Alan said: > I wouldn't want to be without spot metering, AEL, aperture priority, > shutter priority, honeycomb metering, DX coding (which as well as > setting ISO gives the camera information for flash photography), > wireless flash, predictive focussing, exposure compensation, flash > compensation.
and somebody asked if he really used all this stuff. I have most of the fancy dancies on my state-of-the-art top-of-the-line cameras turned off--manual exposure mode, centerweighted metering. I never used DX coding or any of the auto exposure modes (thus no Auto Exposure Lock). In many ways I'm treating $2000 cameras as if they were Spotmatics. On the other hand, I would miss very much lens-mounted AF lock, spot metering, flash exposure compensation, 3-stop over/under exposure readings, 1/250th flash sync, and second-curtain flash sync. This puts me into the AF era for feature needs, even if I didn't use AF. > I agree everyone should learn the basics if they are > serious about photography but you don't need a relic to learn it on. It > is just as important to learn about DOF control, tricky lighting > situations, etc. with a modern camera as with an older model. Perhaps not. Modern cameras with multiple-area-meters, exposure-databases, automatic fill flash, etc might well be able to handle most exposure situations better than most amateurs--that is presumably why these features get built in in the first place. I know an increasing number of fast-working pros who let the camera do their focus, exposure, etc because it is good enough to depend on and it "leaves them free to concentrate on composition and timing". > If you don't know the basics you won't be able to use all these new > tools and > you are not going to learn how to use them on a camera that doesn't have > them. I don't find my 1920 Kodak No. 2 Autograph any harder or easier to > use than my modern slr just slower. Modern cameras may simplify our > control over the image but they only make decisions based on our input. They make decisions without our input, too. This could be seen as a good thing if you don't know enough to tell it anything it doesn't know. The problem with most automation is that is CANNOT know what you are seeing or thinking, and it is very hard for you to know what IT is seeing and "thinking". I still use center-weighted metering because I know how the camera comes up with the number it shows me and can interpret it based on what I know to be in the picture. Modern AF is usually dead-on accurate, but the camera really has no way of knowing if you are actually pointing the AF sensor at the thing you intend it to focus on. I've got the various camera-chooses-AF-sensor things turned off, too, because I have no idea how it decides which one to use and I KNOW where I want the point of focus. Modern cameras might also be seen to complexify our control over the image. Finer gradations of shutter speeds and apertures, and the addition of finely-controlled flash give us more control capability. Scene modes and backlight buttons and metering modes tend to simply confuse amateurs with an excess of control options. My mother has a Nikon coolpix 885 digital P&S. She really has no clue how to use 95% of its abilities, and the manual is immense. DJE
