Camera functions ( Poll ) how many do you use ?
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You use every option in every menu
What are these menus you speak of?
Shutter speed, aperture, focus.....use them all every shot I take
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What are these menus you speak of?
Shutter speed, aperture, focus.....use them all every shot I take
I was referring to Digital hence the 650D I used as my example
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100% here too.
Exactly the same options I have!
I know. But you should have been more specific.
Steve.
Exactly the same options I have!
I know. But you should have been more specific.
Steve.
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Phil V
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Kinda this.
Although the camera has those idiot modes I never go near, and styles etc. So I reckon when I set my camera up I went through about 50% of the options, and in use it's probably less than 10%.
But I love the answers from the film guys
ukaskew
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20% ish, on an average day to day basis. Setting a. Camera up for motorsport probably pushes it towards 30-40%, but then that's usually just saved in a custom mode and left like it.
Having owned a Micro 4/3 camera before I'd be surprised if any owners of those are using more than 10% frequently, there must be 100+ settings (many with sub-settings) on those things.
Having owned a Micro 4/3 camera before I'd be surprised if any owners of those are using more than 10% frequently, there must be 100+ settings (many with sub-settings) on those things.
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Probably about 20% and most of them when first setting the camera up. Although on a recent exercise, I was often using 100% - wind on, select flash AND the shutter release, although for some shots I was only using 66.666666666667% (no flash.)
Terrywoodenpic
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I set up all the basic bottom tier options,
and then use only the PSAM and ISO options for exposure.
Apart from that I use or change exposure compensation, exposure lock, focus lock.
I sometime use the buttons that control screen brightness for full sun, and to put the camera directly into silent stealth mode.
other buttons that I sometimes use control white balance, macro, and shutter delay.
I will sometimes check the Pre-exposure histogram and adjust exposure compensation before shooting.
I so not use any of the preset modes.
I have no I dea what you include in "functions" or any Idea of their percentages.
and then use only the PSAM and ISO options for exposure.
Apart from that I use or change exposure compensation, exposure lock, focus lock.
I sometime use the buttons that control screen brightness for full sun, and to put the camera directly into silent stealth mode.
other buttons that I sometimes use control white balance, macro, and shutter delay.
I will sometimes check the Pre-exposure histogram and adjust exposure compensation before shooting.
I so not use any of the preset modes.
I have no I dea what you include in "functions" or any Idea of their percentages.
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seriousrikk
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I don't know how many features my camera has, but it is rather a lot.
I use a fair few of them, and I can safely say I use 100% of the ones I need.
I use a fair few of them, and I can safely say I use 100% of the ones I need.
Teflon-Mike
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I just picked up my VERY basic 5Mpix lenless PnS.
Lets go through them; top of the list.
Image Size 2560x1920; 2048x1536; 1280x960; 640x480. Four options.
Quality Fine; Normal; Ecconomy; three options.
SceneSports; Night; Portrait; Landscape; Backlight; five more
EV eight more possible settings
White Balence Another six.
ISO Three.
Colour Three more.
Saturation Another three.
Sharpness Three again
QuickViewOn/Off
Date Imprint.On/Off
That's the menu options. Buttons and controls?
FlashOff, auto; red-eye; force
Digital ZoomNone; 2x; 4x
Self Timeroff; 5s; 10s
MacroOn/Off
So, fifteen 'settings' of which I use, err.. well, menu settings might have been set once upon a time! 'Used'? I might have force set ISO once or twice.. Taking controls? Flash gets used a fair bit; Digital zoom rarely; self timer frequently; macro often.
3 out of 15... 1/5 5% at best.. at least thats % of possible VARIABLES I might use.
Of the Cameras possible permutations of 'settings', well, there are 11 menu settings; four options on the first, 'Picture Size', three on the second, 'Image Quality' Leaving them on 'Best' settings then, discounts 1/4 x 1/3 of possible 'perms', straight away... only 8% of camera's 'potential' might be used... OR IS IT?
Simple camera to evaluate question. What IS the question?
How many user controls do I use?
How many potential perms of settings get set?
How much camera 'capability' gets utilised?
Or Do I really get the best from my camera?
Choosing 'best' settings, surely I'm getting 'best' it can deliver; I'm not wasting capability? And what of the other settings? ISO or White Balence? Hmm.. left on Auto, I might not actually CHANGE the settings.. but doesn't mean the camera doesn't.. so again, might actually be getting MORE of the cameras potential capability letting IT make the decissions for me!
