Nikon F80 or Canon Elan 7

Which one feels better in your hands? The quality / features of the two major systems are so close, it probably comes down to which one you like the feel of better.

Do any of your close friends / family shoot with one or the other? That can be a tie-breaker as well. The ability to share / pool equipment is handy.

Since your local camera shop gave you a choice, I assume both Canon and Nikon are well supported in your area for new/used sales, rentals, repairs, etc. In some parts of the world this is not true, and you go with whoever has decent local support.

I don’t think you can go wrong with either system. Have you handled the N80 and the Elan 7 in the store? Which feels better to you? Do you wear glasses, if so the Nikon may be a bit better. My 10D friend always gets depressed looking at the relatively large viewfinder of my N70, hehe.

As far as lens goes, for Canon, it’s simple, any lens you buy today will most likely work with whatever body you buy in the future, digital or film. For Nikon it could get complicated. If you stick with AFD lens, or the newer G lens, you should be safe. If you happen to acquire one of the many excellent but old MF lens, then you need to worry about which camera body it will work on. Both companies make excellent lens, although personally I prefer Nikon.

So here’s my recommendation for you, if you are fascinated by electronics, go with the Canon. If you are into glass, go with Nikon. Either way you will do fine.

A couple of years ago I have to made the same choice between the Elan IIe and the F70. You have to made the decision on the feling you have with the camera, and the versality of it for your needs. In my case, I choose the DOF preview as the most important feature I need on a camera, so I choose the Canon body! I also choose the eye control, It's unbeliveable how this system give me a lot a avantage for taking fast picture

For all practical purposes, your choice is not merely the F80 or Elan 7 but rather whether the Canon or Nikon system meets your needs better. IMO the AF on the F80 is on the slower side and is frequently insufficient for sports photography. That topic has been discussed a few times here in this forum already. If you are serious about sports photography, I would at least get an F100 body but unfortunately at about 3 times the cost. I have never used an Elan 7, but I suspect that a body in the similar price range as the F80 is not going to have Canon's best AF either. For travel photography, the AF on the F80 is just fine and you don't even have to use AF for that kind of work.

Mud or dirt?

The F/N80 and the Elan 7 are pretty much the same camera, with a few things one way or the other. The N80 gets a mechanical cable release (good cuz they're everywhere, bad because they break), and spot metering. The Elan gets MLU and an electronic cable release. I personally prefer the electronic cable releases as I've never had one break, although the instant I lose one I may be humming a different tune.

AF is fairly similar in both, which is to say not great compared to their bigger brothers, although the Elan 7 does well in daylight I think the N80 is a bit behind. If you use AFS and USM lenses on each they're fairly similar. Metering and flash, well whichever works best for you is the logical answer. Both systems are capable and very much equals so its more important to do as suggested by others, consider which system offers more of what you want or which camera is more comfortable in your hands.

Great thing about Elan 7 is that it has 4fps (if i recall correctly) which is very useful in some occasions. By the way there's Zeiss-to-Canon adaptor available if you like to play with Zeiss CY-mount lens, you can use it on canon body if you find that adaptor. Great thing about F80 is that it has 1% spot meter, and it af better in low light. Portrait, your have better choice in nikon lens in mid-tele range, but canon's 35/2 gives pleasing bokeh that I really envy since I like to shoot people indoors and 35mm is nice. I think they can both do a good job as travel camera and both not suitable for sports.

In this segment of cameras N80 is the no doubt winner, cause it has one big essential feature, the spotmeter, and several noteworthy features like on demand grid lines and D-type fill flash. Both cameras have equal (not so good) build quality and AF (which is not so good either).

the first two posts give you your answer. Go play with both. Personally I'd go F80 every time for the same reasons as the above poster.

I agree Umit, I wish someone would put spot meter in the Elan. Unfortunately the N80 misses another big feature, MLU. For me thats a bigger loss than spot metering, one can work around spot metering but MLU can be trickier to avoid needing.

The first few responses were correct. There's no clear winner here unless you need MLU or spot metering for example. Those are the biggest differences between these two cameras. If you choose the Canon, the 7e adds ECF, which may or may not be useful. It works for me on both the 7e and the EOS 3 but it doesn't work for everyone and some find it annoying or weird.

"one can work around spot metering but MLU can be trickier to avoid needing. "<p> MLU is unusable except for static setup shots. Even in those it is only useful if the shutter speed is low. Spot meter, on the other hand, is very useful in considerable more situations, including amjority of the few situations where MLU can actually help.

b.t.w. cross-posting is a violation of photo.net's TOS.

Just FYI.

Chris, make a list of your "dream" lenses. See which company has more of them, which are higher rated, and what the costs are, that may give you an idea which to get. You will most likely upgrade your body down the road and that's not horribly expensive, but if you start with, say, Canon and later decide you must have some Nikon lenses or vice-versa you will have a problem.

Depends Chuck. There are more situations where spot metering would be a convenience but I can live without it than there are when MLU is a convenience. However I rarely absolutely need spot metering as I will usually adjust for CW or matrix/exal metering using my own knowledge of metering.

When one needs MLU theres little you can do if you don't have it, except use a longer shutter speed or a faster one. And even still purists will tell you you're losing image quality under all conditions when not using MLU. It's a toss up.

That said most times I'd rather have spot, but at this level of camera its more important to consider the system IMO. YMMV.

Ok, don't shoot me for saying this. Why do you use MLU? Does it really help?? How much vibration can be introduced by the mirror? Doesn't the shutter also introduces some vibration?

I hardly ever put my camera on tripod (again don't shoot me :) and I frequently enlarge my pictures to 8x12 with no problem. If I really want no vibration, I can put the camera on tripod.

Now MLU, maybe I just haven't tried it (or I am too cheap my equipment doesn't have it), is it really that important? :)

Reminds me of those on the net who claims they can hear the difference between coaxical and optical digital cables...

"Why do you use MLU?"

Because you want to maximize sharpness.

"Does it really help??"

It only helps when the subject is static, shutter speed is low (1/15 sec or less), camera and lens are rigidly supported, and you trigger the shutter via cable or self-timer

"How much vibration can be introduced by the mirror?"

Depends on the camera and the information source, Nikon usually do not offer MLU, so they generally claim their latest body to be well dampped against vibration. Canon usually do offer MLU, so they usually play up the impact of mirror vibration. My subjective impression is that Nikons do perform substantially better minimizing mirror vibration without MLU than Canons. Most Canonites reflexively deride that notion without introducing any hard evidence against it.

"Doesn't the shutter also introduces some vibration? "

Usually not nearly as much as the mirror.

MLU isn't needed under 300mm, thats my experience with N90s, F4, F80 and FM2 even at 300 it provides very slight improvement. Where it makes a bit of difference is 300+2xTC=600mm, even then you are safe if your shutter speed is fast. All that talk about MLU is just talk, I have yet to see a picture improved by it.

Spot meter in the N80....made me sell my Eos. If the Elan 7 had a spot meter I probably would have stayed with Canon. Love the N80. Its a great camera.

Just my opinion, but I think the F80 has more appeal to a photo enthusiast mainly because it has a spotmeter, as already mentioned, and, no idiot modes. The F80 is clearly aimed by its manufacturer at a more enthusiast market, even though it's at the same price point as the Elan 7. It's virtually a "pro-camera", except for the lighter build.