I love my Elan IIe, and it gets used. While digital is cheap (after the initial purchase) and fast, there is a look to film that 1's and 0's just can't replicate. That said, most of my paid work is digital...most clients couldn't tell the difference between the 2 anyway, but MY pictures are about 50/50.
Since I started shooting with dSLRs, I don't really shoot too much film anymore. But when I do, I always enjoy the results. But that's because I only shoot film under good lighting conditions. Digital's ability to balance color temp and adjust ISO on-the-fly really do it for me.
Anyways, your idea of getting a film EOS body makes sense, if you still plan on shooting film.
Im a photography student so I have to do my work on film, At first I was not very happy at the idea, But now after shooting film and not having to worry about the 1.6 crop I find that new oppotunites have opended up. The main benifit to me is the fact I can now shoot 17mm! I shoot mainly slides and B&W Film and have found the quality of slides is quite good. I mainly use Provia 100F and have tryed Velvia 50 but found it to be a bit to saturated for a all purpouse film.
I shoot film with a Elan 7e and it is a great film SLR! Its a nice (and now cheap on the secondhand market) film SLR.
My 20D will still be my main camera but I do enjoy shooting film now and I might even upgrade to a EOS 3 or 1V HS at the end of the year depending on how much film I will be shooting next year in my studies.
My advice is to sell the Minolta and get a Elan 7! It is a good camera indeed.
I only shoot film with an Elan 7, so I'll keep my comments within the bounds of my experience. The Elan 7 is a very capable camera with respect to film - "missing" perhaps only a spot meter as far as I'm concerned. With the BP-300 vertical grip it feels very nice to hold and use, very intuitive. For the obvious reasons such as focal length (no crop factor to worry about at the shorter end of things) and archiveability, I think a film counterpart to a digital camera, particularly with lens compatibility, makes a lot of sense. If I needed a camera body today, I go and get another Elan 7.
For me the killer is the bad low light focusing abilities of the 7 over the IIe.
That being said, the 7 is not a bad camera.
The older 600-series, if you can find one in good shape, is excellent too. These were from the first generation of EOS cameras. Canon hadn't stratified the market into segments yet. So the 600-series had many pro-like features, including a very rugged frame. Really bang-for-buck stuff. But older ones that have not been CLA'd recently can have the foam on the mirror gummed or other nasties, rendering them paperweights.
IMHO, the best deal going now are 1v's as pros dump their film for 1D-series cameras. There are some nice ones out there, with used 1vHS' going for the same price as a new EOS 3. Only downside is some pros beat the crap out of their gear, so some of the 1v's out there are ugly.
And then there's a non-Canon option. If you haven't tried shooting with a rangefinder, you ought to. It's a different style. They are unobtrusive, so perfect for people photography. No, you don't need to plunk down a mint for a Leica. You can start with Cosina-made Voightlander Bessa R or Bessa R3's. There's a mirror image of FM at http://www.rangefinderforum.com , worth surfing over there. The best place to buy a Bessa from is CameraQuest (http://www.cameraquest.com)
Scubafrogman, have you considered looking at meduim format for you film camera. There are many great bargan out there. I personally have a Pentax 6x7 outfit and thoroughly love taking photos with it. The slides it produces are absolutely stunning.
