On 6/20/2019 3:56 AM, Mike Bloor wrote:
Bill,
Sometimes to use a machine, or something like software, really well you have to get inside the head of the person who
created it. You need to understand how they were trying to make things work, not be given a third-hand version.
I agree wholeheartedly! At work, and at home, people would come to me to ask why their computer wasn't "working" or why
they couldn't get the program to do _______. Far more often than not, I'd try things, for seconds or minutes, and solve
the problem.
"How did you know to do that?" Well, I didn't. I'd think "How would I have the program do this?", and try those ideas,
then, if necessary, "If I were someone who thinks differently than I do, but with some logic, "How would I have the
program do this?". By that time I'd often learned a bit about how the programmer's mind worked.
There are exceptions. The Garmin software for saving and downloading tracks has a logic, I assume it's logical, that
escapes me. I just look at as a mass storage device, and down download the GPX file. Hugin, the panorama stitcher, takes
that to another level. I have to relearn it, sort of, over and over.
Bizarre instruction books – “pressing button ‘floop’ activates floop mode” are not enough, especially if you have
little idea what floop is and what it can do for you. The book that came with my OM-D is a prime example.
Things change dramatically when you exceed the speed of sound. Nothing can go
faster than light.
1. Cameras have become complex enough that there is, in fact, no menu design that will make sense throughout. Panny is
to be applauded for rewriting their menus in a less impossible way in their latest bodies.
2. Cameras are complex enough that it's not possible, at least not before the model has been superseded by one with more
functions, to write a comprehensive manual.
(3. I wish they were user programmable, so I could add even more arcane things
to them.)
Sooooo
1. Admit that you're never going to remember all the details of operation. Ignore the ones that aren't important to you.
For example, I know nothing about scene modes, setting parameters for contrast, sharpness, etc. for JPEGs, in-camera
editing or Raw processing, and so on.
Get the manual as a PDF - this is NOT worse than a printed manual - it's a lot better. You are never going to remember
everything in the manual. You aren't going to find what you need fast from the printed index. Put the manual on your
phone and/or tablet. Use the Acrobat/PDF reader search function to find what you want.
Learn the quick menu function on your camera and how to use it. Customize it, if possible. Put often used functions on
Fn keys. Use the Custom settings to quickly make large changes in how it operates. Done well, at least on Olys and
Pannys, it's possible to stay entirely out of the menus almost all the time actually using the them.
2. They are never going to make the "simple" to use, with simple menus version that you want.The one you want is only
one of at least tens of different ideas of the ideal simple to use camera.
3. I'll continue to be frustrated. But, I'll keep searching for ways to do what
I want.
Here's an example that hits at least most of the points above. The Panny GX9
has three Custom Settings. I want to have four.
a. My regular default.
b. Focus Bracketing with one set of Focus Bracketing settings.
c. Focus Bracketing with a different set of Focus Bracketing settings.
d. Default, except for a central group of focus points and medium Burst Mode.
So, I futz around, trying stuff, thinking how I would write the firmware logic.
Guess what? What I want is possible!
Logically, each Custom Setting has four things to remember for Focus Bracketing
1 - on/off
2 - Type of bracketing, exposure, aperture or focus
For Focus Bracketing:
3 - step depth
4 - number of steps
5 - order of steps, 2 options
So, what does it do to 2-5, when 1 is turned OFF? It does what I would probably have done, were I writing the code, it
does nothing. The simplest assumption is that the most likely thing the user will want, when turned back on, is what was
last set.
Thus, if I set the Bracket settings ON, and to one of the Focus Bracketing sets I want, say 'b', above, and save all
current settings as C1, I've filled in 2-5. I now set Bracketing OFF, and again save C1. Now, when in C1, when I turn
Bracketing on, I get it with settings 'b'. With the Fn button I've set to Bracket ON/OFF, I can switch between 'a' and 'b'.
I now save 'c' as C2 and 'd' as C3.
Voila, four sets of camera settings from three Custom Settings.
And that, Bill is why fools like MikeB and I want to understand how it all
works underneath. :-)
Under Cover Moose
--
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
--
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