST that you shoot film. If you're doing this for fun then you can always choose to shoot tomorrow, and you are the only one affected if your DSLR breaks down or is away being serviced. If the final product is just for you, then there is absolutely no pressure to shoot film.

In this case you might want to sell the Elan II and spend the money on something that you'll actually use.

[Tom W]

Well, I don't really have any clients to speak of, though I'm getting more serious about venturing into things on the business side. So, I would think that the Elan would be a good backup for the simple reason that it uses the same lenses as my 10D. Maybe you're right, Dave. Keeping the Elan might be wise in the long haul.

As for the lens, I do occasionally use it when I'm travelling light. It carries like a feather and works well in daylight or with flash. And I am convinced that I got a good one - it blew away the 24-85 I had for a short while (very short).

Maybe I'll just keep both. Its just that I'm gathering so much stuff that I feel as though I need to purge my stockpile a bit.

[Mike H]

As for the lens, I do occasionally use it when I'm travelling light. It carries like a feather and works well in daylight or with flash. And I am convinced that I got a good one - it blew away the 24-85 I had for a short while (very short).

Tom, was the 24-85 a poor performer? Thanks.

Mike H

[Tom W]

As for the lens, I do occasionally use it when I'm travelling light. It carries like a feather and works well in daylight or with flash. And I am convinced that I got a good one - it blew away the 24-85 I had for a short while (very short).

Tom, was the 24-85 a poor performer? Thanks.

Mike H

Yes, the copy I had was not good. I bought it used and had it for about 2 days before I sold it to a broker. It was pristeen on the outside, and the glass was clean, but it didn't perform as well as expected.

I don't think this was typical of this lens, though. It seems to carry a pretty good reputation. I believe that I had a dog of a lens, that's all.

[PacAce]

Tom, when I went to the GCPS in Montreal last month, I took my Elan IIe with a couple of rolls of film as back up, just in case the 10D went south on me at the wrong time. Well, the Elan never saw the light of day outside of the backpack it was in and the rolls of film ended up back in the fridge when I got back home.

This past weekend, I was in Toronto shooting the Indy Molson races. Again the Elan IIe was with me and again, it never saw the light of day outside the backpack. I'm home now and, yup, you guessed it, the same rolls of film that went to Montreal and then to Toronto are now safe and sound in the fridge again. :D

So I'm in the same boat as you. Should I get rid of the Elan IIe or not? I know I'll probably never shoot film for myself again, except maybe just to finish off those rolls of films sitting since and cozy in the fridge before they expire but who knows, maybe a a friend may ask me to shoot some pics for him using film. Anyway, for how much I'll probably get for the camera, I think I'll be better off just keeping it in my camera collection along with the other film bodies that I never got rid of.

[Mills]

I sold my A2E about one week after picking up my 10D. Haven't missed it for a second.