The thing that I find disturbing about this story is not the lack of awareness demonstrated by, e.g.: > Me - what make is the card? > C - Sandisk. > Me - Hmm. What class? > C - it says 'class 4'. > Me - What size? > C - small. "Small." Right. So a non-techie, non-photographer is clueless. No real surprises there. But why does she wait until she gets home to do anything about it?!?!? The magic of modern technology has given us this thing called a telephone and then further transformed that device to make it mobile and usable even in far off places like Poland. So why not make a quick call and ask for help from someone that knows something?
I used to work for the U.S. Army - hard to describe the job briefly, but somewhat related to soldier training. Back in Cold War days, the training & preparation was geared toward defense against a sophisticated opponent like the U.S.S.R.; as part of that most field exercises involved the use of radio jamming because the Soviets were expected to use jamming as part of any aggressive act. The result was that the vast majority of field radios turned in for repair after an exercise in fact had nothing wrong with them - the users simply did not recognize that they were being jammed and just assumed that their radio was broken. Alma's crony shows a similar failure of in-the-moment diagnostic skill as she assumed that the problem must be something complicated and unresolvable. To be fair to the crony, this sort of thing happens even to experienced competent photographers who, for example, might mistake their K-7 for a K-5, leading them in-the-moment to mis-diagnose limitations on low-ISO settings. stan On Feb 2, 2013, at 6:30 AM, Steve Cottrell wrote: > Morning listers, > > Saturday morning here, sat with the Earl Grey (hot) contemplating the day. > > Thought I'd relay a brief phone conversation I had with one of my wife's > cronies last night after the phone was shoved into my hand, interrupting > my viewing pleasure of 'Sky Cops'. It transpired she just returned form > a trip to Poland and couldn't take any pics with her Pentax camera due > to 'card error' messages on her rear LCD. The conversation went like this.... > > Me - Hi how's things. > Crony - I just got back fro Poland. > Me - Oh really, have a nice time? > C - No. My couldn't take any photographs with my camera, had to take > them all on my phone! > Me - Oh really? Why not? > C - I kept getting an error message on the back saying 'card error'. > Me - I see. Where did you get this card? > C - Argos (think Walmart). > Me - I see. did you try formatting the card? > C - What's that? > Me - Formatting the card. You format it in the camera. (Sky Cops: an > urgent call to a crime scene) > C - no, how do I do that? > Me - it tells you how to do it in the manual, it's usually in the set up > menu somewhere. Which camera is it? > C - that small Pentax that I bought for £10 from Alma - it was the one > Stefan dropped. > Me - really? Don't know anything about it. What kind of camera is it? > C - it's small. > Me - does it have a large screen on the back and when you turn it on the > lens pops out from behind a cover? > C - yes!! > Me - I though you bought a K-30 or something? (Sky Cops - it's night and > he's hiding on a roof) > C - yes I did. Remember I brought it around to show you a while back. > Me - but you also have this small Pentax as well? > C - yes. > Me - Okay. Why didn't you take your K-30 to Poland? > C - It's too heavy. > Me - I see. So you didn't format this card when you first got it? > C - No, I've never done that. The card I got with the K-30 just worked > when I put it in the camera. > Me - I see. And so what happened when you tried to take pics in Poland? > C - it wouldn't let me. There were other photographers around and they > couldn't make it work either. > Me - so there are currently no photos on that particular card? > C - no. > Me - is the 'write protect' switch perhaps set to prevent its use? (Sky > Cops - thermal imaging - they'll get the guy!!!) > C - the what? > Me - the 'write protect' switch. It's a little plastic switch on the > side of the card. Have you got the card? > C - yes. What does it look like? > Me - look for a small bit of plastic, usually a different colour from > the main plastic. It might say 'lock' or something. > C - can't see anything, what does it do? > Me - well, let's say you take some pictures and then remove the card and > let someone else use it, but you don't want them to accidentally erase > the card - you flip this switch. > C - but then they couldn't use it? > Me - I mean if they were going to, say, copy some pictures across to > their computer or something. In case they accidentally erased the card > [thinking...bet this happens all the time with your friends...] > C - oh I see. How clever. I can't see anything. > Me - what make is the card? > C - Sandisk. > Me - Hmm. What class? > C - it says 'class 4'. > Me - What size? > C - small. > Me - I mean in gigabytes - 16? 32? > C - 16. > Me - have you got the camera there? > C - Yes. > Me - put it in the camera. (Sky Cops - closing in with the thermal > imaging - they've got him!) > C - Okay, now what? > Me - press the 'menu' button and scroll through, see if you can find the > 'format' menu. > C - okay.....I found it!!! > Me - click on format and confirm > C - okay. It's saying 'card error'. > Me - Right, now take it out of there and put it in your K-30 and do the > same thing. If it happens in the K-30 then the card is faulty. If it > doesn't happen in the K-30 then the small Pentax camera is faulty. > C - but if I put my other card in the small Pentax camera it takes pictures. > Me - what other card? > C - the one that came with the K-30. > Me - I see (rapidly losing interest now) > C - so what would you do? > Me - I'd need to have the card in my hands and do some tests with my own > camera and computer. > C - Oh I see. > Me - or you could just take the card back to the shop and exchange it. > C - can I bring it around for you to look at. > Me - yes of course (and some bamboo to shove up my fingernails). > C - Okay thanks! > Me - I'll pass you back. > > Sky Cops closing end credits... > > > > -- > > > Cheers, > Cotty > > > ___/\__ Broadcast, Corporate, > || (O) | Web Video Producion > ---------- <www.seeingeye.tv> > _____________________________ > > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
