Book Reviews
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Monday, September 15, 2008
![[Item Permalink]](http://radio.weblogs.com/0112083/images/ur_bullet.gif){kind=small} Is an old camera better than the new ones? -- Comment()
Ssp commented my wish for new and better camera technology: "Something classical like a Leica or even a 1980s SLR isn't hard to handle. See, point, shoot. Today you always see photographers taking a photo and then looking at the display to check whether things came out right. To me that just takes the flow out of the process. To a large extent I suspect this is caused by digital sensors being extremely bad when it comes to blown highlights. So if I had a wish, I'd rather wish for a sensor which is more like classical film in this respect or simply covers a wider range. That (together with matching software) could make digital photography less problematic." This is a good observation. Sometimes it is difficult to "find the flow" with digital cameras. Even though my Ixus 400 is extremely simple, it has several settings which affect the output, especially exposure compensation. And why you need compensation? Because of the weak dynamic range of the sensor. But I see here a possibility for the camera technology to improve to such a level that unnecessary complications need not bother the photographer. Today I went to a camera shop where they had on display a Panasonic LX3, which I was able to handle for a short while. (I ordered last week a LX3, and it will hopefully be shipped tomorrow.) I must admit that there are great many settings to use (if you want). However, I felt that it will be easy to start using the camera. I even managed to try out manual focusing and it worked quite well. In fact, thinking about simplicity, I'll definitely try out LX3 with simple settings, e.g. aperture priority + manual focusing. This was how I used my Minolta XG-1, and it will be interesting to see whether I still like this kind of photography. The temptation to use the fully automatic iA mode is quite strong. I need to see whether I feel differently about photography using these two different modes of operation. Perhaps it indeed is better to find the flow with a simpler way of operating the camera.
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