Shooting Film In A High Tech Way, My New Canon EOS Elan 7ne

It’s no secret that I love photography.  Whether it is with a cellphone, point and shoot, (D)SLR, instant, film, whatever. No matter what it is, if it captures an image chances are I like it.  I have many film cameras in my collection and I enjoy shooting with them.

I love the physicality of film and I also love the look of film.  I appreciate the sharpness and detail a modern digital SLR with a great lens can provide but when you see film you instantly know it is film and it has a certain magical quality about it.

Thats where my love of using film cameras end however. I don’t like manually focusing, I can, it’s not hard, but we have had the technology for decades and dammit I want to use it. I don’t like  figuring out the exposure with an old camera either. It generally means using another device a light meter or light meter app on my phone.  The built in light meters on many of these old cameras can be out of spec if they even had one to begin with and many times they were designed to use now outlawed mercury batteries. Sure you can pop in an equivalent sized zinc-air hearing aid battery but it will only last a few weeks and still you have a piece of electronics that are 40 or 50 years old running off a battery it wasn’t meant to run on.

Enter my new Canon EOS Elan 7ne, a 35mm film camera from the year 2004.  Yes, it is barely older than 10 years old and it features all the bells and whistles a geeky photo enthusiast like myself could ever want.

Since the 7ne is such a recent camera is uses modern batteries, has fast, modern multi point autofocus, an accurate light meter, and it rips through film at 4 frames per second, about as fast as my Canon T4i (650D) DSLR.

The most interesting feature of the Canon Elan 7ne is the eye control feature.  The camera tracks your eye movement and will focus on whichever focus point you are looking at.  This is no gimmick either, it woks amazingly well!  No more fumbling through a menu to set up which focus point you want to use every time you change what you are shooting, with the 7ne just look where you want the focus and the camera obeys your command and does it, amazing!

7ne Closeup, With Eye Control!

The shutter speeds are from Bulb to 1/4000 of a second. And the camera takes all Canon EF mount lenses of which I already have several that I use with my Canon T4i.  Even the image stabilization in the lenses that have it wok perfectly with this camera!

Canon EOS Elan 7ne – Top Down

There are tons more features like Ai Focus and Ai Servo focus, aperture priority, shutter priority, exposure compensation, bracketing, auto film wind and rewind of course.  A nice big bright viewfinder, a backlit top LCD readout.

Canon EOS Elan 7ne – Top LCD

I chose to also add the BG-300 Canon Battery grip.  This allows the 7ne to use standard AA batteries as opposed to the more expensive CR2 batteries.  It also adds a grip for portrait shooting and a second shutter button and exposure lock button for portrait shooting as well.

I purchased the camera used from KEH out of Atlanta Georgia, in what they call “Bargain” condition for $99. I have ordered from them before and have always had great service, the items are always as good or better than you expect.

EOS Elan 7ne – Rear

So to wrap this post up, I am excited about my new film camera.  I want to shoot more film than I have in the past and now I have the tool to do it! Film, with no boundaries!  Thanks for reading and checking this post out.  If you are a Canon DSLR owner yourself and would like to shoot film I highly recommend the 7ne, it will take any Canon EF lens you already have (does not work with EF-S lenses) and can be picked up on E-Bay or other places for under $100.

Saint Augustine, Florida Lightner Museum – Alcazar Hotel

During our recent trip to Saint Augustine for independence day we visited some of the sights around downtown.  One of those places is the Lightner Museum and former Alcazar Hotel.

Built in 1887 as a hotel by Henry Flagler the Hotel Alcazar provided a place for the tourists traveling his railroad to stay.  The hotel is one of the first buildings in the world to be constructed using poured concrete. The hotel closed in 1932 due to a slowdown of the tourism industry in Florida during the great depression.  The hotel was purchased by Otto Lightner in 1946 as a place to house his extensive collection of Victorian era artwork and artifacts. We did not tour the museum this time but Lighner’s collections are still on display for tourists visiting Saint Augustine to see.  Here are some photographs I made of the outside area of the museum. For more information about the museum visit http://www.lightnermuseum.org/main_lightner.html

The entrance way to the Lightner museum and courtyard.

Some of the architechtural detail of the Lightner Museum/Alcazar Hotel

The gardens that front the Lightner Museum and Alcazar Hotel. Notice the solid poured concrete walls of the hotel.

 

 

 

Friday Album Review #1 – The XX-Coexist

Well it’s the first Friday on my new blog and I really don’t know what to write about.  I think I would like a theme for Fridays on this blog, maybe it will be album review day.  Either something that is new that week that I dig, or a pull of one of my favorites from the archives.  So starting next Friday I will plan on having a new album review for you every Friday.

This idea is spurred on a bit by my first ever published album review in the Glass Orchid Zine issue #4 from fall 2012.

Glass Orchid Zine Issue #4

I wrote a review of the XX’s sophomore album Coexist.  I really enjoyed the process of reviewing an album and it happened to be one I liked so that was a big help.  I love to talk about and share music with others, that is one of the main focuses of my YouTube  channel. Written reviews of single albums will be a different type of outlet than I am used to but it will be fun and challenging.

Here is my review of The XX- Coexist (2012) which appeared in that issue, for your reading and listening enjoyment!

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The XX-Coexist (2012)

Coexist: to exist separately or independently but peaceably, often while remaining rivals or adversaries. This is the overall theme of The XX’s sophomore album ”Coexist”.  Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim drew from personal relationship experiences while writing, Intimacy, heartbreak, loneliness, regret, awkwardness, it’s all there. The sound is tense, offbeat and minimal. The groups third member Jamie Smith adds drums, MPC, piano, even steel pan drum. Croft and Sim share vocal duties, sometimes flying solo, other times a conversational duet style. Coexist’s albums art is made up of images which are created by coexistence of oil and water. One of these photos show through an X which has been die cut into the plain white cover.

The album opens with Angels a solo track from Romy. The pace is a slow cadence that sets the tone of the album, a bass drum, a few guitar notes, and her voice are all that are there. Lyrically the song deals with being in love, knowing your partner better than anyone else, and realizing it’s over. The albums second track Chained opens with a wash of cymbals and we hear Oliver’s voice for the first time, the pace is quicker more melodic almost danceable. Oliver and Romy trade lines lamenting a relationship gone wrong.  On the third cut Fiction features a plucking guitar riff with a steady drum beat, Oliver takes this song, dealing with the loneliness following a breakup.  Try, the albums 4^th track which deals with the desire to get back together prominently features a siren like synth, maybe intentionally as to pose a warning, danger! This track is one of my favorites! The theme continues on the album’s fifth track Reunion, vocals are shared with both coming to the conclusion that they will never be one again.

On the 6^th track Sunset the two XX’s deal with the feelings of seeing each other again after it’s all over. Next up is Missing, dealing again with the loneliness of being apart, the duo takes turns singing over the others wailing, the music is somber and sparse. This is another favorite of mine, with an almost painful snare that comes and goes, along with long organ notes really set the feeling of this one up. The next track Tides we are again dealing with the emotions of loss.  Unfold deals with the love for one another that is still there even after it is all over. Swept Away is the longest track and begins the end of the album. Each takes a verse sharing the love they still feel for one another before the song builds into it’s down tempo dance pace. The album closes with Our Song, a soft melancholy track about friendship and love.

Overall The XX have created a good sophomore album that works well as a whole piece or just as single tracks.  At times the themes can be very emotional and painful to listen to but relatable for almost anyone.

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I think writing a weekly album review will polish up my writing skills a bit and hopefully turn you on to some great music!

Have a great weekend,

Wes