Also take a look at Program Shift - Pa/Ps (page 51 of manual!). I
think it would get you pretty close to what you are after....or
closer.
Yes. I agree.
This dispute seems to have arisen as a result of the OP's confusion about what "manual mode" means.
1) There's FULLY MANUAL exposure --
-- which is where any exposure meter is entirely unconnected from the exposure controls of the camera. Reading/estimating the exposure is done with an external meter (or exposure tables, or just plain "experience") and the settings transferred by hand to the camera.
2) And there's METERED MANUAL --
-- where a cross coupled "match needle", "traffic light", or "+
- exposure indicator bar" type built-in meter is available through the viewfinder, or in an external window on the body. These devices can be followed slavishly, or overridden at the photographer's discretion.
It is the first of these that the A2 provides... "Manual" here means "fully manual", although a built in meter is available, it has no cross coupling, and no viewfinder readout in this mode.
Well, that is not exactly true. We are not completely without "correct" exposure indication, even in M mode.....
A) There is the live histogram, which is arguably much more sophisticated and useful than a simple set of go/no-go lights....... ONCE you have learned how to use it.
B) There is also the fact that the whole viewfinder image LIGHTENS or DARKENS in accordance with the settings in force. This class of visual cross-coupled exposure indication is totally unknown in cameras other than the EVF type, and is also pretty good, once you get used to it.
Moreover.......(as Paul indicates in his point quoted above)....
The P mode is as good as, or better than, conventional Metered Manual, because.....
i) it will make a good stab at the exposure without ANY intervention at all,
ii) has program shift on shutter and/or aperture for override purposes (which changes settings without altering exposure level) with on-screen indication provided as "Ps" or "Pa", respectively,
iii) exposure level can also be quickly overridden with +
- button, with on-screen indication of how much is currently applied,
iv) which wheels do what are programmable to suit yourself,
v) as usual, actual shutter speed and aperture settings employed are in view at half-press of the shutter button.
Taken together with A) and B) above, (live histogram and live screen brightness) to complain of the lack of an exposure bar in Manual is to complain too much, I think.
On the other hand.....
I do have sympathy with people who grow used to one mode of working, only to discover that an apparently "more modern" camera doesn't have that feature implemented in quite the same way as is familiar. Indeed, it can even seem perverse on the part of the designers.... [??]
However, my advice to the OP would be get to know the strengths of your camera's ergonomics, and work your own way around the lack of an exposure bar in Manual mode. As will become clearer in time, the A2 gives you lots of ways of doing so... and one of them may be preferable to the methods you are used to.....at least, WHEN you are used to it!
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Footnote:
I have been using the A2 professionally since it first appeared, and there are lots of features I never use .... (audio memos? movie mode? time lapse?).....
BUT.....
...hardly a month goes by without me learning some unexpected usefulness in an A2 feature I had previously dismissed as "not something I needed". Indeed, I have had to admit that the designers of the A2 knew at least as much about WHAT a camera should do, and HOW it should do it, as I did --- and this despite my years working with all different kinds of cameras.
Indeed, the A2 is the most complete-in-itself imaging package I have ever encountered.. and I KEEP learning that it is more competent than I had previously thought!!
I believe others here have made that same discovery.
I wouldn't wish any less for you.
--
Regards,
Baz
