Complex cameras with hundreds of pages of instruction

[Bobapingu]

Has anyone else noticed that the newest M43 cameras and other mirrorless cameras have become very complex to learn and use. When you open the box, you are told to read the user manual in its entirety before using. This can be a lengthy task-- here are some examples of manual page counts:

Camera Model Page Count

Panasonic GH6 831

Olympus OM-1 331

Sony A1 89

Sony A7 IV 496

Nikon Z9 Reference guide 914
User manual 74

Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 170

I guess the GH6 at 831 pages may be easier to learn than the Nikon Z9 at 988 pages! Not sure why the A1 manual is so short in comparison.

Even with these lengthy instruction manuals, the information is often insufficient to determine how best to use a given feature in typical use cases. I personally have spent days in testing and reviewing YouTube videos from testers in order to try and understand the best use of many GH6 features. This weekend I spent a day testing to find the best settings for stabilization when shooting while walking. My cell phone produces excellent stable video while walking around, but the GH6 not so much even after trying all the combinations of lens and stabilization settings. It was equally hard to try and understand the limitations of the Hand-Held High-Resolution modes.

This complexity leads to pages of confusion in this forum as users discuss issues which may be affected by a variety of setting interactions and reach differing conclusions leading to endless threads of discussion.

I hope future cameras will find better ways to simplify the User experience and follow some of the improvements in useability introduced by the camera cell phone industry.

___
==Doug

I find the camera manuals horrid things to read. They read as though they were writted by an algorithm, maybe they were. It's like, "To do this, press this, this and that. When doing this you can't do this, that and the other thing". There is no humanity, seemingly deliberately so for fear of being argued against. Adobe has no such reticence. They have any number of excellent tutorials with real people not afraid to express their opinion on how best to achieve results. This is what I want to see in relation to cameras and lenses.

 

[steppenwolfer]

My approach is to take new camera out of the box and use basic settings without looking into user manual at all. After I familiarize with basic operation I start to explore other options that I am interested in. Must admit, modern cameras are like office software to me, I use only fraction of their potential. Too bad, there are no free alternatives as in case of (office) software :-D

 

[nzmacro]

Whack on a manual focus lens, set "M" on the dial, set ISO, set aperture and shutter speed, job done, click, click click.

What's that, a tenth of a page, even less.

Danny.

 

[steppenwolfer]

Whack on a manual focus lens, set "M" on the dial, set ISO, set aperture and shutter speed, job done, click, click click.

What's that, a tenth of a page, even less.

Danny.

I am more lazy, set it to A and use AF. Usually one of the wheels on camera take care of F no. and when I am bold I set it to Auto ISO with high limit setting!

 

[ahaslett]

Whack on a manual focus lens, set "M" on the dial, set ISO, set aperture and shutter speed, job done, click, click click.

What's that, a tenth of a page, even less.

Danny.

You forgot to mention - copy AF settings from Danny!

 

[nzmacro]

Whack on a manual focus lens, set "M" on the dial, set ISO, set aperture and shutter speed, job done, click, click click.

What's that, a tenth of a page, even less.

Danny.

I am more lazy, set it to A and use AF. Usually one of the wheels on camera take care of F no. and when I am bold I set it to Auto ISO with high limit setting!

 

[nzmacro]

Whack on a manual focus lens, set "M" on the dial, set ISO, set aperture and shutter speed, job done, click, click click.

What's that, a tenth of a page, even less.

Danny.

You forgot to mention - copy AF settings from Danny!

 

[Guy Parsons]

Whack on a manual focus lens, set "M" on the dial, set ISO, set aperture and shutter speed, job done, click, click click.

What's that, a tenth of a page, even less.

Danny.

No, go all auto with a proper lens and P mode and auto ISO.

Get results and analyse why anything is not as liked, have a rethink about settings. Ask about your shots in a forum showing examples of problems.

Then graduate to A mode and use the lens properly.

Finally RTFM and see what other clever things you can do with the camera.

 

[nzmacro]

Whack on a manual focus lens, set "M" on the dial, set ISO, set aperture and shutter speed, job done, click, click click.

What's that, a tenth of a page, even less.

Danny.

No, go all auto with a proper lens and P mode and auto ISO.

Get results and analyse why anything is not as liked, have a rethink about settings. Ask about your shots in a forum showing examples of problems.

Then graduate to A mode and use the lens properly.

Finally RTFM and see what other clever things you can do with the camera.

I'll try that Guy.

 

[ahaslett]

Whack on a manual focus lens, set "M" on the dial, set ISO, set aperture and shutter speed, job done, click, click click.

What's that, a tenth of a page, even less.

Danny.

You forgot to mention - copy AF settings from Danny!

Ha, at least mine work with AF. That takes another two lines I have no idea why some have issues with AF

I use MF a lot for landscape. Love the Pro lenses where you can snap the ring back to a pre-established focus point. Have a control on my R4 set to MF for that composition moment. Very disappointed with how poorly designed the MF is on the Sony 100-400GM, presumably the 200-600G is better? About to learn how to capture 14y old grand-daughter playing serious football.

