On Mon, 9 Apr 2001 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> I consider myself a documentarian, not an artist. The point I wished to
> make was that, even with matrix metering and autofocusing, real life is
> difficult to capture accurately on film without periodic user intervention.
> It is a point that Herb Keppler makes time and again in his Popular
> Photography column. If some cameras can deliver well-exposed, well-focused
> shots with the simple press of the shutter release, I have no problem with
> that. Most can't.
Thanks for responding in an intelligent manner to a post of mine which
could easily be considered inflammable. I agree that user intervention is
necessary to accurately record some scenes. I wasn't arguing that it
wasn't; I was just saying that the *desire* for a camera that will do
everything like that properly and automatically is perfectly
understandable, IMO. I wasn't sure why you were looking down on people
who wanted to get good pictures from a camera (I'm talking properly
exposed and focused most of the time) even if they don't have the time to
learn photography.
> The people I've met who have spoken this sentiment to me usually
> didn't mean, "I don't want to be an artist," but rather, "I'd rather
> accomplish what you accomplish, the easy way." If only it WERE that
> easy. These same people wonder why the indoor-graduation shots they
> took from Row 23 with ISO 100 film in their auto-everything P&S are
> underexposed.
Ah, well that's a different matter than what I was talking about. I do
think it's obviously unreasonable to expect your 23rd row p&s to compare
favourably with a good camera used by someone who knows what they're
doing, and it's equally unreasonable to assume that buying an expensive
camera will mean that you're suddenly taking well-composed intelligent
photos. If people expect that buying a good camera will make their
composition perfect, or give them a better eye, they're probably
mistaken. From my experience, though, a lot of people who want
push-button cameras aren't looking for that. They just want their photos
to come out well-exposed and with the main subject (usually in the
center) properly exposed. I don't think it's unreasonable of them to want
a camera that will do this most of the time without user intervention,
especially if they're willing to spend the money on an SLR and not a p&s.
chris
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