DPReview camera manual of the year

Now we know the best camera perhaps using the same method we can identify the best camera manual. Why are they so awful? Can these big multinational players not afford a decent Technical Author.
I used to think it was translation issues but the G5 manual is b******s in any language. I've never seen a good one for any model.

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Same with the GH2 manual b******s is being kind. The GH3 option is a little better or I am just used to deciphering Panasonicese

Jim

Call yourself men and you are actually reading the manual of an electronic/mechanical device you own?

Far better to deduce it through hours of trial and error (and much shouting from family members)... 

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Panasonic are king of the cr@p manuals, no doubt about it. Olympus aren't great and surprisingly the manual for my Sigma DP2X is actually very good, though it is quite a simple camera to operate anyway. The manual for the Sony Nex 5N was also not bad, shame about menus on the camera itself. Personally I enjoy Olympus's tactic of hiding features for us all to find at a later date, like changing the LCD colour to natural on the E-P3.

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Any problem on earth can be solved by a well aimed Pomegranate...
Tony
http://the-random-photographer.blogspot.com/

My wife has threatened to beat me if I do not follow instruction manuals in the future after an unfortunate self-assembly incident that shall never be spoken of

Jim

Don't waste your time reading the confusing manuals, hand the camera to your 15 year old niece and in about an hour she will describe and demonstrate every feature the camera has plus a few the manual forgot to mention!

The printed or PDF "manual" or "user guide" you receive a courtesy copy of with your camera is really just a list of features and options. Rarely does it tell you how the feature works in great detail  or what impact the various options will have. It just shows you where to go in the user interface to change the options or enable/disable a feature.

I think the manufacturer figures that most of these features are universally understood among experienced photographers, and that less experienced photographers will get that knowledge elsewhere. For example I know from past experience how things like various metering options work, how AEL works, bracketing, etc. I know how AutoISO should work, but will need to look at the individual camera's settings or manual to know how it is implemented and what my options for customizing it are. Even for an experienced user a new camera has a learning curve. How do I make the AF point smaller? How much of the frame does center-weighted metering evaluate?  How do I keep the information I need in the viewfinder or on the LCD? How do I control and fire wireless flashes? What tricks can this camera do that my previous one could not? You either have to work your way through the camera, using the manual as a map for the different features and options that you test through trial and error, taking notes as you go; or you shorten the learning curve by turning to other resources: DPreview, Google searches, and/or third party user guides that have better explanations of the features and settings.

I guess for the manufacturers it comes down to keeping costs down and meeting deadlines. A comprehensive user guide would cost money to produce, money to print, and time. The folks who write the manual probably don't have a ton of time to do it. Still... you would think that they could simply re-use a lot of the same material across models. Some manufacturers try to supplement the manual with more information online... but it's rarely enough. Nikon School will let you sign up (after you pay the course fee) for a seminar on how to use your camera. They tour the major cities, so you might have to wait. I guess this is all why there is a robust cottage industry around writing more comprehensive third-party user guides.

Sean

Camera manuals are like the manual that comes with a new car, shows you where the controls are but it doesn't teach you hw to drive.

German translation is even worse, probably it is the translation of the translation.

For my flash  FL-360 the manual states in german: "If the lamp flashes more than 5 seconds ..."

This was confusing I had to control if the lamp flashes for more than 5 seconds that the flash had worked??

English: "If the lamp continues to flash for about 5 seconds...."

It was not the only one misleading sentence...

to me the best one in the E-M5 manual is "Paint the room" (Raum färben) instead of "Color Space" (Farbraum) ... still ROTFL.

Whenever i have problems to understand what they mean i change the user interface to English, wishing i was able to read and understand Japanese

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I nominate the Panasonic G3's PDF Manual.

When I purchased my G3, I sat at my desk with the PDF Manual open. There is an advanced Search tool that displays all of the references to a particular topic I searched for, such as "rear dial." This topic is not found in the Table of Contents, so the Search feature is great.

Each of the displayed references is a hyperlink so that clicking on the link takes you directly to the reference in the Manual. In less than an hour I had familiarized myself with the basic controls of the camera.

In setting up Custom Configurations later, the Manual was great in showing the particular settings.

While I complained at first at the lack of a comprehensive printed Manual, I've become a fan of the PDF manual because it's so easy to Search for a particular item.

-Richard

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"Careful photographers run their own tests." - Fred Picker

Yes the german translation is sometime real nonsense. Most likely the translater translate manuals for very different devices and have no idea about what they translate.

In the english version at least they use the right terms.

I find that the Casio cameras have good manuals. My wife's ZR100 12.5x zoom pocket camera has a manual about twice the size of the Olympus models and everything seems to be included.

Before any camera purchase I download the PDF and print it at home (bulk refill ink in an old beaten up Canon iP4000 printer, so cost is low), either to A4 or A5 size and read that for a while before getting my hands on the camera.

When the box is opened then there's usually no surprises as I go through the camera menus to set up and only consult the manual for the unclear bits.

My complaint is that the Olympus manuals are too brief, why the heck don't they make a very complete manual, maybe in  a few parts, and then leave it up to the user to download which part suits his/her level of understanding.

They are part way there with the dumb simple one in the box, and the half explained full user manual for download, but then need a bigger and better explained and exampled manual on top of those.

Regards...... Guy

i am sure that Panasonic manuals actually don't refer in anyway to camera they come with, and then we get to the in camera menu, did they make some options so obtuse you have to switch them on and off and play with them to see what it actually means.

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The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

Yes its fun to find out what random menu settings do , though I am worried I might find the self destruct option

Jim

I've tried reading manuals and I just can't make it past a few pages, regardless of where I look (or the product).

I use manuals as the first place I look to help figure something out if I can't just figure it out by playing with the object first.  My next step is the internet (and sometimes that's my first step).

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Russ
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Even bad photography can be fun
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Personally I love the Panasonic manuals. I have no trouble at all reading them. I simply search the document for the setting I want to explore using the .pdf file and it is clear as day to me.

However, I understand that it isn't so clear to everyone else. I have spent countless hours testing the Panasonic cameras so I know the lingo and I know how the menu's work. I even have the .pdf file on my phone so I can look up things anywhere.

There are some good videos that help explain the manuals for those having trouble. I sort of am glad that they scrimp on the manuals if that also means it keeps cost down.

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GH3, Hacked GH2, and Full Spectrum GF1 Sample movies
http://www.youtube.com/user/mpgxsvcd#play/uploads
GH3 Tips and Tricks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIMdxoGbNXU
GH2 Setup Walk through
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uROQbbiiO2I
http://vimeo.com/user442745
GH3, GH2, GF1 Pictures
http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/4222674355/albums

>I've become a fan of the PDF manual because it's so easy to Search for a particular item.

+1, I gave up on printed manuals because of the hard way to search.

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Editor of Digital Outback Photo
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I have a folder icon on my desktop, labelled Manuals, and everything I buy or own which has a pdf manual, has this copied to the 'Manuals' folder, as others here have said, using a pdf reader with the manuals, enables finding any available relevant info required quickly. Find this much better than fumbling around with a less than useful index.

Doing this, I have found little to complain about any manuals.

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Cheers. Ken.
Panny G2, G5, & Fuji W1.
http://www.pbase.com/kentel