Andrew

 

[Wu Jiaqiu]

you only "referred" to the manual when you were completely stuck or needed to find something specific, i went to look at some cameras a few years back and a certain model took me about a minute to find the on/off switch because between models it had moved...... gotta laugh

 

[SpinOne]

Not sure why the A1 manual is so short in comparison.

Well, A1 is a steak sauce, so I'm surprised it needed as many as 89 pages.

My biggest problem with camera manuals is not so much their length, but their over-emphasis on what the various settings are rather than why you might choose one setting over another.

That's because the camera manual is a reference guide for how to use a specific camera, not a textbook on how to take photos.

 

[thinkinginimages]

As a Panasonic owner - yes the manuals can be a bit "thorough". They used to be broken down into 3 units: quick start, basic, and advanced for some cameras.

I always download the PDF versions and keep them in a shareable place so I can access them on my phone, computer, etc. The benefit is that the PDF's are searchable and it's much easier to jump from point to point.

 

[MarkAndrewsUK]

I hope future cameras will find better ways to simplify the User experience and follow some of the improvements in useability introduced by the camera cell phone industry.

___
==Doug

I think you're right to a point, but I think we need to keep in mind that dedicated digital cameras are specialist tools which require more knowledge, whereas the mobile phones have simply taken over the point and shoot category in which the cameras were never particularly complicated to begin with.

Absolutely true though that all the camera makers (but especially OM) do need to work on making their cameras more accessible in order to meet the expectations of the younger generation who have learned their photography on smartphones. Olympus/OM burying every new computational feature in menus frustrates the hell out of me.

 

[JasonTheBirder]

And most people stop at page 10, and then ask this forum's members how to use their gear, many of them who themselves don't even own the camera get the manual, read it, and answer their question!

I might be in the minority, but I think it's a good thing that people do that. Technology has enabled us to be so self-sufficient that it's harder to run into reasons to need other people. If I want food, a machine takes me to get it and another machine lets me scan and buy it without even interacting with one person. The internet makes it so that I don't have to ask anyone about anything.

So I welcome random people not wanting to read their manual and come here instead. In a world where it's easier and easier to be self-sufficient, I think we shouldn't push away the last vestiges of human contact and mutual reliance.

 

[skysurfer5]

Not sure why the A1 manual is so short in comparison.

Well, A1 is a steak sauce, so I'm surprised it needed as many as 89 pages.

My biggest problem with camera manuals is not so much their length, but their over-emphasis on what the various settings are rather than why you might choose one setting over another.

That's because the camera manual is a reference guide for how to use a specific camera, not a textbook on how to take photos.

I'm not talking about how to take photos. I'm talking about how settings affect the process and why you might choose one setting over another. For example, what to do with C-AF Center Start and C-AF Center Priority and why? Or, what is the real-world meaning of the focus stacking differential? Rather than requiring me to experiment, why not provide a mathematical formula I can work with so I can work more efficiently for macro photography? There are many more examples I could give.

 

[Bobapingu]

My approach is to take new camera out of the box and use basic settings without looking into user manual at all. After I familiarize with basic operation I start to explore other options that I am interested in. Must admit, modern cameras are like office software to me, I use only fraction of their potential. Too bad, there are no free alternatives as in case of (office) software :-D

I think that's a good approach. One can quickly get into a mess. In fact I'm about to do a factory reset. There'll probably be a few more before I'm done
Oly goes all out for extreme customisation. That's fair enough for a flag ship camera. Unfortunately, the only fall back is auto everything that leaves one with a very expensive phone that doesn't make calls. A tripple level menu mode structure would be good, auto everything mode, a McDonald's mode to satisfy the majority and a professional mode.

 

[Henry Richardson]

Over the last 22+ years of using various digital cameras I have found that if one chooses to that one can usually ignore most of the fancy functions and just use PASM, S-AF, etc. and then then almost all cameras are not so complicated. If you want to make use of all kinds of new, fancy stuff though then it can be complicated.

--
Henry Richardson
http://www.bakubo.com

 

[Henry Richardson]

Over the last 22+ years of using various digital cameras I have found that if one chooses to that one can usually ignore most of the fancy functions and just use PASM, S-AF, etc. and then then almost all cameras are not so complicated. If you want to make use of all kinds of new, fancy stuff though then it can be complicated.

Back in the 1960s someone gave me a toy Diana camera that used 120 roll film. I think that it cost about $2 including a roll of Kodak Plus-X B&W 120 film (12 exposures) in the package. You can still buy them new for around $50 (without film) and they are sort of popular with the art crowd. Anyway, my recollection is that the instruction manual was very simple. In fact, I think the "manual" was just a bit of info printed on the back of the cardboard backing for the clear plastic packaging that hung on a hook in the store. Easy peasy.

--
Henry Richardson

http://www.bakubo.com

 

[Bobapingu]

Dad's instructions to me when he gave me his Zeiss Ikon Ikonta was, leave the dial with 100 on it on 100, the other on 8 when it's cloudy because 8 looks like a cloud, 11 when it's sunny and the front dial on the red dot (hyperfocal distance).