Why so complicated?

[strop]

Or at least it seems that way at first. The manual, that is.

I was really getting interested in photography over 30 years ago. I had done a little darkroom work in college and enjoyed it. Beck then I had a Nikon FM and FE. I was completely self taught but was starting to take better pictures, and then career and family started occupying my time. It took so long for me to take a picture because I had to think everything thru, (not yet second nature) and missed too many shots or messed up too many, that I ended up using the FE exclusively just for family shots. Once digital point and shoot came out, they really started to collect dust, and I sold them many years ago when I could still get something for film cameras. I did not have any Nikon lenses, since I never felt I was good enough to justify the cost. At least 8 or 9 years ago I got a Pentax K200. I started to read the manual and was so overwhelmed by the terminology and the gazillion settings, that it became a point and shoot and I never took it off auto mode.

I signed up for an evening beginning photo class at the local college to see if I could learn to make some sense of all this. It still seems like everything is more complicated than it should be. I mean, there are 3 basic things to adjust, right? aperture, shutter speed and exposure (ISO). OK maybe 4-white balance. That stuff came back pretty fast, but there are so many controls on this camera it makes my head swim, trying to remember everything.

At least I've taken some pictures now off AUTO! So far I'm using an aperture priority setting (seems like the FE was like this IIRC) but I'll eventually get around to complete manual mode. I'm hoping the class will force me to take pictures more often just to remember how to use this thing!

 

[djh]

Mark,

welcome to the Darkroom. You are quite correct that the controls on a modern camera can be completely overwhelming and also correct in that the 3 main controls (aperture, shutter speed and ISO) are what you need to understand in order to get rolling and have some more fun with your camera again. Don't sweat the idea of shooting in M mode- many, many photographers switch between A-Priority and S-Priority depending on what sort of effect they are seeking.

Most importantly..... have fun and please share some pics when you have the chance!

 

[AllenG]

Let the composition decide the aperture, trust your light meter, and use the ISO to keep the shutter speed in a reasonable range.
Exposures under 1/30th of a second the camera should be braced in some fashion.
Shoot RAW and adjust your white balance/monotone conversion in post.

That's the foundation.

 

[jamesnj]

The people who write/translate the manuals simply do a poor job writing for most people to understand. There are some excellent books/ebooks out there for many cameras that explaing things better than the manuals, unfortunately I don't know of any personally for Pentax models. There are also good video resources online. Take a look at dtowntv.com for a video show that has some useful tips on using cameras. Lots of others out there, but that's a good one that I know which is free.

James

 

[strop]

Thanks James. I'll take a look at that. Years ago I had a nice book that explained things in English (as opposed to tech talk) that was very good but it dissappeared over the years.

 

[Blooze]

Let the composition decide the aperture, trust your light meter, and use the ISO to keep the shutter speed in a reasonable range.
Exposures under 1/30th of a second the camera should be braced in some fashion.
Shoot RAW and adjust your white balance/monotone conversion in post.

That's the foundation.

+1. I almost always shoot in aperture or shutter priority mode. When I'm using it for any type of point and shoot snapshot stuff I leave it in Program mode where it calculates aperture/shutter so it gives some quick flexibility.

I'm finding with my Nikon D200 that I'm actually having to adjust the ISO for the first time. My little D40 I never took off it's baseline ISO200 except on a rare occasion.

I found the easiest way to "visualize" and get used to the controls was to set up an object to photograph then start adjusting one parameter at a time (eg. aperture), taking shots as I ran through all the available settings and seeing how those adjustments affected the photo.

 

[strop]

+1. I almost always shoot in aperture or shutter priority mode. When I'm using it for any type of point and shoot snapshot stuff I leave it in Program mode where it calculates aperture/shutter so it gives some quick flexibility.

I'm finding with my Nikon D200 that I'm actually having to adjust the ISO for the first time. My little D40 I never took off it's baseline ISO200 except on a rare occasion.

One of the challenges in the class I'm taken is the multitude of cameras, and therefore terminology. I'm assuming "Program mode" is the same as my AUTO, essentially point and shoot, with the basic default settings.

 

[Blooze]

One of the challenges in the class I'm taken is the multitude of cameras, and therefore terminology. I'm assuming "Program mode" is the same as my AUTO, essentially point and shoot, with the basic default settings.

On my D40 there is an Auto setting that doesn't let you adjust anything and the Program setting which basically is an auto exposure mode where it gives you combinations of aperture/shutter speeds that give the same equivalent as in Auto mode. This allows you to select a shutter speed or aperture and still get a "proper exposure. So in a sense it's like an adjustable auto setting. Very convenient when I'm in a hurry but want a blurred background or something.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d40/users-guide/controls.htm

 

[strop]

I'll have to check, but I'm not sure I have anything like that specifically, though I suspect that that they are done a little differently, or at least called something else. I've done so much reading in that manual the last 5 days, it's all starting to run together.

 

[jamesnj]

Most cameras have both Program mode, and auto. So, I just checked dpreview.com for their review of the K200d, and it does have the mode. If you turn the mode dial to the 'P' position, that's what you get.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/pentaxk200d/5

The Sv mode that Pentax includes also looks like an interesting mode that other companies don't have.

Blooze,

I'm also using a D200, and I've found that Thom Hogan's site (http://bythom.com) has better information that Ken Rockwell (although Ken can be funny and interesting at times). His guides are excellent (bought the D60 one, but skipped the D200). Also, form much shooting on Nikon, auto ISO with sane settings (max 800 for a D200 is pretty good) can be a big help, and works pretty well.

James

 

[strop]

Guess I haven't got that far in the book. Thanks.

 

[Blooze]

Blooze,

I'm also using a D200, and I've found that Thom Hogan's site (http://bythom.com) has better information that Ken Rockwell (although Ken can be funny and interesting at times). His guides are excellent (bought the D60 one, but skipped the D200). Also, form much shooting on Nikon, auto ISO with sane settings (max 800 for a D200 is pretty good) can be a big help, and works pretty well.

James

I used Ken's settings on my D40 and they have worked very well for me over the last 5 years, but his D200 setting ..meh. I've looked through Thom's site and have contemplated getting his guide. I also started as a baseline with the settings from Nikonians using 4 different banks and that has proved decent, although there are a few settings I preferred to have different. I've not tried auto ISO yet in the D200, but prefer not to use it on the D40. I've read that ISO is fairly limited for the D200 if you want decent IQ. I've not had the camera long enough to make any prints, so I'll have to try it out. Thanks!!