Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/04/03

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Subject: [Leica] Re: DSLR complexity
From: nathan at nathanfoto.com (Nathan Wajsman)
Date: Mon Apr 3 22:22:50 2006
References: <200604031906.k33J5jwo066003@server1.waverley.reid.org> <e0928349f5b.443166d7@optonline.net>

Larry,

I bet my Canon DSLR has even more settings than your Olympus. And you 
know what? I never fiddle with them! I did look in the manual when I 
first bought the camera, to set it up the way I want it: auto white 
balance, RAW, using the center focus point only, one-shot mode, etc. 
Once done, my shooting is no more complicated than with an analogue 
camera. I use aperture priority, which is familiar from the M7 or R8. If 
the scene has difficult light, I may change the mode to manual to set 
the shutter speed and aperture to my liking; and otherwise, it is just 
pointing and shooting. Nothing complicated at all.

Oh yes, the only other setting I use with reasonable frequency is to 
change the ISO speed--but that is a lot easier than rewinding a 
partially exposed roll of film, taking it out, and replacing it with a 
faster (or slower, as appropriate) film. In fact, this ability to change 
speed on a shot-by-shot basis is one of the major advantages of digital 
capture.

So, you can make it simple or you can make it complex. I prefer simple :-)

Nathan

lrzeitlin@optonline.net wrote:
> As a DSLR neophyte I was astonished by the number of decisions I had to 
> make using my new Olympus E-500 once I ventured out of the AUTO mode. 
>
> In more than 50 years of Leica RF camera use all I had to attend to was 
> focus, lens opening, and shutter speed. And these were pretty well 
> determined by the nature of the picture and the light level. The only real 
> degrees of freedom in using the camera were film and lens selection. Once 
> you mastered the basics and learned to thread the film into that narrow 
> loading slot, you could devote the rest of your attention to scene 
> selection and composition - that, and which single malt scotch you were 
> going to order at the pub. As I recall, my Leica M manual had 48 pages, 
> and  six of those were devoted to loading and unloading the camera. The CL 
> manual (which I still have) had 32 pages, mostly pictures.
>
> The Olympus "easy to use" DSLR has five selectable modes of automatic 
> shooting and 15 different scene modes for a full range of pictorial s
> ituations. In addition there are four different "advanced" modes offering 
> various degrees of automation down to full manual control. There are three 
> focus modes, fixed, continuous, and manual. When using automatic focus 
> there is the possibility of selecting several focus sensor modes. Exposure 
> metering can be by spot or scene averaging. The built in flash can be 
> selected as a fill in, full illumination with varying intensity, or turned 
> off altogether. And, of course, picking ISO speed can be left to the 
> camera's massive electronic brain, or set manually. Noise control can be 
> in or out by user choice. The scene can be imaged in vivid color, natural 
> color, muted color, grayscale, or sepia. I can set the form of image 
> capture from RAW through various degrees of JPEG compression, or both at 
> the same time. Naturally I can change the pixilation from super high 
> quality to Web quality in a dozen different steps. And that's only on the 
> picture taking side. There are many different way
> s I can display the image that I can't yet comprehend. The Olympus manual 
> is 215 pages, dense with print too small for my aging eyes to read. All in 
> all, the camera offers over 1000 possibilities for picture taking.
>
> Now I realize that I performed many of these functions unconsciously with 
> my film cameras but I was never aware of making so many of the decisions 
> up front. Except for scene selection and composition very little of my 
> prior experience transfers to the DSLR. My God, the thing has 15 buttons 
> on the back and menus three levels deep displayed on the LCD.
>
> I suppose that in time it will all be clear to me, but with the loss of 
> 300,000 brain cells a day, I hope that it will happen before I'm reduced 
> to a gibbering idiot. If the long awaited digital Leica ever comes out 
> with no more controls than an M3, I'll buy it in a minute.
>
> Failing that, I might buy an ergonomics textbook for the engineers at 
> Olympus.
>
> Larry Z
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
>
>   

-- 
Nathan Wajsman
Almere, The Netherlands

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Replies: Reply from michiel.fokkema at wanadoo.nl (Michiel Fokkema) ([Leica] Re: DSLR complexity)
In reply to: Message from lrzeitlin at optonline.net (lrzeitlin@optonline.net) ([Leica] Re: DSLR complexity)