When I got my first "proper" camera (as against my Kodak Instamatic), a Practika L2 with M42 50mm Tessar f2.8 lens (which was my birthday present from my father) there was NO automation. The L2 has no internal metering and was all mechanical (like my later OM1). After the "automation" of the Instamatic it was a bit of a shock. A friend of my father introduced me to using a darkroom (and being a Radio Ham I was also introduced to the morse & voice radio telephony on ancient (read thermionic valve) ex-military radio transmitters and a receiver).
I learned to do it the hard way.
Now when my father bought an upgrade SLR (after the L2 got sand in it & the quoted repair cost exceeded what my father had paid for the camera) he bought me an OM20. I wanted an OM1, but at the time they were VERY expensive. I used it on manual, as I was scared to use the auto settings (fear of new fangled devices
So for several years I ONLY used AP mode.
To cut a long story short, I liked photographing buildings but got annoyed with the perspective distortion, so in my 20s bought an ancient (even then) MPP Mk V 5x4 camera. No idiot proofing (Linhof interlocks). All Manual. And in those pre-Maxwell days, a very dim GG (focussing screen).
I loved its versitility. I also fancied a better camera but then learned of the cost! A secondhand Schneider lens, in those pre-internet days, cosy 2.5 months salary, after essential bills.
Move forward to 2008.... Gone full circle. Started with an all-singing-all-dancing manual camera and.... bought my first Ebony (45SU). Never looked back.
I still use other cameras and auto exposure for other purposes, but what I like about manual exposure on a LF camera is that I feel that I, not the camera, has done all the work in making the image what it is. I feel full ownership of my images again (rather than feeling that I owe the camera half the credit). And I find the methodology of making LF landscape images very contemplative and relaxing. For me it comes down to my own, rather odd, philosophical view of what photography is for me.
I learned to do it the hard way.
Now when my father bought an upgrade SLR (after the L2 got sand in it & the quoted repair cost exceeded what my father had paid for the camera) he bought me an OM20. I wanted an OM1, but at the time they were VERY expensive. I used it on manual, as I was scared to use the auto settings (fear of new fangled devices
So for several years I ONLY used AP mode.
To cut a long story short, I liked photographing buildings but got annoyed with the perspective distortion, so in my 20s bought an ancient (even then) MPP Mk V 5x4 camera. No idiot proofing (Linhof interlocks). All Manual. And in those pre-Maxwell days, a very dim GG (focussing screen).
I loved its versitility. I also fancied a better camera but then learned of the cost! A secondhand Schneider lens, in those pre-internet days, cosy 2.5 months salary, after essential bills.
Move forward to 2008.... Gone full circle. Started with an all-singing-all-dancing manual camera and.... bought my first Ebony (45SU). Never looked back.
I still use other cameras and auto exposure for other purposes, but what I like about manual exposure on a LF camera is that I feel that I, not the camera, has done all the work in making the image what it is. I feel full ownership of my images again (rather than feeling that I owe the camera half the credit). And I find the methodology of making LF landscape images very contemplative and relaxing. For me it comes down to my own, rather odd, philosophical view of what photography is for me.