Canon T90 variable program?

[rbiemer]

I've been reading the manual for my T90 and the Variable Program instructions are un-clear to me.

The manual says

there are 7 types of programmed characteristics in this mode. Choose any one of them according to your shooting objectives and the focal length of your lens.

And there is a chart. And that's what is confusing me:
I am having trouble relating this chart to which of the settings I can choose; What do the different options actually do?
Google has not been my friend here, all my searches refer back to the manual.

Thanks for your help, folks!
Rob

 

[CliveC]

Simply put, the tele modes will prioritize higher shutter speeds while wide ones will prioritize smaller apertures. This is due to the common rule that when shooting handheld, your shutter speed should be 1/focal length in order to achieve sharp images.

On the chart, the lines indicate the aperture/shutter speed relationships at various lighting conditions and film speeds. For the wide modes, note that the camera will go into smaller apertures much sooner because it thinks that you will be able to hand hold the camera at slower shutter speeds.

 

[rbiemer]

Clive, thank you. Does this mean that, depending on which setting I choose, the camera "chooses" from the combinations along the diagonal red lines for each setting?
Rob

 

[CliveC]

Exactly. The camera doesn't know what kind of lens you have on it. These modes just increase your chance of having sharp photos. With wide angle lenses it will try to have a deeper depth of field, at the expense of shutter speed, earlier than with a telephoto.

 

[rbiemer]

Thank you! Ordinarily, charts don't give me this much trouble but for some reason I just couldn't get my head around which settings would make the best sense for what I want to do.

Your posts have helped me out with this, much appreciated!
Rob

 

[Steve M.]

Great camera. I really like mine, but it's way too complicated for its own good if you delve into all the features. The rough rule of thumb is to not use a shutter speed slower than your focal length. So w/ a 200mm lens, try to keep it above that to avoid camera shake if possible.

I generally set mine on aperture priority, spot metering (forget all the multi spot mode business), and fire away. Exposures are always fine unless I screwed up. It's fun to use w/ my Helios lens and a cheap adapter too, but it will not meter correctly if you don't press in the stop down button below the lens mount, even if your lens/adapter has no stop down feature. Very odd.

 

[CliveC]

I generally set mine on aperture priority, spot metering (forget all the multi spot mode business), and fire away. Exposures are always fine unless I screwed up. It's fun to use w/ my Helios lens and a cheap adapter too, but it will not meter correctly if you don't press in the stop down button below the lens mount, even if your lens/adapter has no stop down feature. Very odd.

Multi spot is not that hard to deal with, but probably not necessary unless you're shooting slide film.

I wonder why the feature has been dropped for digital though, seems like it'd be helpful for us who like the greater exposure control.

 

[raid]

The T90 was way ahead of its time. It became the prototype of the EOS-1, which was actually less sophisticated than the T90.

 

[rbiemer]

I am liking the T90 quite a lot. I recently sold my Maxxum 7 and am getting together a system based around this camera instead; I liked the Maxxum pretty well too but Minolta A mount lenses are out of my budget.
So, Canon FD it is!

I've got the basic lenses I want for this one and just got a 50/f3.5 macro lens (and the extension tube for 1 :1).
Next lens will probably be something wide...but that will be after I get different focus screens.

And, I needed a body cap so I searched on ebay and decided to sort my search results by "closest to you". That turned up some one here in my home town who has about 1200 listings of cases, hoods, caps, and other misc. bits. But no actual cameras nor lenses.
Rob

 

[lxmike]

Never owned T90 but have heard so many good things about the T90, ithas a cult following

 

[rbiemer]

It is big and heavy but fits my hands well. I also find the viewfinder display works very well with my eyesight and glasses.
And there are a lot of good, inexpensive lenses out there.
I have been trying to build one SLR system and want to stay with manual focus.
I was recently given a Minolta X570 and two lenses so the "one system" plan is not working out too well just now...🙂
But looking at the lenses I will want for my kit, the FD choices seem to be a little more affordable for me than the SR choices.

Rob

 

[CliveC]

Of all the FD bodies I own, it's the most advanced, however, I find myself preferring the simplicity of the AE-1 or even the T60 sometimes. I also own a Maxxum 7 and it is indeed a fantastic camera, even though the hand-grip material has degraded (I managed to remove most of it though).