On Fri, 11 Jun 2004, Thom Mitchell wrote:
> Judy, I feel responsible for your travails since it was my recommendation.
Don't feel bad, Thom -- while it's true that at least 3 times a day (6
times *this* day) I have felt the impulse to fling the instrument through
a window -- not that I especially want to break my window, but I feel the
need of a great big crash -- I have not (not yet, anyway) seen a camera I
expect would work better. Or rather, I imagine EVERY camera would WORK
better, because this one is full of traps made more devious by a manual
that withholds more than it gives. But it has the *features* I want -- as
soon as I access them.
> love my new Nikon D-SLR, the D-70, but it's much heavier than you want. My
The weight of the G5 -- which I'd worried about -- is fine, now that I'm
used to it. As for digital SLR, no thanks at any weight: the shape & bulk
are such that I can hardly hold one, let alone pack it. The G5 is a good
compromise between the kind that slip into a pocket and the SLR. And it
could, if it wanted to, if it would stop playing games, do everything.
Meanwhile, I think I have figured out a couple of the bugs. A big design
flaw in the G5 is the number of buttons on top of each other. When you
press the shutter, for instance, unless you have fingers like tooth picks,
you can well press or turn what is (stupidly) called the "main dial" just
below it. (That it's nothing like a "main dial" in size, function, or
position, deserves its own rant, just not now.)
After my aperture setting changed AGAIN, I had an out-of-body-experience
changing it back -- seeing my fingers practically touching the shutter as
I turned this "dial." So I put a piece of electrical tape over the dial
-- and haven't had a problem (or that problem) since. Actually, I have
black tape all over the camera and its strap -- I'm too shy to go out in
public as an advertisement for Canon, with name & model in dayglow white
all over me and it. The camera looks like something that came out of the
bottom of a box in a thrift shop -- which is just fine, especially after
dark. (The tape is easily lifted when I need to use the dial -- which is
just about never now.)
But G5 retaliated with something that still has me baffled. Every shot
exposed three times -- an exposure bracket, which I never asked for, and
it never admitted or gave any other sign of. The manual didn't tell how to
turn it off either. I tried reverse engineering the instructions for
getting it on -- which worked the 4th time, just before I tossed it
through the window.
On the bright side -- the battery may be OK. I realized I do a LOT of
toggling between buttons and screens, searching for the functions I know
are in there somewhere but require a mystical order to reach, amounting
probably to several times the battery use for actual shooting. So when/if
I get past this stage battery may act normal.
> .... Also don't
> over-charge the batteries just like light, too much of a good thing can be
> bad and will actually damage the battery. Silly I know but true.
But the Manual of Blessed Name instructs me to "overcharge." That is, it
says the battery is charged when the blinking orange light turns to steady
orange, but if I want to charge the battery *fully*, leave it 2 more hours
(or so) until the light turns green. It doesn't say I have to hover & pull
the plug the moment the light turns green -- and I haven't... but I
suppose time will tell (or suggest) about that as well.
> good luck
> and I hope that the technology genie waves the magic happiness wand over
> your camera and you as you seek silly saying shirts...Thom
Now you tread on thin ice: Many of those shirts are desperately earnest.
Nevertheless and meanwhile, thanks to Tom as well as Thom for advice & for
listening... very helpful, also therapeutic -- & more shortly. As soon as
I finish throwing a rock at the cat wailing in the yard.
Judy
Received on Sat Jun 12 01:08:45 2004
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