Nikon Canon- not what you are thinking!

gremlin16

gremlin16

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So, last night, wife and I went to a swanky restaurant for a posh birthday party. About half ten, birthday girl's husband comes over and says, "you're a photographer, if I bring my fancy camera down would you just take some snaps for me, I'm too p****d?"

So before I can put down my petit fours he's gone and returns with a canon 1200D? He says it's been on charge all afternoon.

I try to explain that I'm a Nikon user, but it falls on deaf ears, just snap away he says!

So I have a quick look, as soon as I turn it on the battery light is blinking.

Tv, Av? Auto. It may as well have been written in Mandarin Chinese characters.

Anyhow, took about 4 very dark shots and the battery gave up, saving any further embarrassment.

My point, well, it was just to say that despite the fact that these two brands can take pretty much the same photo, the whole user interface is so far apart it made me feel like a right plumb. Anyone else had a similar experience?
 
gremlin16 said:
My point, well, it was just to say that despite the fact that these two brands can take pretty much the same photo, the whole user interface is so far apart it made me feel like a right plumb. Anyone else had a similar experience?
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Yup. The other way round.
Had a mate who was a beginner but bought into Nikon. I was on Canon. He kept asking me for help, and I was lost in his menu systems. Nikon seemed much harder to work round than Canon.
 
I recall a few years ago a friend were about to head off to a round the world motorbike road trip Ewan McGregor style and they asked me if I could give him tips and teach them how to use their DSLR, we met in a coffee shop for a couple of hours to go through the basics and principles, the light triangle so to speak, composition etc.

Out of the bag it came out a Nikon something….you know what….whilst confusing at first, the moment you figure out which is which in terms of aperture, shutter speed and ISO and how to change them. I was fine. the way the lens mounts the opposite way is alien I have to say, who screws on things that way? nothing else on earth does, no bottle caps, no metal screws, nothing!
 
gremlin16 said:
My point, well, it was just to say that despite the fact that these two brands can take pretty much the same photo, the whole user interface is so far apart it made me feel like a right plumb. Anyone else had a similar experience?
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,

Yes, for complex reasons, although I use Nikon I bought Canons for a class I teach (70Ds and 700Ds) after three years with the Canons, but still with only occasional use, I still find them less intuitive to use than my Nikons and struggle with them in class. I guess it all depends on what you are used to.

But my nearest equivalent, was when asked recently to take a photograph with a mobile phone, and had no idea how to do it. I did take some photographs on my own mobile when I first got it 4-5 years ago, but couldn't remember even where to start.
 
Canon seem to have gone out of their way to be different. Though maybe everyone else has chosen to be different to Canon. :thinking: :LOL: Av, Tv, and the icons for the metering modes are different to seemingly everyone else too. :rolleyes: Works for them of course. :)

When you are telling a group of people about settings on cameras, A is for Aperture, for Canon users it's Av, S is for Shutter, for Canon users it's Tv etc. Obviously it is not that hard to learn but having to say for Canon it is this or that constantly is very irritating. :mad: :LOL: As an owner it's a thing you quickly adjust to, though can slow you down if moving between brands.

Menu systems most people click with instantly or not, but once you have chosen which brand to go with, you need to get to grips with the way the chosen manufacturer lays things out. Most manufacturers have a 'My Menu' or recently used section of the menu which can speed things up my grouping settings you use most often together from throughout the menu. The downside is if you need to find something you don't usually change, it can take a bit of hunting about. :rolleyes:
 
redhed17 said:
Canon seem to have gone out of their way to be different. Though maybe everyone else has chosen to be different to Canon. :thinking: :LOL: Av, Tv, and the icons for the metering modes are different to seemingly everyone else too. :rolleyes: Works for them of course. :)

When you are telling a group of people about settings on cameras, A is for Aperture, for Canon users it's Av, S is for Shutter, for Canon users it's Tv etc. Obviously it is not that hard to learn but having to say for Canon it is this or that constantly is very irritating. :mad: :LOL: As an owner it's a thing you quickly adjust to, though can slow you down if moving between brands.

Menu systems most people click with instantly or not, but once you have chosen which brand to go with, you need to get to grips with the way the chosen manufacturer lays things out. Most manufacturers have a 'My Menu' or recently used section of the menu which can speed things up my grouping settings you use most often together from throughout the menu. The downside is if you need to find something you don't usually change, it can take a bit of hunting about. :rolleyes:
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That's just a label…Nikon

Lens mount is opposite to everything else
Exposure compensation, at least it used to be, you turn left to over expose and right to under expose? WTF? Now, that is just backwards.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Exposure compensation, at least it used to be, you turn left to over expose and right to under expose? WTF? Now, that is just backwards.
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Nikon have given the option to reverse the Exposure Compensation direction for a couple of years to make it more logical to how people would think it should.

