Camera Defaults
Posted: Wed 22 October, 2008 Filed under: Geeky, Photography, Thoughts, Weirdness 3 Comments »One of the things that has surprised me on my photography course is the number of the people on it who haven’t really played with their cameras at all.
For instance, the great majority still even have the default (and highly irritating) beeps, clicks and whistles that accompany every keypress or option change. During the course, as the tutor describes certain options, you can hear them beeping through the menus, trying to find the things he’s talking about.
Now I have to say that as well as being bloody annoying, I do find that this is quite inconsiderate – both to the tutor, and to the other people in the class. For me, those sodding beeps are really distracting – and I’m sure I’m not the only one on the course who finds them so. But while they’re going through the menus, they’re also not really listening to what the tutor is saying next, which means he’s either got to repeat it, or they’ve missed it completely.
I think sooner or later I’m going to go and silence the cameras in question – but we’ll see.
I suppose that I just find it strange that people seem to be happy to buy a new device/gadget/whatever, and not fiddle with it and try all the options. And yes, I know, I’m a techie geek, and thus fiddling with new things is always going to happen with me, but all the same – wouldn’t you want to try out most of the options on a new camera as soon as you got it? And/or figure out what these arcane settings like Av, Tv, ISO etc. actually do?
If I can’t turn off those beeps, easily, on anything I want to buy, I don’t buy it. Simple.
It sounds to me (from what you say abut th others on it) like this course isn’t quite at your level?
On the point of “How a camera does [x], yeah, it’s a bit under what I’m used to. But them’s the breaks – I didn’t know what the other people would be like when I signed up for the course.
All the same, I’m still finding it interesting, and it’s still fulfilling the planned role, in that I’m getting out and taking more photos, which is all part of the plan.
So *shrug* I don’t mind – it’s just those feckin’ beeps. (And I know that they are easy to turn off – most of the people have Fuji cameras like one of my old ones, so I can find the option in the menus no worries…)
I don’t understand why people don’t find out what a gadget can do, even if ultimately they don’t find a great need/use for the majority. But then I got told I was patronising for saying using Internet Explorer was like playing a Katherine Jenkins cassette just because it came with the cassette player!
I do get told told off by my nephew for leaving the plastic over LCD screens etc on new gadgets. Now I do it to annoy him 🙂