Re: 5 Digital Camera Questions

On Tue, 15 Jun 2004, Etienne Garbaux wrote:

> There are two focus modes, one-shot and continuous [accessed through the
> "MENU" button and 4-way rocker]. Canon sets the default to continuous, so
> if you wave the camera around it constantly adjusts the focus (by the way,
> this is probably a much better bet for moving subjects than manual focus --
> I've not tried, but I bet trying to focus on that marvelous, but small LCD
> monitor would be an exercise in frustration).

I had assumed that for manual focus you did it by mental arithmetic --
estimating the distance, as I've often done analog... Focusing visually is
a harrowing thought.

> On single shot, the camera
> focuses when you press the shutter button halfway, then stays there until
> you let the shutter button up and press it halfway again. I use
> continuous, so I don't think this is a major source of current drain.

I'm getting better generally (I think) much helped by the list & the
website and my mistakes -- but this is the area that is still mysterioso.
In my haste, I find myself omitting the halfway press of the shutter
that's supposed to focus, rather pressing all the way. Sometimes it
doesn't take a picture, but more often it does (I can't tell which is
why). But the pictures seem, as near as I can tell on the computer
monitor, to be in focus -- is that because it focussed on the previous
attempt --or because with digital camera all is more or less in focus?

> I actually find the Canon manuals to be pretty straightforward and easy to
> understand, though they are very densely packed. Must be the engineer in
> me....

Now I'm going to stick my neck out (as humankind evolved from the no-neck
Neanderthal, Darwin tells us that the neck evolved for sticking out
purposes). I'd bet that the G5 and its manual were NOT your first digital
camera, or if so, that you had some ancillary guidance. The manual may
work if you have some context, I find not if not.

See also page 11 of the manual -- it has the headlines switched: putting
the info for recording under "playback" and vice versa, which rather
shakes my confidence in parts with no obvious error, but meaning unclear.

Of course that's a mistake of commission, there are many more mistakes of
omission -- for instance page 21, "using the compact power adapter." The
subtitle advises the CPA for long periods of continuous use; good idea.
Now look at the 3 lines in small print at the bottom of the page -- how
long does it take you to figure out from them which way you charge the
battery, and which way to operate the camera, and when is the power on or
off? Look at the line after the second bullet. Try to think of a way to
say that more obscurely.

Oh well, if you know it, it may not be obvious how unclear it is to
someone who doesn't know it.

Etc. etc. grrrrrrrrr.....

Judy
Received on Tue Jun 15 23:23:49 2004