Does this make me a lazy or ignorant photographer then; dont know how it works so, hope the camera does; cant be a very good then can I?
Err.. no, you cant even inferr that I'm afraid. All you can infer is I trust my camera. Could be because I know no-better, or could be that I DO know a LOT better, and know that the camera will guess a decent exposure pretty well most of the time, and I have no need to over ride its suggested settings; they are good enough, and I have no reason to dissagree with them!
And on 5Mpix lensless PnS; with one stop range of ISO settings?!?! Even if I DO want to argue with it; number of variables and range I can vary them over? Ent worth the bother, TBH! And not what I bought cheap PnS for anyway!
Interesting one for you. Olympus OM10, my first SLR, almost quarter of a century ago. Launched about a decade before that; it was launched as a 'Fully Automatic' SLR camera. Had one metering mode; Center Weighted Average, coupled to I think they called it a 'ferritic' shutter or something! Electronically controlled via magnets anyway. Aperture Priority; you set aperture on the lens; camera metered and set suitable shutter speed. There was an ASA film speed selector dial; but no EV compensation, no manual mode, no alternative metering schemes. It was, almost a point and press SLR... AND actually quite a bludy good one, if you knew how it worked and how to get the best out of it.
However; Pre-Launch Marketing people, based on market surveys convinced the design team that lack of 'manual' settings would detur buyers. Existing SLR users would expect a manual settings option, so and want to use that when they didn't trust the meter; while new users would expect there to be a manual mode, so that as they learned the craft they could start effecting 'greater control'.
As a result; the engineers drilled a hole in the front of the body next to the pentaprism, and fitted an ear-phone socket, that interupted the signal from the TTL meter. Then they offered an 'accessory' manual adaptor. A wheel with the shutter speeds printed round the edge; that put a different resistance between the pins of the ear-phone plug, so when plugged in; gave a 'fake' meter reading to the shutter mechanism, to force selected shutter speed.
And every 'enthusiast' who followed the 'lore' that you should use 'manual' modes, denied themselves the wonderful capability of the OM10 to set 1/3 stop intermediate shutter speeds, as WELL as it's quite remarkeable dynamic 'off the film' metering; whereby; the shutter speed shown in the view-finder was only a 'presumed' setting; The meter could carry on metering by reflected light off the film after the shutter was opened, and could 'adjust' shutter speed if light level changed during exposure, by firing the closing curtain sooner or later than the original pre-shutter-release meter reading.
WHICH I explain, for no other reason, than it is actually a neat example of where the 'Manual' vs 'Auto' argument started, and started to fall down.
If you are a slave to your meter; makes bog all odds what kind of meter it is, or how many camera settings it is coupled to.
I have a fully-manual, meterless Zenith; and a Leningrad V selenium cell meter. Taking EV's off that meter and dialing them in manually on the camera makes me no smarter than some-one picking up my Nikon Digital; putting it on green 'Auto' icon, and letting the cameras micro-processor read the TTL meter and select the self same aperture and shutter speeds I would set on the Zenith by hand. Just wouldn't take as long or as much 'faff'.
If you are NOT slave to your meter... well; you assess the scene for yourself and take the meters suggested settings for guidance only, then decide whether or not to accept them or if you think something different would work better for the scene you see.
TRICK is to know When and Where it IS apropriate to disagree and change 'suggested' settings.... Skill, knowing what and how much to change anything by.
And if you have the 'skill'; you can make auto modes work FOR you; where some-one believing that they MUST use manual, because other wise they aren't taking control, is as likely to make poorer settings than the camera would, simply because they feel they HAVE to disagree with the camera!
Where I use that little PnS; I rarely have cause to disagree with the suggested settings, because I dont use it in situations I'm likely to disagree with them! Because for the most part I know that I cant change very much anyway; but it is convenient and easy to use; and less faff than dragging out one of the big-guns. So no need to mess with menu's.
Brings suggestion of dedicated cameras; and subject matter, and photographic versatility or specialisation.
To a twitcher; the Macro mode is probably rather redundant on most cameras; their interest is in small subjects, usually at far distances. To a model photographer; they may only ever use macro mode; they are only ever looking at small subjects at close range.
