Or think about what you're doing when you have to change gear! I taught both my kids to drive and that was the 'hardest' bit for them. I wouldn't let them drive my automatic until they're mastered gear changes with manual transmission. Much moaning, 'but how do you know when to change gear?' Answer, 'you'll know, you just feel it...' They did, it just clicked.
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Are DSLRs too complex for beginners
- Thread starter Geffers
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Or think about what you're doing when you have to change gear! I taught both my kids to drive and that was the 'hardest' bit for them. I wouldn't let them drive my automatic until they're mastered gear changes with manual transmission. Much moaning, 'but how do you know when to change gear?' Answer, 'you'll know, you just feel it...' They did, it just clicked.
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Does the Nikon know how to shoot in "light painting mode", as your Olympus does?
When I have to explain, how to use a DSLR, I start with aperture priority mode (AV, A) and manual ISO. The beginner may then look through the viewfinder, change the aperture up and down, and watch how the time value follows.
I would explain, which apertures to use basically and how this affects the overall sharpness and why you have to take care of the shutter speed.
Next I would explain, how to choose an useful ISO value.
That's pretty all, a beginner has to know for the first days, weeks, month... I'm still shooting 99,9 % that way.
I can set a camera to 30 seconds (Olympus 1 minute) f 8 and iso 100 easily enough.
Setting the Nikon to MF was harder than it should be and why cant you set the thing 2 second timer with out and IR remote you do not have not my camera so no cable release so we had to use 10 second timer.
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90% of my shots are taken in Aperture priority ISO 200 set the Fstop and shoot WB is auto and usually MF too
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TBH I think DSLRs are too simple, too easy to use, and that's why some (novice) users feel like they have to work in manual only.
Raymond Lin
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Modern DSLR and SOOOO easy. Take the Sony A9, the flagship, with all kinds of settings, all kinds of features but what you are really doing is just click as it has
Eye Focus AF.
EVF
In-body Stabilisation
Auto ISO
All you really need is put it in aperture priority mode and use it like a bokeh control dial and then you will get your focus, you get your exposure, you will even see your exposure and with Auto ISO and good DR from it the photo will be noise free and with IBIS you are going to get a reasonably shake free shot.
Leave the Aperture at 1.8 or something all the time and it is just frame the subject, click a button. It’s no different than using a phone.
Eye Focus AF.
EVF
In-body Stabilisation
Auto ISO
All you really need is put it in aperture priority mode and use it like a bokeh control dial and then you will get your focus, you get your exposure, you will even see your exposure and with Auto ISO and good DR from it the photo will be noise free and with IBIS you are going to get a reasonably shake free shot.
Leave the Aperture at 1.8 or something all the time and it is just frame the subject, click a button. It’s no different than using a phone.
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Beginners should learn how to take good pictures and not how to pimp bad ones with Bokeh.
Pretty much, that and there's some snobbery around using auto settings.
I certainly felt as though I had to use manual settings to be a 'proper' photographer when I started taking photos again. These days for walkbout photography it's aperture priority mostly stuck at f8 and auto iso (with a ceiling of 1600).
I wish auto modes where perhaps more like ISO, where you can set limits to the range. I'd be very happy if say you could define a range for aperture, shutter speed and ISO, and indicate which you'd like to give priority too. Then let the camera do the rest.
Camera companies are mostly terrible at software though sadly
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compared to an all manual Slr all Dslr's are very complex.
You often have to hunt for a setting or control to do the most basic things, like setting a shutter speed or aperture or using a remote release or working a self timer.
sometime shutter speeds and apertures are set with different controls depending on the lens fitted or the mode set. and certainly different between different cameras.
This is all before you may know why and on what occasions you might need to do these things.
There are after all only three settings that control exposure, depth of field and stopping power, namely, ISO, Aperture and shutter speed. the only other essential settings are focus and perhaps zoom.
Everything else on a camera is peripheral and perhaps added to make like easy for beginners. but in reality they usually do it in a way that defies logic.
Cameras should have a single button that toggles between making absolutely every thing automatic, and everything manual,
You often have to hunt for a setting or control to do the most basic things, like setting a shutter speed or aperture or using a remote release or working a self timer.
sometime shutter speeds and apertures are set with different controls depending on the lens fitted or the mode set. and certainly different between different cameras.
This is all before you may know why and on what occasions you might need to do these things.
There are after all only three settings that control exposure, depth of field and stopping power, namely, ISO, Aperture and shutter speed. the only other essential settings are focus and perhaps zoom.
Everything else on a camera is peripheral and perhaps added to make like easy for beginners. but in reality they usually do it in a way that defies logic.
