I’ve never read a camera manual ever. I really don’t want to sound smartass but if a camera needs a manual, it is a flawed camera with which I don’t have time to bother.
I figure that I might as well use the best.
But yeah, there’s a lot of awkward products on the market.
I disagree. If all cameras worked the same, then there wouldn’t be any cameras that were nicer to use than others. I glad I had to read the manual to understand how to use my retina. It works differently than all my cameras, and I love how it’s different.
Well I have to eat my words, found the full manual on line, 60 pages, about average. Have no idea what printed out yesterday, has a about 7 pages, maybe a shorter manual for quick reference?
I have owned many different cameras, many different brands starting with Retina IIIC in 1966. Just picked up a working Topcon Auto 100, of all the manuals I have read the manual for the Topcon is one of the worse, no the worse manual I have ever had to decipher. The camera it'self is fussy, not as bad as the Retina, but making heads or tails of how how to set the shutter speed to manual, took an hour.
my Hasselblad 501c manual is perfevt. it has a total of 32 pages (I think) and I coud haveásily worked it out without any manual. On the opther hand ,the Nikon digital manuals compete with the bible in volume but luckily, once you worked out how to use one Nikon digital, You can work them all becauae, they are so similar in opration.
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For many years camera manuals were essentially the same. First a thank you for purchasing the model and the wisdom of your choices. A how to hold guide featuring an attractive lady behind or in front of the camera, ...