What bugs you?

[Tannin]

No machinery is perfect. There is always something, usually a tiny little thing, in any machine that seems calculated to annoy you. The car is wonderful but for some reason the heater control is impossible to find in the dark. Or the petrol cap remote release is beside the passenger seat! Or the glove box handle was (apparently) deliberately designed to break fingernails. Or the new computer works brilliantly but for no good reason they made the power switch the exact same colour as the case so that you can't see it. The TV remote control is fine, except that they put the off switch right next to the volume control. As for computer software, don't get me started!

Or the camera .....

Every camera has something calculated to annoy the user, something that bugs you even after owning it for years. What one thing - often a small thing - gets your goat?


Here is mine.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Canon cameras. Dial direction during Tv/Av. This is the stupidest custom function Canon have ever thought of. Utterly insane.

It's been in every dual-wheel Canon DSLR since people took photographs with two rocks and a fistfull of charcoal on a cave wall, and it never changes. Get this: you can set the two wheels to work backwards. (Left-to right instead of right-to-left.) What for?

It seems utterly pointless. But you cannot set the two wheels to do the same things in manual mode as they do in aperture priority! Most serious photographers basically only use two modes: M and Av. (For some special purposes, such as propeller-driven aircraft, you use Tv.) But 90-something percent of photographers use either manual exposure or aperture priority, and (at a guess) more than half of us use both. (I'm not counting people who only use auto as "photographers" here.)

So in Av, you adjust the aperture with the top dial, and exposure compensation with your thumb. But in M you adjust the aperture with your thumb and if you move the top dial it changes the shutter speed on you! And you can't change it! This is dumber than dumb, and they still haven't fixed it. Every non-pro Canon body, even the 5D IV, retains this asinine design fault.

(Or maybe it's smarter than dumb. The Canon pro models can all be set to do it the right way round. Maybe they think people will spend the extra $5000 just to avoid the annoyance. And lord help me, they might be right - every time I ponder buying a 5D IV, I wind up thinking about a 1DX II instead!)

EDIT: I've just discovered that the 7D II (and perhaps some other models too) now DOES let you fix this. I couldn't find it in the manual because they put it in a different place where I would never have thought to look for it. Glory be!

So what bugs you?

[ameerat42]

Tony. If this is non-Canon specific but still to do with photography, I can put it into F-stop for you.
Please let me know. (On a 2ndreading I thought it might even be n "anything" that bugs one, and
then OOF would be more suitable.)

[Tannin]

Cheers mate. I was thinking of gear in particular (I seem to have actually put it in "gear talk / Canon" which I didn't mean to, but it might go better in f-stop.

[jim]

It's impossible to use any slr by holding the viewfinder to your left eye without covering your right eye. And I can't even find the viewfinder with my right eye, so I'm stuck. Also with my D810, and I suspect with most cameras, I'm always inadvertently changing the focus point with my nose.

These things bug me a little.

[Tannin]

Ain't dat the truf? I have decent sight in both eyes, but I cut my teeth digiscoping (where it doesn't matter what eye you use), and by the time I switched to SLRs the habit was too well-set to change. (I had half-hearted goes at it once or twice.)

I don't have the focus point trouble, Jim, but in cold weather I keep fogging up the viewfinder unless I hold my breath!

Also, I'd like to put a complaint in with the Great Designer re putting both human eyes in the front of the head where only one is needed and none in the back.

[swifty]

Re: dial customization and direction change. Maybe it's for the N switchers. I hear everything is the reverse in C land and muscle memory can be hard to shake.

[Glenda]

When they do an upgrade and change things that work well to something less convenient. With my D7000 I could swing the dial under the M,A,S,P dial to set it to use the wireless remote. That disappeared in the D7100 and I had to go into the menu which I think was a backward step. Now I haven't got the latest D7500 but think changing from having two SD card slots to only one is crazy.

[ricktas]

Trying to change lenses in the dark. Mind you, not complete black as in darkroom black, but under the night sky, or in a gully on dusk when walking and you come across some fungi and want to swap to a macro lens. Trying to use fingers to work out the alignment of the lens and body connections so you can get it in place and twist. Surely a small raised bump or nodule on the lens and body could be easily done to help with this in less than ideal light.

Recently a couple of friends found it rather amusing (read that they laughed and kept bringing it up for about 2 hours after the event), that I looked like I had no idea what I was doing or how to do it, when trying to do just this. Frustrating trying to align a lens and body by feel, it took me about 2 minutes to actually get it right. holding the lens up to the sky to see if I could see the alignment bits etc. I was the butt of many a joke about not being able to get things into holes. thankfully I don't use Canon, or it could have been worse

[db3348]

Photobombers - those inconsiderate, in some cases ignorant, intruders who insist on and / or thoughtlessly wander into the frame of a scene I'm about to shoot, or am in the process of shooting, when I clearly have my camera set up to shoot a scene. They either think I don't mind, or think that they are more important than a photographer who clearly has a camera aimed at a subject / scene.

Of course they have a right to look at an interesting object or subject, and I don't deny them that, but they could exercise a bit more consideration and courtesy to a photographer who is trying to get a shot.

Realise I'm probably not the only victim here.

db3348

[nardes]

+1 to the above.

Maybe I’m being a little selective with my memories, but I seem to recall that “in the good old days”, if you were set up pointing your telephoto at a perched bird, other photographers would approach carefully, quietly and considerately to join you without scaring the bird. There was a quiet, respectful appreciation of the event.

Recently, I was plagued by hordes of iPhone snappers who rushed up, screaming and waving to their tourist group friends, jumping in front of me with iPhones held aloft, attempting to take selfies!!!!

By all means use the recording device of your choice but for goodness sake have some consideration for the creature and others around you….