Cameras should have a single button that toggles between making absolutely every thing automatic, and everything manual,
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It is pretty easy using the entry level D3300, everything is only a finger and thumb away. In aperture priority, choosing f/ number is done by scrolling dial with thumb. If you want to tweak Ex Comp, this is done by pressing the button with the +/- symbol and scroll dial left or right. ISO can be changed with one finger of left hand pressing FN button, while thumb of right hand twirls the dial. Same sort if idea in Shutter priority. I can now do it intuitively, I do not think about it. The important stuff is only a finger and thumb away.
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Maybe it's just me, but I don't find it hard at all to make adjustments to settings on my camera. The only real time I need to go into the menu (and that's the quick menu on my canon) is if I want to bracket shots. For everyday stuff it pretty easy.
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It is pretty easy using the entry level D3300, everything is only a finger and thumb away. In aperture priority, choosing f/ number is done by scrolling dial with thumb. If you want to tweak Ex Comp, this is done by pressing the button with the +/- symbol and scroll dial left or right. ISO can be changed with one finger of left hand pressing FN button, while thumb of right hand twirls the dial. Same sort if idea in Shutter priority. I can now do it intuitively, I do not think about it. The important stuff is only a finger and thumb away.
And how is he supposed to know that he even needs to do these things.
I have been a photographer all my life, and even then it takes me a while to get to grips with a new DSLR or Mirrorless camera. this was not the case with manual film cameras.
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Important things are only a finger and thumb movement away. I found this out by reading my manual.
Agreed. They were pretty straightforward, all worked more or less the same way and were quite tactile. DSLRs have menus and multiple buttons to control various functions, and their positions/operation varies between manufacturers and models. None of this presents insurmountable problems, but they are more complex. I have no experience with the late film SLRs which had increasing levels of technology and automation, and I don't know if this trend was established then?
My favourite camera remains the F2. Simple, rugged and very intuitive. For me, it was the sweet spot of the Nikon F series but I know others will differ.
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Camera and light meter 3
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6 x 9 is very nice but rather expensive. Last time I used a 6 x 9 camera it cost me a shade over £2.00 per shot.
Surely easier with a modern DSLR than a manual film camera ? Stick it on auto and just shoot ?
My dad was a keen photographer with manual film cameras, and then early digital compacts. Sadly Alzheimer's took photography away from him.
However, went on a day out with him recently and he asked to borrow my DSLR to take some photos of my fiancee and me. Stuck it on auto for him, and despite him rotating the mode dial a few times before pressing the shutter he still took some good photos.
Bought a Canon EOS 300x film SLR the other day, and it's markedly similar to my Canon 100D DSLR
I think that a modern DSLR can be more complex than a film camera, because it can do so many more things, and there are settings to change how and what it does.
But if you ignore all the bells and whistles, then a modern DSLR is, for me, simpler to use - it has AF and Auto Exposure (no fiddling with a separate light meter), and when you've shot 36 exposures you don't have the fiddle of winding on the old film roll and loading a new one
But if you ignore all the bells and whistles, then a modern DSLR is, for me, simpler to use - it has AF and Auto Exposure (no fiddling with a separate light meter), and when you've shot 36 exposures you don't have the fiddle of winding on the old film roll and loading a new one
Fuji Dave
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When we lived in Australia me and my brother found some cameras like this dumped in a yellow skip, one of which is a kodak eastman no 4 and a couple of older ones. Mum still has them too, I think it is 8 altogether she has.
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My currently old film camera is this one: Canon EOS 1V HS (http://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/eos/1v.htm)
with PB-E2 attached. I can't tell it's less complicated than a current DSLR.
with PB-E2 attached. I can't tell it's less complicated than a current DSLR.
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That is a very capable camera I still have my 16-20 version with ross Xpres lens bought new in 1950
It does have... okay admittedly it’s a dial not a button but most cameras have a PASM (PATM in case of Canon?) dial. Surely that’s what you mean?
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At least:
P AV TV M
Basically the same since the end of the 1980's. So for almost 30 years.
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Only affects exposure not the light meter or focus. The ideal manual button would switch off the light meter and autofocus and make the camera like my trusty Pentax SV.
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It can be set to 6 X 6 also
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My great uncle bought this then gave it to my mother who I remember using it when I was young it still works nicely now
Oh ... a "luddite" button you mean!
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[emoji16]Oh ... a "luddite" button you mean!
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When I got my Nikon bridge-camera a few years ago, one of the 1st things I did (after drumming my fingers for hours, waiting to charge the battery) was to take a series of photos on each of the umpteen 'Scene' settings, just to see how good/bad/accurate they were. Afterwards, I took the same or similar photos on manual, but using the auto-settings displayed in the view-finder or back-screen.
For some odd reason, the manual settings looked a lot worse than the auto ones, so the result is I rarely use manual now.
For some odd reason, the manual settings looked a lot worse than the auto ones, so the result is I rarely use manual now.
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It was to a certain point, but it gave me a good grounding in dial-twiddling, along with which scene-settings were useless (i.e. 'Sunset' completely over-saturates the colours)I do hope you've since learned that experiment was total bats*** crazy.
