Click to embiggen - this photo really requires it. Everyone should go to the Grand Canyon at least once, especially if you have kids. Even snarky teenagers are momentarily awed into silence.Taken with a Fuji FinePix S5000, which is either too smart or too dumb to get proper depth of field. With my old Pentax K1000, I'd set the F-Stop as low as it goes, and there would be better focus on the canyon itself.
I'm still looking for a digital camera with easy manual controls - i.e. where you can set shutter speed and F-Stop without using a menu. Oh, and on a camera that doesn't cost $1500.
5 comments:
I've still got my K-1000, but haven't carried it or fed it any film in years. Great, inexpensive cameras.
And, yeah, I can't imagine anyone being blase when facing the Grand Canyon.
I paid about $420 (30% off MSRP) at Circuit City for the Nikon D60 kit I shot these with.
I haven't figured it all out yet, but it does have a manual mode where you can set the f-stop, shutter speed, and ISO "film" speed.
It supposedly has other modes where you can control the shutter speed and it'll pick the f-stop, and vice-versa.
You had some awesome pix of the desert there, Gator.
The question is, does manual mode require you going through three layers of menus?
What I really liked about the K1000 was the focus was one dial on the lens, the F-Stop was another, and the shutter speed was a knob on the top. You could set it all in about 10 seconds.
Now we have fancified menus that let you do it in a minute, after spending an hour reading the manual, and another two hours practicing so you get it right.
Dumb. Yes, I know that knobs are physical, and add to the cost of the camera. Software only has design cost - "cost of goods" is zero. But gogin the software route means that it's unusable.
Mdmnm, same with me. I'd feed some more film into it, but I really like just deleting the pix that didn't come out.
Manual mode seems as simple as 1) setting the program/mode dial on top to "M", 2) turn a selector thumbwheel on the back one way or the other to select the shutter speed, and 3) hold down the aperture button on top while turning the same thumbwheel to set the F-stop.
For me, step 4 was put it back to one of several digital photography for dummies modes... after asking myself "Why the hell are those pictures so dark? It's broad daylight outside. Oh.. manual mode. Photo means light and I didn't let enough in."
Digital is cool. Those mistakes used to be expensive. Now a do-over is free.
The lenses (at least the ones I have) don't have manual aperture rings.
No menus are required for manual mode (nor for any of the other programmed or auto modes, I guess) unless you want to set the image size or type, "film" speed, flash options, capture mode (semi-auto, continuous full-auto "assault" mode, or the I-want-one wireless remote control), etc. And even then, all those are in the shooting menu which is a one button away from the status screen.
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