Watch out for the evil feature-off switches

[KD5NRH]

Grr...I shoulda known something was up when the dragonflies kept landing perfectly at the minimum focus distance for the 75-300 at 300, with good backgrounds and everything...f16 and beyond to get it all in good focus, pushing the shutter speeds down too low for normal handholding, but still should be about 50/50 with the image stabilization.

When I got home and pulled the camera out of the bag I noticed IS was turned off. DOH! There might be three salvageable shots. I've got to learn to put everything back to "normal" when I get done with long exposure stuff, and check it all again anyway when I take it out of the bag.

Come to think of it, I don't even remember what the indicator for IS looks like on the Alpha, since I never turn it off unless I'm doing long exposures, then I usually remember to turn it back on.

[rcgsavage]

I really wish there were programmable 'memory' settings for our cameras. I've done similar things with white balance which is easily corrected to leaving my ISO at 1600 on my D50 in broad daylight, took me a while wondering how I was at 1/4000 of a second at f8 DOH.
There also letting some one borrow your camera and forgetting to switch it to idiot proof mode.

[KD5NRH]

Heck, for some reason Sony thought I might actually want it to stay on self-timer after being turned off and back on. It's a "feature" I've never seen on any other camera, and it's really annoying to compose a great shot, push the button...nothing...look at the back...nothing obvious...look at the top...click.

Anybody need a bunch of out of focus, badly exposed shots of my hairline?

[Graydon]

Originally Posted by KD5NRH

Anybody need a bunch of out of focus, badly exposed shots of my hairline?

No, I'll think I'll pass... but if anybody wants some funky over / under exposed images that resulted from me forgetting to turn off the bracketing function... well, I've got a few of those...

...or maybe the set I shot at ISO "way the h-e-double L hockey sticks" high... when I forgot to change the settings the next day.

We've all done it and it is just part of the learning curve.. and besides... learning by doing (or somethings "doing wrong" ) is the best way to learn.

[KD5NRH]

Originally Posted by Graydon

...or maybe the set I shot at ISO "way the h-e-double L hockey sticks" high... when I forgot to change the settings the next day.

It would be nice to have some sort of warning for "your ISO is ridiculously high for the current conditions" so I don't go around shooting at 3200 in full sun again.

Luckily, I figured out something was wrong when I went to f/4 and the shutter couldn't get fast enough.

[humminboid]

That is one of the best reasons for getting to know your equipment. And for the "reset everything" feature!

We are all going to be bit in that way, sooner or later. In the film days, I was taking family pictures for a church membership directory...you can see where this is going... my camera was PURRING...better than ever, smoother advance, the whole 9 yards. WOW! I thought I finally got it broken in!

WRONG! No film! I heard about that one for a looooong time!

Then there was when I was backing to get a better angle, and walked off the dock. Accident prone? Noooo, not me!

[rcgsavage]

Originally Posted by KD5NRH

It would be nice to have some sort of warning for "your ISO is ridiculously high for the current conditions" so I don't go around shooting at 3200 in full sun again.

Luckily, I figured out something was wrong when I went to f/4 and the shutter couldn't get fast enough.

I know the Nikon D200 has the ISO in the viewfinder, so wish my D50 had this.

[SCone]

One of the first things I learned was to reset before every shoot. The author's thinking was if you make it a standard practice, then you set everything each time you start. You learn how to make settings quick & you're never left with the settings for Aunt Edna's birthday party.