> > This topic comes up from time to time on the list, and there always > seems to be polarization between people who say "you can learn the > fundamentals on a wunderplastic camera" and those who say that you > probably won't. > I fall into the latter category because that is what I see happening.
But that's not the dichotomy. I'm sure most here would agree with you that many (possibly even most) purchasers of SLRs use them as larger point-and-shoot cameras, quite often never even removing the 28-80 zoom that comes in the kit. So the only benefit they get is, perhaps, a slightly better lens (and even that is debatable). The question is whether these users would, if given a manual camera, ever bother to learn how to use it. I believe most of them would just not use the camera because it was perceived as too complicated (three whole things to screw up). Many of those who did use it would just set it on 1/30 at f5.6, because that seems to work most of the time. THere are three sorts of people who use camera. One group who regard the image as art, one group who see a challenge in getting the best possible capture of a particular scene or moment. Both of these groups are represented here. But in the real world the largest group by far are those for whom neither the technical skills nor the artistic vision are important - what they want is a memento. (Some folks here refer to these as 'snapshooters'). Lamenting that a snapshooter has never learned the photographic skills is like lamenting that your pig has never learned to sing.
