My first time with digital camera

[jt-photos]

I have been shooting for some years now with 70's and 80's manual cameras (with film quite obviously), but lately

I got curious about possibilities of digital cameras and so, two days ago I borrowed a Nikon D80 with 50mm F:1,4

and for the first time tried something more serious (some holiday pictures with friend's Nikon coolpix doesn't

count, right?). I had great difficulties with all that amount of buttons, options and automatics (especially

auto-focus) that there are, as I am used to be able to adjust just three things: aperture, shutter speed and

focus. I would be interested to hear your experiences as you were starting with digital cameras and, as you all

are probably more experienced with digital photography, get some feedback of my first attempt with technology of

our times.

[rainer_t]

With all these modern electronic toys (dvd-players, harddisk recorders, mp3-players, cameras, mobile phones, navigation systems) I find it a highly recommended thing to read the manual .... twice.

[steve torelli]

You'll get used to it. It took me a while coming from film, but it wasn't that big a deal. As a matter of fact it was fun. Rainer's advice about reading the manual thoroughly is the best you can receive. Good luck.

[marc_bergman1]

I set the function switch to aperture priority just like on my EOS Elan IIe and my Canon A1 before it.

 

Instead of choosing a film I chose my ISO.

 

I set it to record RAW + jpeg.

 

I went out shooting.

 

I also recommend reading the manual. If you have any questions you can ask the person from whom you borrowed the camera or post a question here.

 

DSLRs can be pretty easy to operate. They can also be very versatile. Hence all the various controls.

[ronald_moravec1]

Turn to manual and shoot as per usual. Nothing changes except you get to chimp and you don`t get a negative.

 

If you put it on P, and rotate the wheel under right thumb, the shutter goes faster and lens opening gets bigger and the reverse.

[charlesheckel]

The worst part was reading the manuals. What the camera actually did was easy enough to understand, but the manufacturer's terminology and organization would drive me crazy. I finally pulled a PDF of the manual from the manufacturer's web site and edited it into a sensible form for my own use.

[hjoseph7]

Well it's good to stick with the same brand you used while shooting film so that the transition to digital is not that drastic.

 

I started out with a Canon Elan, migrated to a Canon EOS-3 , both film AF cameras. Then a few years later, I finally got a Canon 30D(digital). Actually my Canon EOS-3 had more buttons and options than my Canon 30D, so the learning curve was really not that steep, all I had to do was learn the Menu. I thought about switching brands once in a while, but decided not to, because of the learning curve.

 

If you are starting out with a Nikon D80 then stick with that for a while, before you move up to something else.

[rainer_t]

-- "but the manufacturer's terminology and organization would drive me crazy"

 

Charles brought up an important point. More than once I've seen manuals that were "poorly written" to say the least. There seem to be multiple reasons behind this ... one is (very likely) that good design engineers aren't necessarily good writers. The other is, that manuals are written in one language, and translated to other languages by people who have a certain knowledge about the language, but don't know the product. (The latter doesn't apply to more expensive electronics, but very much to bargain products). I have seen more than one (german) manual with such a bad wording that it was much easier to read the engish version instead (which still wasn't good). Likely the chinese/japanese/koreean/vietnam (or whereever the origins of the product are) master version would have been the best to read (given one speaks that language).

[keith selmes]

"I would be interested to hear your experiences as you were starting with digital cameras"<br><BR>

I went from manual via autofocus Canon and a cheap compact digital.<BR>

The Canon DSLR was laid out very much like the AF SLR,and I was used to the idea of memory cards, menus etc. from the compact, so it was fairly easy to get started.<BR>

Actually though, I normally use manual mode anyway, and often with manual lenses, and if you do that its not such a big change. <BR>

I don't know the Nikon camera, but with my Canon DSLR, you can switch lens and body to manual (the lens has a focus ring), so there's nothing auto at all. The lightmeter still works in the viewfinder, and the aperture and speed are there as well.<BR>

This is convenient compared to a manual camera, but also it really cuts down the amount of digital functions you need to know about<BR>

You'd want to set up the ISO, find out how to format a card, possibly choose between spot or area metering. Probably not much else to begin with. You can add to your repertoire as you go.<BR>

I never read manuals all through unless they're very short, I just look up the things I really need to know, like how to turn off any beep noises, which is the major priority on any camera nowdays<BR>

[Tom Wiggins Photography]

You can pict a digital SLR and directly translate from the film world, DSLRs have so many buttons. My advice is simple read the manual, it takes time to learn, I am on my second DSLR, had it almost a year and I am still finding new features.