No such an easy fix for lenses attaching in a different direction. ;) :LOL:
 
Or some Fujis.
 
Its not just brands. Its the age and range of camera.
I had owned loads of Nikon and canon but I have to use a camera for a while before I get used to it.
FYI Nikon are way harder to get used to lol. Canon are very intuitive and fool proof for the most part
 
GTG said:
Its not just brands. Its the age and range of camera.
I had owned loads of Nikon and canon but I have to use a camera for a while before I get used to it.
FYI Nikon are way harder to get used to lol. Canon are very intuitive and fool proof for the most part
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i must be an idiot then lol, although i was half cut at the time he dropped it in my lap
 
gremlin16 said:
So, last night, wife and I went to a swanky restaurant for a posh birthday party. About half ten, birthday girl's husband comes over and says, "you're a photographer, if I bring my fancy camera down would you just take some snaps for me, I'm too p****d?"

So before I can put down my petit fours he's gone and returns with a canon 1200D? He says it's been on charge all afternoon.

I try to explain that I'm a Nikon user, but it falls on deaf ears, just snap away he says!

So I have a quick look, as soon as I turn it on the battery light is blinking.

Tv, Av? Auto. It may as well have been written in Mandarin Chinese characters.

Anyhow, took about 4 very dark shots and the battery gave up, saving any further embarrassment.

My point, well, it was just to say that despite the fact that these two brands can take pretty much the same photo, the whole user interface is so far apart it made me feel like a right plumb. Anyone else had a similar experience?
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Yes me.
 
•


Often, visitors at the marsh ask me, with great confidence, to
take a picture of their group dropping a camera in my hands.

— But… but… I don't know this camera!!!

— You're a pro… doesn't matter, just press the button!

Ok… I do as they say. And they're all happy with the shot!!!
…really???

Could there be a business model here??? :p:p:p
 
I use a Canon 50D (went to it from a 350D with no problem) and recently I got myself a Lumix FZ200 bridge camera - no problem at all. A few years ago (I already had my 50D at the time) I picked up my brother's Nikon D3X and struggled to the extent of giving up.

Edit - most of my film photography was with a Ricoh KR-10 - no problem going from that to the Canon 500N and on to the 350D.
 
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Kodiak Qc said:
•


Often, visitors at the marsh ask me, with great confidence, to
take a picture of their group dropping a camera in my hands.

— But… but… I don't know this camera!!!

— You're a pro… doesn't matter, just press the button!

Ok… I do as they say. And they're all happy with the shot!!!
…really???

Could there be a business model here??? :p:p:p
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There's an app for that...
Photographers can register on it and users can find nearby photographers to take their photo...
Not sure how the pay model works for it, and doubt it will go very far. Apparently it was the brainchild of an instagram "star" who didn't want to keep asking her boyfriend to take her instagram photos for her.
Can't for the life of me remember what it was called.
 
SsSsSsSsSnake said:
Didn't find either Nikon or canon hard to use,just need a couple of days to learn ,not hard
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I took this thread to be not so much about if they (the "user interfaces") can be learnt over a number of days but about the difference between the manufacturers' interfaces being so great that if you are used to one but not the other, you might have considerable difficulty using the other brand from scratch if a camera is thrust into your hands.
 
GTG said:
FYI Nikon are way harder to get used to lol. Canon are very intuitive and fool proof for the most part
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For you. ;)

I don't find the Exposure Compensation intuitive on Canon DSLRs. On most other brands there is an Exposure Compensation button which you hold down and spin a wheel, not with Canon's as far as I remember.

I've found the user interface of some Fuji XT models confusing if they don't have certain lenses on. And there are some Panasonic mirrorless cameras where the menu's just don't make sense at all. Luckily I don't see that many of either. ;)

Not knocking anyone else's choice of camera, just what I personally find difficult when I pick them up and haven't seen one for awhile, or indeed maybe never seen that particular model before.

