The Zone System by Touch?

[akptc]

I was just reading Ansel Adams about his zone system when my PDA phone rang. Holding the book in one hand and the phone in the other, it hit me – why not have camera touch-displays that would allow the photographer to pick and place parts of the preview picture in the various Zones and see how that affects the entire picture. Would be even more fun if several spots on the screen could be selected and have the LCD display their respective Zone numbers all at the same time. Does this exist? Would it make sense or be of any benefit? I mean, touch screen cameras already exist (e.g. Pentax Optio T10, I don’ know of any DSLRs that have it), so it’s a matter of writing the in-camera software, right? Just dreaming here... (also posted on DSLREXCHANGE)

 

[akptc]

Hm..., bad idea? Does the ability to snap/preview another shot make the use of the zone system redundant? Or, is this a $1,000,000 "killer app" idea that I should have kept to myself? 😛 (I have about 5 of those a day 🙂)

 

[Trius]

It is a great application, IMO, but ... at the risk of being of being labelled a curmudgeon/old fart, I'm not sure how well accepted/used it would be by the digicrowd. Of course, it would increase web forum postings exponentially! 😛

So, I don't know if it's a killer app. One more thought; a good multi-spot metering system in the viewfinder (with highlight and shadow designation, a la OM-3/4 bodies) would be sufficient for me. The resulting LCD preview could be used for confirmation, but the screen is relatively small and low resolution, so I'm not sure how much I would use it.

Earl

 

[akptc]

Thanks Earl, I thought I was doomed to talking with myself here 🙂 I wonder if, for example, the LCD on the M8 were touch-sensitive, with the zone system application built-in. Wouldn't do much for street / people photography I bet but everything else? On the other hand, I bet this was an idea on the table somewhere at Canon or Nikon and got kiled years ago 🙂

 

[Wayne R. Scott]

Andy,

You may want to look at this site:

http://photography.cicada.com/zs/emulator/

Wayne

 

[MikeL]

Here's something I've been using:

lightzone

 

[akptc]

Wayne, that’s nearly exactly what I had in mind, except implemented on the camera LCD. Btw, great site – thanks for the link!

Mike, I’ve been eyeing Lightzone for a while. Is it as good as they say? How do you like it? Of course, maybe a scaled-down version could be burned into the M9 firmware.. 🙂

 

[tetrisattack]

I guess I don't see the point, outside of as an educational tool for people new to the zone system - for me, the zone system is a way of manipulating the contrast of my film to the better match my scene. I never bothered to find times for N+2 development etc. but I do alter my development times with almost every batch of film.

That practice is about the same as making sure your raw file contains as much information impossible by "exposing to the right" and maximizing your histogram. It's all about getting the biggest "playground" on the negative to allow you to have more latitude in the darkroom or in photoshop.

It's not a touch system, but on most nicer cameras you could just use a spot metering function. Or if you have a real spot meter, you can measure the area in which you are interested to 1/10th a stop.