[keith selmes]

My DSLR has at least 15 buttons, of which you need to use 4, and one of those is the shutter button.<BR>

There's a switch marked on/off, which hopefully wouldn't need looking up.<BR>

Then there's a dial and for menu selection, when you format the card (and shut down the beeper).<BR>

A dial set to M for manual.<BR>

And a little wheel for shutter speed.<BR>

Most of the other stuff is useful, but you can take good pictures without ever knowing what its for.<BR>

You can learn that stuff in stages.<BR>

 

Once I saw a really top class glider pilot explaining the instrument panel in his very expensive high performance

aircraft. <BR>He went through all the dials and knobs, with people listening attentively and respectfully, then

pointed to one dial and said "and thats the one I use", which I felt was instructive, and applicable to many

walks of life.

[matt_needham]

I went from 50 year old film cameras to DSLRs too. Read the manual, and you'll learn all the features/buttons you can ignore or set once and forget. Just like Photoshop, DSLRs are designed to be jack-of-all-trades so they work for everyone. You don't need to know everything, just what's important for your shooting.

[charlesheckel]

One sticky point in the switch to digital: too many bells and whistles in the software, too few controls on the body to

access them (yes, all those doodads just aren't enough!). This means that the DSLR is a FSM--a finite state

machine. A button that will do one thing in one context does something entirely different in another, and you've got

to keep all those contexts straight. I've got a little P&S with a rotary dial that has 14 different uses, depending on

which controls you've pressed before actuating it. The trick is to decide what you want to do beforehand and note

the entire button-sequence for actuating that feature, go out and use it, and then learn and use the button-sequence

for another feature.<p>I still have to chimp a lot, but then--me Tarzan, you Janne. ;-)

[carbon_dragon]

Sit down in a nice comfortable chair with the manual (and maybe a beer) and go through it. As you go, have the camera there to set the "set once and leave alone" sort of options, like if you're shooting raw and what picture settings you want, and what the output filenames should look like, etc.

 

Then go out and use it for a couple of sessions (I almost said couple of rolls) and get a feel for what you're getting. Then look the manual over again to see what you missed the first time.

 

There's no doubt that a modern camera is a lot more complex with a lot more options, but that's pretty much unavoidable. Maybe the interfaces will improve over time.

[dbcooper]

I did the same thing, going from my FM3A to a D70s two years ago. Like others have said, you'll adjust. Had you

been using a later model auto-focus camera, the transition would have been much easier. Now you'll just have to

climb the learning curve of auto-focus AND digital, but it's not that complicated (hint: in the camera, the

digital part is fairly simple; transitioning to autofocus and most especially auto exposure is the main trick if

you're used to manual cameras).

 

So relax, take a breath, sit with your camera and manual, follow along page by page, push the buttons and levers,

and shoot. When go out to shoot, put the manual in your bag or otherwise keep it handy for reference (clue:

pants/shorts work great for this). Depending on how much you shoot, you'll adjust slowly or quickly, so shoot a

lot - it doesn't hurt a thing (you don't have to buy film or pay for processing), and you can just delete the

mistakes. Did I mention to be sure to read the manual?

 

If you liked the control of manual cameras, don't spend a lot of time learning the built-in 'shooting

modes'...you'll move past that fairly quickly once you understand they're just rough presets, and you'll probably

want more creative control than middle-of-the-road solutions. Concentrate on Manual, Aperture (preferred),

Shutter (preferred), and Program (handy for quick anything shooting). The manual can show you how to set the

camera for each of these. Learn to see and use the exposure and focus symbols in the viewfinder, 'half press' of

the shutter to lock exposure and/or focus, and work on turning the command and sub-command dials without removing

your eye from the viewfinder. They're identified in the manual. Also learn to locate the exposure compensation

button by feel. Turn off the in-camera flash until you get comfortable with the controls (IMO, you'll take better

pictures if you never use the built-in flash). I think I've used it on my D200 just once in a year and a half in

'commander mode' to trigger an off-camera Speedlight. For flash use, it's very helpful to read the manual.

 

My frequency of use is: 90% aperture-preferred, followed by program, sometimes full-manual, and (seldom)

shutter-preferred, but that's just me. You'll sort it out quickly, but you gotta read the manual, be able to find

the controls, and take it out and shoot to get comfortable with it. I keep the manual in my bag, for reference in

case I get stuck or forget something. There's no way out of reading the manual. Really.

 

Above all, have fun!