Such specialists, quite possibly have little need to change many user settings; thier shooting situations are all very close; they may not even need to adjust the ISO setting! Generalist? Well, likely to switch user pre-sets, for each shoot.
Poll is collecting pretty meaningless data; from which you cant make any real inferences; even if every one interpreted the question the same way, and evaluated their % answer by the same scoring system..
So the question that answers the question, rather rudely, is What do you REALLY want to know?!?!
Lets go through them; top of the list.
Image Size 2560x1920; 2048x1536; 1280x960; 640x480. Four options.
Quality Fine; Normal; Ecconomy; three options.
SceneSports; Night; Portrait; Landscape; Backlight; five more
EV eight more possible settings
White Balence Another six.
ISO Three.
Colour Three more.
Saturation Another three.
Sharpness Three again
QuickViewOn/Off
Date Imprint.On/Off
That's the menu options. Buttons and controls?
FlashOff, auto; red-eye; force
Digital ZoomNone; 2x; 4x
Self Timeroff; 5s; 10s
MacroOn/Off
So, fifteen 'settings' of which I use, err.. well, menu settings might have been set once upon a time! 'Used'? I might have force set ISO once or twice.. Taking controls? Flash gets used a fair bit; Digital zoom rarely; self timer frequently; macro often.
3 out of 15... 1/5 5% at best.. at least thats % of possible VARIABLES I might use.
Of the Cameras possible permutations of 'settings', well, there are 11 menu settings; four options on the first, 'Picture Size', three on the second, 'Image Quality' Leaving them on 'Best' settings then, discounts 1/4 x 1/3 of possible 'perms', straight away... only 8% of camera's 'potential' might be used... OR IS IT?
Simple camera to evaluate question. What IS the question?
How many user controls do I use?
How many potential perms of settings get set?
How much camera 'capability' gets utilised?
Or Do I really get the best from my camera?
Choosing 'best' settings, surely I'm getting 'best' it can deliver; I'm not wasting capability? And what of the other settings? ISO or White Balence? Hmm.. left on Auto, I might not actually CHANGE the settings.. but doesn't mean the camera doesn't.. so again, might actually be getting MORE of the cameras potential capability letting IT make the decissions for me!
Does this make me a lazy or ignorant photographer then; dont know how it works so, hope the camera does; cant be a very good then can I?
Err.. no, you cant even inferr that I'm afraid. All you can infer is I trust my camera. Could be because I know no-better, or could be that I DO know a LOT better, and know that the camera will guess a decent exposure pretty well most of the time, and I have no need to over ride its suggested settings; they are good enough, and I have no reason to dissagree with them!
And on 5Mpix lensless PnS; with one stop range of ISO settings?!?! Even if I DO want to argue with it; number of variables and range I can vary them over? Ent worth the bother, TBH! And not what I bought cheap PnS for anyway!
Interesting one for you. Olympus OM10, my first SLR, almost quarter of a century ago. Launched about a decade before that; it was launched as a 'Fully Automatic' SLR camera. Had one metering mode; Center Weighted Average, coupled to I think they called it a 'ferritic' shutter or something! Electronically controlled via magnets anyway. Aperture Priority; you set aperture on the lens; camera metered and set suitable shutter speed. There was an ASA film speed selector dial; but no EV compensation, no manual mode, no alternative metering schemes. It was, almost a point and press SLR... AND actually quite a bludy good one, if you knew how it worked and how to get the best out of it.
However; Pre-Launch Marketing people, based on market surveys convinced the design team that lack of 'manual' settings would detur buyers. Existing SLR users would expect a manual settings option, so and want to use that when they didn't trust the meter; while new users would expect there to be a manual mode, so that as they learned the craft they could start effecting 'greater control'.
As a result; the engineers drilled a hole in the front of the body next to the pentaprism, and fitted an ear-phone socket, that interupted the signal from the TTL meter. Then they offered an 'accessory' manual adaptor. A wheel with the shutter speeds printed round the edge; that put a different resistance between the pins of the ear-phone plug, so when plugged in; gave a 'fake' meter reading to the shutter mechanism, to force selected shutter speed.
