Let's suppose your camera only had one adjustment...

[tunalegs]

Suppose, for some reason, you had committed some terrible photographic crime, and the sentence was that for the rest of your life you were only allowed to use a camera with one adjustment. You could have a camera with adjustable focus, or one with adjustable shutter speeds, or one with adjustable f/stops.

Let's assume that the two fixed settings are set to something "average" (ie. your shutter speed wouldn't be something silly like 1/5 of a second, or your focus fixed at something like one foot). That being the case, what setting would you choose to be able to adjust?

 

[coelacanth]

Aperture.

Regards,

 

[FrozenInTime]

I could live with adjustable focus, a 35mm f/1.4 @ 1/30s and some Tri-X to photograph indoors and on the edge of darkness.

... if no one was looking, I might also sneak out during the day and hold a ND filter in front of the lens.

 

[Spanik]

adjustable iso...

 

[citizen99]

adjustable iso...

Hmmm, the iso, nice one ... 😉

In the context of film, would I be allowed a 'free shot' additional choice of film ISO, on the basis that it's not an in-camera adjustment :angel: ?

Anyway for me it's :-

Fixed focus - medium distance
Fixed aperture - well stopped down, but not into diffraction territory, obviously.
*Adjustable shutter speed*

Works for me in daylight, MF, wide angle 🙂.

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

I've several cameras like that, I can switch them on or off, put film in and take it out and turn the flash on or off; they are called P&S's.

Then there's the Olympus XA2 and Trip 35, just a choice of zone focusing (XA2) or zone or scale focusing. And the XA1 only lets me use 100 ASA or 400 ASA film and that's that apart from letting me frame the shot and squeeze the shutter button.

But what was the terrible photographic crime I committed? I wonder if it's wasting time on forums pointing out the obvious. ;-)

Or starting sentences with conjunctions, or using English spelling...

Regards, David

 

[tunalegs]

Hi,

I've several cameras like that, I can switch them on or off, put film in and take it out and turn the flash on or off; they are called P&S's.

Then there's the Olympus XA2 and Trip 35, just a choice of zone focusing (XA2) or zone or scale focusing. And the XA1 only lets me use 100 ASA or 400 ASA film and that's that apart from letting me frame the shot and squeeze the shutter button.

Automatic setting of adjustments isn't the same as fixed settings. 😉

 

[user237428934]

I'd take an adjustable strap. As this camera is useless, I could display it on the wall in the proper position with an adjustable strap.

 

[Doug]

My first camera was like that, with two apertures in waterhouse stops. There was a sneaky trick though... if you opened the flash door the shutter would be slower. Kodak, 127 film...

I think aperture is a good answer here.

 

[Archlich]

Focus. The lighting we can always alter, actively or passively.

That's how I manage with my Holga..

 

[tocalosh]

Shutter speed. You can make some amazing images with a pinhole camera, with the only variable being exposure time.

 

[sevo]

I've been reasonably happy with a camera with zero adjustments (the Vivitar Wide and Slim).

 

[sara]

I'm happy with f2.8 forever.

 

[kb244]

It's a tricky one, because it seems like it would depend on the practicality of the rest of the camera.

But if I were picking between say aperture/shutter/iso. Only one of them short of freezing motion is going to alter my visuals quite a bit depending on how I play with it, so I would most likely want to have adjustable aperture, especially if I were to be tripoding and if my aperture choices extended down to the f/2~f/2.8 range (acting as a substitution to achieving a higher shutter speed when i need it).

... assuming of course the camera handled everything else automatically with good results (ie: autofocus, auto-shutter, etc). If it were a fixed focus type of lens deal, then the aperture control isn't going to be that useful in my opinion.

If we're talking film, we don't have auto ISO anyways, you just change it up with film 😀

 

[Godfrey]

In my Minox EC, aperture and focus are fixed, only shutter time is adjustable. I've been able to make photographs in a very wide range of conditions with that.

G

 

[David Hughes]

Automatic setting of adjustments isn't the same as fixed settings. 😉

Hi,

Then it's the Minox or my phone. No focus or aperture adjustment, from memory, just shutter speed.

Regards, David

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Why it is pictured here as something terrible? I have Lumix with fast Leica zoom and no parameters to adjust. All is auto. No problem at all. Took it with all manual film M with me on Moscow trip and it did perfect job for me as usual. I have prints from it in addition to darkroom prints.
Same is my Toronto made film 6x9 Brownie. No focus, no adjustments. And it is not limiting at all, but liberating.
I downloaded Fuji Xpro2 manual and this camera gobble of settings is the sentence limiting creative photography, IMO. 🙂

 

[css9450]

Why it is pictured here as something terrible? I have Lumix with fast Leica zoom and no parameters to adjust. All is auto. No problem at all.

Imagine however if all of those adjustments your camera is doing automatically were stuck, except for one.

 

[FrozenInTime]

In my Minox EC, aperture and focus are fixed, only shutter time is adjustable. I've been able to make photographs in a very wide range of conditions with that.

G

That's a prefect example - something small, simple, high quality and worked really well.

 

[DougFord]

I could live with a 35mm lens focused at about six feet @ f4 *, so adjustment of the shutter speed makes the most sense.

*-FF