"Example photos"

[Arbitrarium]

I often look up manuals of old cameras on Mike Butkus' website and have noticed a trend in a few of the Japanese camera manuals.

You'll get manuals stating that the camera is focus-free and everything from close ups to landscapes will be in focus. And then elsewhere in the manual it'll have "example photos" with shallow depth of field and blurred backgrounds!

Do they just stick in photos taken with much fancier cameras and pretend that those are the results you'll get? Couldn't get away with that sort of thing nowadays.

 

[Timmyjoe]

Would have to see which exact manual you're referring to, but my first thought is that the sample photos may be shot "Wide Open" and the "camera is focus-free and everything from close ups to landscapes will be in focus" is referring to shooting with the lens stopped down to f16 or f22.

Just a thought.

 

[oftheherd]

I often look up manuals of old cameras on Mike Butkus' website and have noticed a trend in a few of the Japanese camera manuals.

You'll get manuals stating that the camera is focus-free and everything from close ups to landscapes will be in focus. And then elsewhere in the manual it'll have "example photos" with shallow depth of field and blurred backgrounds!

Do they just stick in photos taken with much fancier cameras and pretend that those are the results you'll get? Couldn't get away with that sort of thing nowadays.

Whatsa matta you? No hear auto-focus camera? 😀 😀

I had not noticed that although I have seen some that were not printed on particularly good stock and the photos (most often b/w) were not very good quality.

But then I have never spent time looking at a lot of different camera manuals. Mostly only those I have or want to buy. But it does sound like an interesting pastime though. You sure get to know a lot about different cameras. I actually kind of envy you.

 

[bakemono]

There's plenty of chinese camera phones that clearly use fake example photos for their adverts. So nothing much has changed