>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (George Treible) >My assessment on the N70 is that if the buyer is relatively new and >inexperienced they'll be really impressed with all of the whiz bang >high-tech stuff. But if you've been in to more serious photography for some >time, and expect that you the photographer need to take control from >time-to-time, this camera is going to really bug you. And again I assert, as someone who deals with the human factors of technology interfacing all the time, that you're the one that's failing, not the camera. If you hand an N70 and 8008 to complete beginners, train them in how to set every feature of the camera, and then test them on setting different configurations--as in, "Now set each camera to shutter-priority at 1/250th, spot metering, rear curtain synch and self-timer mode"--most of the new shooters will set the N70 correctly more often than the 8008. And truthfully, if you did the same tests with experienced shooters who learned photography with traditional-layout camera bodies, they would in the long run get it right more often with an N70, because there are just fewer ways to screw up once you have learned the interface. Users, especially those canalized to technology in the pre-digital days, get really frustrated when they trip over the switchology of a digital system. That's understandable. What is not is insisting that a modular tree switchology design is "wrong" just because you can't hack it. It would be profoundly wasteful to stick with antiquated design parameters just to satisfy a small audience who demands dials and switches. The same people who rant about the N70 interface design are the same people who would be happier faced with a bank of rheostats than a computer screen. Learn the new paradigm or shuffle off with the other dinosaurs, but don't blame the N70 designers. That said, I forget the self-timer setting sequence all the time. Nikon boned that up but good.