And every 'enthusiast' who followed the 'lore' that you should use 'manual' modes, denied themselves the wonderful capability of the OM10 to set 1/3 stop intermediate shutter speeds, as WELL as it's quite remarkeable dynamic 'off the film' metering; whereby; the shutter speed shown in the view-finder was only a 'presumed' setting; The meter could carry on metering by reflected light off the film after the shutter was opened, and could 'adjust' shutter speed if light level changed during exposure, by firing the closing curtain sooner or later than the original pre-shutter-release meter reading.
WHICH I explain, for no other reason, than it is actually a neat example of where the 'Manual' vs 'Auto' argument started, and started to fall down.
If you are a slave to your meter; makes bog all odds what kind of meter it is, or how many camera settings it is coupled to.
I have a fully-manual, meterless Zenith; and a Leningrad V selenium cell meter. Taking EV's off that meter and dialing them in manually on the camera makes me no smarter than some-one picking up my Nikon Digital; putting it on green 'Auto' icon, and letting the cameras micro-processor read the TTL meter and select the self same aperture and shutter speeds I would set on the Zenith by hand. Just wouldn't take as long or as much 'faff'.
If you are NOT slave to your meter... well; you assess the scene for yourself and take the meters suggested settings for guidance only, then decide whether or not to accept them or if you think something different would work better for the scene you see.
TRICK is to know When and Where it IS apropriate to disagree and change 'suggested' settings.... Skill, knowing what and how much to change anything by.
And if you have the 'skill'; you can make auto modes work FOR you; where some-one believing that they MUST use manual, because other wise they aren't taking control, is as likely to make poorer settings than the camera would, simply because they feel they HAVE to disagree with the camera!
Where I use that little PnS; I rarely have cause to disagree with the suggested settings, because I dont use it in situations I'm likely to disagree with them! Because for the most part I know that I cant change very much anyway; but it is convenient and easy to use; and less faff than dragging out one of the big-guns. So no need to mess with menu's.
Brings suggestion of dedicated cameras; and subject matter, and photographic versatility or specialisation.
To a twitcher; the Macro mode is probably rather redundant on most cameras; their interest is in small subjects, usually at far distances. To a model photographer; they may only ever use macro mode; they are only ever looking at small subjects at close range.
Such specialists, quite possibly have little need to change many user settings; thier shooting situations are all very close; they may not even need to adjust the ISO setting! Generalist? Well, likely to switch user pre-sets, for each shoot.
Poll is collecting pretty meaningless data; from which you cant make any real inferences; even if every one interpreted the question the same way, and evaluated their % answer by the same scoring system..
So the question that answers the question, rather rudely, is What do you REALLY want to know?!?!
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Mike
All I was curious about was the amount of available adjustment within a digital camera menus do people use
Same question could be asked re a mobile phone
Then along come the FILM people ? ( I use film as well )
And comments like " Does it make me a worse photographer "
The old answer a question with a question scenario
Thanks to those who have taken part and used the poll
Will think long before I post something like this again
All I was curious about was the amount of available adjustment within a digital camera menus do people use
Same question could be asked re a mobile phone
Then along come the FILM people ? ( I use film as well )
And comments like " Does it make me a worse photographer "
The old answer a question with a question scenario
Thanks to those who have taken part and used the poll
Will think long before I post something like this again
Last edited:
Teflon-Mike
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So, what you actually wanted to know was
Of the dozens of user definable settings on modern digital camera, and resultant thousands of possible permutations; What common Menu Settings do people find 'most useful'?
Didn't really need a poll to answer that; or lots of unquantifiable, uninterpretable poll %Data, that probably doesn't!
Answer though is probably given best by the manufacturers, who from their market research shift the more popular/more useful user settings from Menu selection to either dial or function button operation for 'ease of use'; or that are commonly assigned to programable Fn Buttons by users; ISO, White Balance; Exposure Comp; Situation AE modes; AF program; that kind of thing.
Of the dozens of user definable settings on modern digital camera, and resultant thousands of possible permutations; What common Menu Settings do people find 'most useful'?
Didn't really need a poll to answer that; or lots of unquantifiable, uninterpretable poll %Data, that probably doesn't!
Answer though is probably given best by the manufacturers, who from their market research shift the more popular/more useful user settings from Menu selection to either dial or function button operation for 'ease of use'; or that are commonly assigned to programable Fn Buttons by users; ISO, White Balance; Exposure Comp; Situation AE modes; AF program; that kind of thing.