What happened to good, old fashioned, good manners and a little sensitivity for wildlife, not to mention situational awareness?

Is it that important to be seen on Facebook and garner a few likes…?

Sigh...

Dennis

[Glenda]

"Is it that important to be seen on Facebook and garner a few likes…?"

Unfortunately Dennis for many of the younger generation the answer would be yes. They live their lives on facebook. Only ever posting good things about their lives of course, never anything bad, a constant competition as to who has the best artificial lifestyle. I was watching "The War on Waste" this week, talking about fast fashion and they had a group of young women on who would buy things and only wear them once. Heaven help them if they posted a photo on either Facebook or Instagram wearing the same outfit twice.

[Tannin]

Re the two posts above, I have more trouble with the nice ones! People see you with a big white lens and, naturally, they are curious and stop to chat. The nicer they are, the harder it is to say "P- off, I'm busy!"

A bit off-topic, and I've probably told this yarn before, but I was once walking along a path by a lake in SW WA. Miles out on the water there were a couple of swans - about as uninteresting a subject as you could get. I was looking for honeyeaters and other more difficult (and interesting) subjects, of course.

Two people rode past on their bikes, father and son. "Hey! Did you get the Black Swan?" Dad sung out as they swished past. Um ... what do you say to that? "Well, no, not really, I'm actually looking for some smaller birds that you've probably never heard of such as Western Spinebills and White-breasted Robins and Red-winged Fairy-wrens, but thanks anyway for asking" is a bit of a mouthful and for a moment or two I was stuck for words. As they disappeared around a bend in the track, with me still wondering how to reply, I overheard Dad say to Son: "Humph. Doesn't speak English."

[Mark L]

Re the two posts above, I have more trouble with the nice ones! People see you with a big white lens and, naturally, they are curious and stop to chat. The nicer they are, the harder it is to say "P- off, I'm busy!"

I have a bigger black lens and anyone that wanders by immediately apologise for scaring the birds away.

[Tannin]

^ That would be because of your leathers and tats and flick-knife you wave at them, yes?

[arthurking83]

It's impossible to use any slr by holding the viewfinder to your left eye without covering your right eye. And I can't even find the viewfinder with my right eye, so I'm stuck. Also with my D810, and I suspect with most cameras, I'm always inadvertently changing the focus point with my nose...

Try getting yerself a cupped viewfinder shroudy thing.
There's a chap in the US selling some really nice non Nikon items that are durable and good quality .. cost something like $9 or so.
Nikon part number is something like DK19. if I find his website I'll post up a link for 'ya. DK19 is also good but costs more than a round piece of rubber should.
I shoot left eyed sometimes, and not as much of a problem .. other than it feels a bit goofy(not being used to it).

...
Recently, I was plagued by hordes of iPhone snappers who rushed up, screaming and waving to their tourist group friends, jumping in front of me with iPhones held aloft, attempting to take selfies!!!!

By all means use the recording device of your choice but for goodness sake have some consideration for the creature and others around you….

...

This is just a lack of respect for anything other than their own self importance!
I think the best response to those idiots is to have one of those portable air horns you sometimes hear at soccer games. small can of air, and a horn on top. Next time these types of idiots come close, a blast of air will help to displace them from the immdediate area for a while.

.... "Humph. Doesn't speak English."

Hmmm ... I can't recall riding any bike with my son following, especially in or anywhere near SW WA!! .. but I think he's stolen my line! ... you don't speak English ... you speak Canon ... 'Eye no compradè nuthink U saids'

For me the biggest blunder of all time comes thanks to Nikon.
I can get used to left eye, or backwards controls, and loud disrespectful idiots, and fat bottomed bombers .. but I can never get used to Nikon's excruciating dumb @$$ed implementation of LiveView on the D300!
LiveView is awesome for some situations and can't be beat(eg. come macro, even some landscapes, and so on). But, you can't really use it to take a photos on a D300.
What it does, is:

it first flips up the mirror(as it should to do the live view thingamejig part) .. awesome .. great.. perfect.
Then! .. THEN!!! if you try to take a photo .. remember mirror is already up so that the sensor can do the liveviewing thing .. but if you attempt to take the photo in Lv mode, it slams the mirror down, only to lift it back up again to take the exposure and then slam it down again at the end of the exposure. Then once the exposure is all over again it autmagically raises the mirror AGAIN! .. thinking you're even remotely interested in using LiveView mode .. ever again

if the mirror is already up, and the sensor already on, doesn't it make sense to just take the exposure and not require the mirror to slam down again, only to open up again, and turn on the sensor yet again!
To say that Lv mode AND exposure are diametrically opposed ideas on the D300, is an understatement.
I used to use Lv a lot .. but only to focus. Then turn it off, and take the exposure myself. it was usually quicker to to all that manually, than to wait for the camera to do it for 'ya.

Seriously, it's bad enough having a fairly rough mechanism slamming mirror up just prior to exposure risking mirror slap and slightly blurred images. But this method of operation surely must win all prizes for the most dumb @$$, backward and ill conceived idiots engineering effort ever perpetrated on the photographic community.
What can't compute for my limited cranial capacity is: Did no one ever try to use LiveView mode on the D300 during the engineering phase, prior to anyone signing off on the design?
It's hard to pinpoint the exact source of the lunacy .. would it be squarely rested on the lazy brainless engineer that can't do their job, or the vacant minded sign'er off'er'er that didn't use the camera before they signed off on it.

[Tannin]

Wow! Mate, if this thread was a competition (which it isn't) and if I was the judge (which I ain't) and if there was a prize for the stupidest what-bugs-me of the lot (which there isn't), entries would be closed as of right now (which they aren't) and you would be unanimously declared the winner (which you ain't).