Camera ergonomics: Canon F-1 versus Nikon F2 - a thorough side to side look
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No, I know, I wasn't dismissing cheap camera equipment like caps. I just mainly use the internet for big purchases like cameras. I don't usually think to use it for small things like caps.
The Nikon F2 has infinitely variable shutter speed adjustment above sync speed. In the Nikon manual, they couldn't have put it in a more indirect way stating, "You can also use intermediate settings for more precise exposure except at speeds slower than 1/80 seond." I've never really taken advantage of this functionality even with slide film. Has anyone? Put much value on it?
Deleted member 88956
While I don't shoot F2, I would not pay much attention to intermediate speeds for practical manual exposure control. How does F2 display those speeds, there is no digital speed display is there?
I use it all the time without really even thinking about it. I guess I don't really put much value in it...just do it because I can and it makes the LEDs in the meter centered....
You don't see the actual speed but you do see that the meter says the exposure is "perfect" . The center LED lights by it self and the side LEDs are off....again...not a big deal - I don't worry about the exposure being off by half stop.
Why do you think a digital display would be of help? You would set the desired aperture, say at f/8 and start to turn the shutter dial as per meter indicator in the viewfinder.
On F2SB (DP-3 finder with fast silicone blue cells and LED three-part meter indicator) you see the shutter speeds above and below the intermediate speed partially in the "window" (actually it's white on black so you dont see a window as such) so you would know you're between those two speeds. There's enough play in mine that you can turn it precisely until the meter reading is dead on. I was using this feature just a minute ago as part of my first paid photoshoot (for a friend, not professionally.) I shot in manual "aperture priority mode" and turned the aperture ring only to keep the shutter speeds in that range from 125 to 2000 (actually mine caps at 2000 so I kept it between 125 and 1000). When I could I took a close metering of the subject's face, setting the shutter speed to whatever was necessary, to intermediate speeds when required, before backing out to compose the shot.
It's not like it matters on negative film though. As long as you're within a full stop of the exposure you want, you'll be able to fix it either in printing it or in digital processing without losing too much detail. But for slides I would absolutely use intermediate shutter speeds or intermediate aperture stops to nail that exposure.
F2SB has a margin of 1/5th of a stop on its LED display, by the way. I'm not sure if it's exactly accurate to that margin but that's the smallest error it can display.
Ha ha, you're asking alot of 70's technology! Consider that the 1980 released F3 has a digital LCD display for shutter speed and that does not show incremental speeds even iin aperture priority mode.
Really? The Canon A-1 from two years before will show either 1/3rd or 1/2 stops (I can't recall which) of both aperture and shutter speed depending on which mode is selected.
It was not uncommon for non-professional bodies to get advancements earlier then their pro siblings. We're not talking about those. Nonetheless, even my current digi only shows 1/3 or 1/2 stops and not the fraction internally determined for a perfect exposure.
I suppose the technology doesn't have to be perfected for an amateur camera.
...and professionals tend to value reliability quite highly.
They can be very wary of new, potentially unreliable and possibly unnecessary/unwanted technology.
They can be very wary of new, potentially unreliable and possibly unnecessary/unwanted technology.
Seemed like common practice then to try out new features in their non-pro models before ever incorporating them into the pro models. For instance it took Canon and Nikon a few years to finally incorporate a vertical shutter into their pro models as they lagged their non-pro models in higher sync and top shutter speeds.
Actually that could easily have answered the question in the new thread I just started! In fact it literally addresses it.
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