<snip> It's interesting to note that the thumbwheel idea of a shutter control seems relatively recent. F, FE, FM, FA, F3, even F4 I think, as well as Pentax Spotmatics and almost everybody pre-1980 all have a knob you have to grip and sometimes even pull up first with thumb and forefinger of right hand to adjust the shutter-speed. I’m a little clumsy (and I panic and make mistakes when I’m trying to grab a quick shot of something that’s disappearing or losing it’s naturally great composition fast), so personally I find this arrangement inconvenient. I wonder, could the much more user-friendly single thumb or forefinger-stroke operation of the shutter-speed dial be a reflection of improved film-speeds allowing increased popular emphasis on action photography, sports and war-zone reporting, plus the fact that the actual selected shooting speed could be shown in the viewfinder from the 1980s onward. Apart from war-zone and sports photography, picture-taking previous to 1970 was a more relaxed affair, with more formal poses allowing more time for the photographer to adjust his camera settings, therefore, a viewfinder setting display and one-finger control of shutter speed wasn't so necessary? Could that be it?) Tube, No, I think you have it wrong. Those older cameras used mechanical controls to change the shutter speeds and F-stops. The thumbwheels are electrical rotary switches. The reason for the change is that switches take much less force to operate than do mechanical controls. And as to photography being more staid in the 70's, well as a newspaper stringer then, I would have to disagree. The 60's and 70's were the heyday of the great Life photojournalists, and nobody would call their work more formal than the work of today. In fact, I would say just the opposite! Those were the days of Leicas with f/0.95 lenses doing all kinds of work in available light, mostly in B&W, because flash bulbs (yes, I used to use them) were expensive, inconvenient, and obtrusive. Today, there is more emphasis on filters and tighter compositions than in the past. Why? Styles change, equipment changes (graduated filters, TTL strobes (TTL meters, for that matter), zoom lenses). These things didn't exist in the 60's and 70's. No self-respecting photographer in the 60's would be caught dead putting his camera on a tripod, except for extreme exposures. Today, many people advocate using a tripod for all possible shots, although personally, I think this tripod fanaticism defeats the purpose of a 35 mm camera (small, light, unobtrusive). LF and MF, yes, 35 mm, no. If you notice, today most lenses are zooms, with 'pro' lenses at f/2.8 (Nikon's 20-35 f/2.8., 35-70 f/2.8, and 80-200mm f/2.8 are classic examples) and amateur at f/3.5 to 4.5. In the 60's and 70's, lenses were fixed focal lengths, normally (moderate WA to moderate tele) f/2 or faster. Colin
