Who thought of this mad idea?

[John_M_King]

One of the biggest reasons for failure to get a good crisp image which is sharp, hence the usual fitment of a tripod screw hole in the base of the camera. This is obviously the best way. Then the other way is to hold the camera up to your eye and brace yourself and squeeze the button to make the exposure, I suppose 80% of the time that is good enough.

Now we are well into the digital capture age, there are high end and lower priced cameras which do not have the benefit of even a simple viewfinder. They only have the screen at the back where you look at the scene at arms length, then press the shutter button. The incidence of images with some lesser or greater degree of shake must be very high and render most (by our standards) worse than useless.

I was out walking the other day and watched a woman with one of the later Canon SLR's with a mighty zoom lens on the front, using the rear screen to compose and then take the picture. I could see the end of the lens bobbing up and down by as much as 1/2" as she held it with arms outstretched. Heaven knows what the images were like.

I know we have image stabilsing features but that can only cater for so much movement.

 

[ann]

It is called lack of understanding and knowing how to handle a camera. Seen more these days with modern cameras and people who are not basically photographers.

This is something I discuss in all my classes, even my Iphotophony workshop, as I see it all the time as well.

 

[L Gebhardt]

It's a matter of knowing how to use your tools. The LiveView feature on cameras is very useful, but as you observed it is easy to abuse. It gives you a look at exactly what the sensor is seeing through the lens. If used on a tripod it can help you perfectly position the focus. If used handheld you get the worst of cheap handheld cameras compounded by the size of DSLRs and long lenses, as you observed.

 

[ann]

Live view is very handy indeed and when I have the camera on a tripod and have time to think I use that function.

I wasn't thinking so much about that function as the way people use their cameras these days,

Another one that makes me smile and shake my head, lens hoods on backwards, while in use.

 

[Doyle Thomas]

You can fix that in PSCC now LOL!

 

[ann]

Which can one fix?

 

[Pioneer]

One thing I learned quickly with my K-01 is that I needed to pack at least a monopod when using anything much over 77mm. This was different with my K-7 since I could easily use techniques learned way back when I started on my K1000 and keep lenses all the way out to 135 pretty stable. Even with my DA 40 I am frequently looking for places to brace my camera, even when image stabilization is on. Face it, IS can only do so much.

 

[L Gebhardt]

One nice thing about the D800, and probably other cameras, is the ability to bias the Auto ISO to give you two extra stops over the 1/focal length rule. Too bad it doesn't work for manual focus lenses even if you set the focal length in the menus. But like stabilization it can't overcome bad technique.

 

[Doyle Thomas]

Which can one fix?

Camera shake

 

[ann]

well, not by much.

 

[indigo]

I know a good number of people who never use the viewfinder and always use live view.

 

[John_M_King]

I still think it's daft idea. (I will modify that - a stupid idea)

Apart from the increased risk of unsharp pictures there is a high degree of difficulty looking at the image in bright sunlight. Is it a fashion thing that will eventually fade away like the Charleston?

 

[L Gebhardt]

I agree that holding a camera at arms length is a stupid way to take a photo (unless needed to get the camera into position to take said photo).

I think it's the mirror boxes that will go away in the end. On the D800 I find using LiveView is almost a necessity to getting sharp image when shooting manual focus macro or wide open lenses. The built in focus screen is terrible for judging focus. But you need a tripod, and sometimes a shade for the the LCD. I wish the camera had the option to toggle an electronic view finder (with magnified focus) so you could use LiveView through the view finder, or the mirror and ground glass.

 

[indigo]

I still think it's daft idea. (I will modify that - a stupid idea)

Apart from the increased risk of unsharp pictures there is a high degree of difficulty looking at the image in bright sunlight. Is it a fashion thing that will eventually fade away like the Charleston?

It's not a fad but so many people who started photography after the introduction of live view simply don't know how to use an optical viewfinder especially an SLR viewfinder. I found that when forced to use an SLR viewfinder many have these problems
1. Can't judge focus that is can't tell if something is in focus. Lots of time because the diopter adjustment isn't correct for their eye sight. But many simply can't judge focus.
2. Many because seeing subjects in the viewfinder are large they tend to forgot about the border and have their subjects too small in the final pictures. They tend to compose much better with the small screen at distance. It resemble more of the resulting image.
3. Many manuals I found don't show you how to hold the camera any more.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

One thing I learned quickly with my K-01 is that I needed to pack at least a monopod when using anything much over 77mm. This was different with my K-7 since I could easily use techniques learned way back when I started on my K1000 and keep lenses all the way out to 135 pretty stable. Even with my DA 40 I am frequently looking for places to brace my camera, even when image stabilization is on. Face it, IS can only do so much.

fully agree, a monopod is a highly undervalued piece of kit.