It is funny when you are asked to take pictures with another camera, mainly when I am on holiday. They see you have a camera, and assume you can take pics of people no problem. When I am taking pics I'm trying to get the people out of them. :LOL:
 
weybourne said:
I took this thread to be not so much about if they (the "user interfaces") can be learnt over a number of days but about the difference between the manufacturers' interfaces being so great that if you are used to one but not the other, you might have considerable difficulty using the other brand from scratch if a camera is thrust into your hands.
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exactly, it was literally dropped in my lap. I'm sure over a couple of hours or so i would have made a better job of it. I consider myself to be pretty handy with all technical stuff.
 
I was in York a good few years ago with The D300 when a couple of guys came upto me and asked me to take their picture with their Canon. Similar sized body but it felt very weird, after a few seconds I took the shot and hoped for the best. My after thought would have been to fire of a few with mine then email them.
 
foggy4ever said:
I was in York a good few years ago with The D300 when a couple of guys came upto me and asked me to take their picture with their Canon. Similar sized body but it felt very weird, after a few seconds I took the shot and hoped for the best. My after thought would have been to fire of a few with mine then email them.
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I was on top of the clock tower in Prague when a fellow tourist asked me to take a group photo of him and his friends. He handed me a entry level ish Canon, I looked at it, it was all set to Auto so I proceeded to change the settings, I recall I changed no less than 7 things before taking the shot and handed it back to him. He was amazed.

The problem is that I don’t think he knows how to put it back the way he liked it...I felt little guilty about that, but then he got a great shot of his friends!
 
weybourne said:
I took this thread to be not so much about if they (the "user interfaces") can be learnt over a number of days but about the difference between the manufacturers' interfaces being so great that if you are used to one but not the other, you might have considerable difficulty using the other brand from scratch if a camera is thrust into your hands.
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then I agree with you :)
 
I think that most people who ask you to take a photo are more than happy if you manage to compose the shot without chopping off heads and feet and you point the camera away from the sun. ie you know the basics of composition.
 
I get caught out by any camera not set to BBF, I find shutter button focussing to be such a strange un-intuitive thing to do.

But most notable at a Lencarta workshop where Garry left me to shoot my setup with his camera, and I found I had to hold down the shutter button to recompose (with the camera on a massive camera stand) to the amusement of several TP members present. Apparently the 'correct' way of shooting that was to use focus lock; but to this day I've no idea what that means. o_O
 
redhed17 said:
For you. ;)

I don't find the Exposure Compensation intuitive on Canon DSLRs. On most other brands there is an Exposure Compensation button which you hold down and spin a wheel, not with Canon's as far as I remember.

:LOL:
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Button and wheel is exactly what's on the Canon 700D I use at the local museum. I'm more used to a dedicated control knob for EV comp so it took me a moment to figure out.
 
A couple of years back i was at Møns Klint with my kids and was shooting some pics of them and the view using my A6000 and off camera SB26 to balance the exposure between dark forrest and sunlit view og the chalk cliff when some turist game over and asked me to do a similar shot using their A6000. I had to tweaks menu and settings to enable the shot did it and of they went. Probably the last image they got from their vacation:LOL:
 
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It's not just between different brands though. I use Canon and a few years ago someone asked me to take a group shot in somewhat tricky light and handed me their 5Diii. Challenge was they had customised so many buttons (as is their absolute right) that I had to work out it was BBF and still don't know what they had changed the AE lock button to......
 
gremlin16 said:
Anyhow, took about 4 very dark shots and the battery gave up, saving any further embarrassment.
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I hope you managed to get your hands washed :)
 
Snip:
Phil V said:
I get caught out by any camera not set to BBF, I find shutter button focussing to be such a strange un-intuitive thing to do.
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BBF is for people who don't have a 45 point eye-controlled focus system option on their camera! Spot the smug Canon EOS-3 user! :D Joking aside, I really wish Canon would bring that system back for their 5D range.
 
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Having my Canon hanging on my neck, I was quickly chosen to do a shot of a group of people and I got a small Nikon DSLR in my hands, which I didn't even manage to turn it on. But with help of the owner and automatic mode, I succeeded. :D

So maybe one should have at least one camera from every brand, just for being prepared for situations like that. :)
 
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In the 50's just about every camera worked the same way except for perhaps Exakta. but that was not so different you could not work it out.
 
Mr Badger said:
Snip:

BBF is for people who don't have a 45 point eye-controlled focus system option on their camera! Spot the smug Canon EOS-3 user! :D Joking aside, I really wish Canon would bring that system back for their 5D range.
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So do I!

Now that after about 50 years of wearing glasses I no longer need them (except for reading) Eye-Controlled AF works much better. Spot another smug EOS 3 owner! They should include it on the 1D range to;)
 
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