pdek
"Dekkam" as was
Another question that came up shortly before the website was set back most of 48 hours was this: Why are there no longer books devoted to single-make (and sometimes even single-model) cameras, such as the ones that we grew up with by Cooper, Emmanuel, Tydings and others, as Morgan and Lester in the various Leica Manuals?
My answer was two-parted. First, in our digital age cameras change their capabilities and ways of operation very quickly, and no publisher is going to be willing to put out a book that will quite possibly be obsolete by the time it gets into the stores. And very few writers would be able to complete such a book in such short order.
Second, I mentioned that the best resource usually available is the instruction book: most manufacturers have recognized this, and prepare much more detailed books than they used to do. But this, unfortunately for the answer I posted, is not always true.
As a "retired professional", I no longer have any need to make 4x6 foot prints (and I rarely did even when I was a professional), so that ever since Olympus introduced the four/thirds system, I have been using it: the fact that the sensor is only 1/4 the area of a 35mm camera frame isn't vital to me (after all, I championed the Pen F's, which were half the usual frame size), and in fact I usually get pretty good definition anyway. When the E-510 came out with full-camera anti-shake, I figured this was a camera I had to go to.
Olympus usually produces pretty good instruction books. About a week ago, having registered the E-510, I received an e-mail from Olympus telling us owners that an update to the operating system had just become available: from 1.0 to 1.1. I went to the website, read the downloading instructions, got my E-510 and connected it to my computer via USB, then started the Olympus Master 2 software that came with the camera. Turned out that the interface on Master 2 (which came out only recently itself) is quite different than that of the old original Olympus Master [1]; the website instructions only covered Master 1. After a good deal of finagling, I did manage to figure out how to use Master 2 for the upgrade.
So, following directions, I turned on the E-510. Up came the USB connection page from the camera menu: none of the instructions for upgrading had mentioned this. It had four choices, so that I had to guess which one to highlight. When I settled on the one at the top and tried to start the download, I was told that the software didn't recognize any attachment to a camera. Ultimately I figured out that I had to press the "set" button: simply highlighting my choice wouldn't work. Of course I had checked out the instruction book, but it had no instructions at all for software upgrades, and the online instructions didn't mention anything about activating any of the four choices. Online, too, there's no early mention of the special screen that appears on the camera's LCD telling you that the upgrade is under way; this screen doesn't appear, though, till about 20-25 seconds after the download begins, so for the first part of the process there's no sure way to find out whether or not it's working.
Ultimately, I got it right. But when the instructions on the website are very firm that if you make a mistake, you may harm the camera to the point where it needs to be sent in to Olympus for extensive repair, a lot of photographers with little experience are going to admit defeat and never download the upgrade. (Actually, so far as I can tell, the only truly crucial direction is that once you have initiated the process, you have to leave everything alone till you're sure it's complete, even though the "in process" screen has not yet lit up.)
I guess what I'm getting at is this: when I said in answer to the original question that the instruction book for your camera is your best resource, I was probably correct. But often it is not THE best resource! In fact, sometimes there is no best resource; nothing really substitutes for experience, and even with a good deal of experience you sometimes have to be brave as well when the information from the book is wrong or lacking or both.
So I regret that it's economically unfeasible to publish camera-specific books any longer. The beginner's only resource, sometimes, is to turn to a trusted friend who has had more experience for advice. Sorry!
Peter
My answer was two-parted. First, in our digital age cameras change their capabilities and ways of operation very quickly, and no publisher is going to be willing to put out a book that will quite possibly be obsolete by the time it gets into the stores. And very few writers would be able to complete such a book in such short order.
Second, I mentioned that the best resource usually available is the instruction book: most manufacturers have recognized this, and prepare much more detailed books than they used to do. But this, unfortunately for the answer I posted, is not always true.
As a "retired professional", I no longer have any need to make 4x6 foot prints (and I rarely did even when I was a professional), so that ever since Olympus introduced the four/thirds system, I have been using it: the fact that the sensor is only 1/4 the area of a 35mm camera frame isn't vital to me (after all, I championed the Pen F's, which were half the usual frame size), and in fact I usually get pretty good definition anyway. When the E-510 came out with full-camera anti-shake, I figured this was a camera I had to go to.
Olympus usually produces pretty good instruction books. About a week ago, having registered the E-510, I received an e-mail from Olympus telling us owners that an update to the operating system had just become available: from 1.0 to 1.1. I went to the website, read the downloading instructions, got my E-510 and connected it to my computer via USB, then started the Olympus Master 2 software that came with the camera. Turned out that the interface on Master 2 (which came out only recently itself) is quite different than that of the old original Olympus Master [1]; the website instructions only covered Master 1. After a good deal of finagling, I did manage to figure out how to use Master 2 for the upgrade.
So, following directions, I turned on the E-510. Up came the USB connection page from the camera menu: none of the instructions for upgrading had mentioned this. It had four choices, so that I had to guess which one to highlight. When I settled on the one at the top and tried to start the download, I was told that the software didn't recognize any attachment to a camera. Ultimately I figured out that I had to press the "set" button: simply highlighting my choice wouldn't work. Of course I had checked out the instruction book, but it had no instructions at all for software upgrades, and the online instructions didn't mention anything about activating any of the four choices. Online, too, there's no early mention of the special screen that appears on the camera's LCD telling you that the upgrade is under way; this screen doesn't appear, though, till about 20-25 seconds after the download begins, so for the first part of the process there's no sure way to find out whether or not it's working.
Ultimately, I got it right. But when the instructions on the website are very firm that if you make a mistake, you may harm the camera to the point where it needs to be sent in to Olympus for extensive repair, a lot of photographers with little experience are going to admit defeat and never download the upgrade. (Actually, so far as I can tell, the only truly crucial direction is that once you have initiated the process, you have to leave everything alone till you're sure it's complete, even though the "in process" screen has not yet lit up.)
I guess what I'm getting at is this: when I said in answer to the original question that the instruction book for your camera is your best resource, I was probably correct. But often it is not THE best resource! In fact, sometimes there is no best resource; nothing really substitutes for experience, and even with a good deal of experience you sometimes have to be brave as well when the information from the book is wrong or lacking or both.
So I regret that it's economically unfeasible to publish camera-specific books any longer. The beginner's only resource, sometimes, is to turn to a trusted friend who has had more experience for advice. Sorry!
Peter
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