More Facilities Than You Can Shake A Stick At!! (Canon EOS 500N)

Member Name: Nibelung

Product:	Canon EOS 500N
Date:	24/06/01 (3009 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Can used as point-and-shoot., Has enough other modes to keep your interest, Excellent results

Disadvantages: If you'll only ever need a point-and-shoot camera, get a compact

I bought my Canon EOS 500n about 18 months ago. It was supplied with a 28-105mm zoom lens, which is a useful enough lens in its own right, making the framing of most non-specialised photos a doddle.

Being a member, however lowly, of the Canon EOS stable, the 500n has a huge range of Canon (and other people's) lenses available to it.

Although now an “outgoing” model, having been replaced by the EOS 300n, there are still some around, mainly sold as kits with a couple of lenses in places like Dixons.

Styling is purposely “retro” with a half satin chrome* look, much beloved of cameras in the 60s and 70s before the all-black professional look took over.

* yeah, yeah, I know it’s plastic really!

Unless you are set on buying the latest model, the improvements embodied in the new 300 only seem to centre around the fact that its auto-focus now looks at 7 key points in the viewfinder, rather than the 500’s 3 points. Since I have not noticed any problems with the focussing of the 500, I’m not entirely sure that the extra money required to buy the 300 would be well spent.

AUTOMATIC OPERATION

Using any of the EOS range, the 500n included, centres around one large dial on the top-left of the camera. This selects all the exposure modes. By exposure, I mean the amount of light that is allowed to fall on to the film.

This is regulated by the shutter speed, (i.e. the amount of time that the film is exposed) and the aperture (the size of “hole” through which the light passes). Most pocket cameras take the choosing of either of these away from the user.

Quite apart from the two fully-programmed modes which make the camera a true point and shoot job, one of which even unlatches the built-in flash when required, there are two main sets of exposure modes: one, which Canon would call the “Creative” modes, and the other (rather grandly)
“Programmed Image Control Zones”.

The Creative Modes include :-

Shutter priority –

i.e. you choose the shutter speed and let the camera find the aperture setting to go with it. A thumb wheel over on the right by the shutter release enables you to “scroll” through all the shutter speeds from 30 seconds to 1/2000th second. Suggested uses for shutter priority include the ability to freeze action of moving objects by choosing a fast (short) shutter speed, and the ability to blur action, say to make a waterfall look ethereal, by choosing a slow (long) shutter speed.

Aperture priority –

the boot is now on the other foot, with the camera matching a shutter speed to the aperture chosen by you using the thumbwheel again. Possible uses for a small aperture would include obtaining sharp focus on a wide range of objects, some nearer to the camera than others. (The smaller the aperture, the less critical the need for focussing). By the same token, a large aperture makes focussing critical, and can throw a background into a blur, making close ups of flowers etc very effective.

You also have a full manual mode where you can set both the aperture and shutter speed yourself, using the light metering in the camera to find the right reading, although you could of course ignore the camera’s “advice” completely.

There is also what Canon call Depth-of-Field Auto Exposure.

The way this operates is rather nifty. If the three separate focussing spots in the view finder detect major differences, i.e. the subject matter towards the centre of the picture is at varying distance from the camera, like a train at an angle for example, then it biases the exposure towards a smaller aperture to improve the apparent focussing accuracy over a wider range of distances.

The Programmed Image Control Zones include,

A sports mode – this takes care of all ex
posure functions whilst giving a bias towards faster shutter speeds, making it more likely that moving objects will be captured correctly without blur.

A landscape mode – this is yet another programmed mode, which gives a bias to towards smaller apertures (for sharper focussing) at the expense of fast shutter speeds.

A close-up mode which sets the camera up to be better suited to the taking of close ups including activating the flash.

A portrait mode, which is biased towards a large aperture where conditions allow, to throw backgrounds out of focus.

If some of these are beginning to sound a bit “samey”, you’re not the first person to have thought so. Whilst I understand, or at least think I do, all the modes, I still tend to use the camera in its point-and-shoot mode the most, and it doesn’t come as any surprise that the full programmed modes fall either side of the “off” switch on the EOS’s dial.

Whichever mode you pick, you get a very helpful LED display of exposure settings just below the main frame in the viewfinder. This also includes information on the success of the auto-focus and whether the flash is charged up yet.


HANDLING

This is no pocket camera and anyone considering a single lens reflex (SLR) had better bear this in mind. Having said that, it’s not heavy for its size – the upside of plastic construction. The right hand side of the body (the battery box) is shaped into a grip allowing a firm hold whilst grappling with all those exposure modes! The shutter release falls easily under the right index finger, as does that thumbwheel. Changing Canon lenses involves holding one button down whilst twisting the lens through about 70 degrees.

OTHER FEATURES

Motor driven wind on and rewind. (Only 1 frame per second when set to continuous.)

“Bracketing”- the taking of three consecutive pictures, one
being the correct exposure and the others being variations of under- and over-exposure “just in case”. Useful for those once-in-a-lifetime shots or for people with money to burn on film!

Anti Red Eye – the camera throws out a bright white light beam just prior to the actually flash, to get the subjects pupils as small as possible in advance.

Extra flash contacts for separate flash gun.

A wired remote-control socket (control not supplied)

Self-timer

An LCD display on top of the camera body for exposure settings, chosen functions etc. Much of this is also repeated in the viewfinder.

CONCLUSION

I can’t see why anyone only interested in taking what used to be known as snaps would bother with an SLR on size grounds alone.

However, if you already are interested in using more than one lens type, or think you could GET interested then a camera like this is the one for you. At around £200, it’s not too expensive for what you get, PROVIDING THAT YOU WANT WHAT IT’S GOT!

Picture results are excellent – this camera wasn’t a “Best Buy” for nothing. 35mm is still the cheapest celluloid film format in which to operate, thanks to bargain-basement processing charges.

This camera and others by reputable manufacturers like Nikon and Minolta have more features than you can shake a stick at, but at least you’re not going to “grow out” of them too quickly.

Summary: