Control dial preference - PASM vs shutter speeds & f stops

[Paper Wasp]

I have an Olympus OM-D EM-10. It has a PASM dial (with some other positions on it as well) and front and rear control dials. There's lots of flexibility with what dial controls what function, which direction to turn to select more or less exposure, etc. The result is that, once you set up what you want and get used to it, all the actions you need for setting the camera while looking through the viewfinder are very quick and accessible while holding the camera. I've also assigned a button to bring up the ISO selection, so that's fairly fast also. For sports, wildlife, impatient relatives, etc., this is a very effective setup.

Nevertheless, I have had a hard time getting used to it. I keep thinking I would prefer a setup like some of the Fuji or Leica cameras, and a few others, that have a shutter speed dial on the camera with A at one end for Automatic, and an f stop dial on the lens, also with A on one end. This would seem more intuitive, after my many years of using an M3 with, of course, a shutter speed dial on the camera and f stop dial on the lens.

I imagine this would have the advantage that you could check your settings without having to look at the viewfinder or screen, and I imagine it would be just as fast in hurried situations where you don't want to take your eye off the viewfinder.

But I'd be grateful for any thoughts others have on the question, especially if you've had experience with both setups in the digital camera era.

 

[yardcoyote]

My preference is definitely for the traditional controls, particularly for a marked, clicking aperture ring on the lens. This is why I will never give up my Fujis. I have found a hybrid workflow that I also enjoy with my Nikon Zf, using Nikon lenses with a programmable control ring which I can use as an unmarked aperture ring. This is not ideal for several important reasons, but it works well and is fun in its own way. Plus I have one lens with a real aperture ring for that camera, and hope to get more.

MFT is right out if you want a traditional shooting experience, but it has other strong points. I have an E-M10ii and enjoy it very much, but I had to meet it where it was.

--
Instagram: @yardcoyote

 

[Ruedon]

I like the way Nikon is doing it: PASM and two control dials along with auto ISO. The front dial replaces an aperture ring at the lens and the rear dial is for shutter speed. I can operate them blindly without taking my eye off the viewfinder. Another good thing is that the camera remembers the last respective setting.

Often times I use S for sports, dialing in shutter speed such as 1/640s myself and letting the lens open automatically. If I happen to take a group shot, then I just change to A and select e.g. f/5.6 for more depth of field. Shutter speed reduces automatically to my configured minimum of 1/125s, keeping ISO down. By just switching between S and A, I get my pre-selected value for shutter speed and aperture, respectively.

Now the Z fc (and Zf) with traditional controls: I can use the explicit dial for shutter speed to pre-select a value. This value only takes effect in S and M mode. Some find this confusing. I like my "storage" of pre-selected shutter speed. It would take more time to turn the dial to a dedicated A position, instead of just switching PASM mode.

This means that the actual difference between explicit dial for shutter speed and a modern design is not that big, in particular when having a top display on the camera body.

 

[jonby]

For me the issue with traditional shutter speed dials now is that they only offer whole-stop values, in an era where cameras pretty much universally offer third-stop control, and let's face it, having that control is too useful to pass up. I know Fuji and others offer third-stop control via a command dial, but then you are using two controls and the shutter speed dial no longer necessarily shows the true speed. This, for me, is a bit of a cludge. It worked well in the film era when the cameras only offered whole stops, but not so much now.

What I do like about traditional dials is being able to set them and know what they're set to with the camera off, but this isn't enough of an advantage to outweigh the above, for me.

The exposure mode thing, well, I rarely change mode, so I'm not too bothered about how this is done. I use manual 95% of the time when using a MILC with decent controls, and aperture priority when using a compact.

 

[NAwlins Contrarian]

Control dial preference - PASM vs shutter speeds & f stops ....

But I'd be grateful for any thoughts others have on the question, especially if you've had experience with both setups in the digital camera era.

What I really want--I'm not sure any camera offers it--are dedicated physical controls for each of the exposure triad, i.e., shutter speed, aperture, and gain.* In some ways, ideally all three would be on the camera body, recognizing the reality that there are more than a few lenses I want to use that don't have aperture rings. But one issue is that, as mentioned above, at least some (most?) such controls only move in full-stop increments, and that's insufficient, they should at least offer third-stop increments. Yes, I realize that probably means they'd have to lose the markings. I'd be okay with that, because such changes are easy enough to see in the viewfinder and/or on the read screen (or top screen on some cameras). Does such a camera exist?

*The thing you're changing is not "ISO", although it's often called that, and it's not precisely sensitivity either. For short I call it gain, although there are some good arguments that that's not technically accurate.

 

[Ruedon]

Control dial preference - PASM vs shutter speeds & f stops ....

But I'd be grateful for any thoughts others have on the question, especially if you've had experience with both setups in the digital camera era.

What I really want--I'm not sure any camera offers it--are dedicated physical controls for each of the exposure triad, i.e., shutter speed, aperture, and gain.* In some ways, ideally all three would be on the camera body, recognizing the reality that there are more than a few lenses I want to use that don't have aperture rings. But one issue is that, as mentioned above, at least some (most?) such controls only move in full-stop increments, and that's insufficient, they should at least offer third-stop increments. Yes, I realize that probably means they'd have to lose the markings. I'd be okay with that, because such changes are easy enough to see in the viewfinder and/or on the read screen (or top screen on some cameras). Does such a camera exist?

Have a look at the Nikon Z fc (or Zf). They have dedicated physical controls for each setting of the exposure triad at the body + exposure compensation. In the case of aperture with front dial and small LCD top display. Only shutter speed has full increments, but can be set to 1/3 STEP. Additionally you have a PASM selector in case you prefer this operation.

*The thing you're changing is not "ISO", although it's often called that, and it's not precisely sensitivity either. For short I call it gain, although there are some good arguments that that's not technically accurate.

I use auto ISO and thus control it indirectly with aperture and shutter speed, attempting to keep it as low as possible. If a fast moving subject requires a high shutter speed, then I need to let ISO go up, for instance. Often light changes a lot between subsequent photos, e.g. due to sun or shadow. Auto ISO takes care of that, and the specific value is arbitrary to a large extent, whereas shutter speed and aperture should be where I want them.

This is also why I don't really need a physical dial for ISO. I like the idea of Fujifilm to replace it with something else like picture controls (X-T50, X-E5).

 

[MJ_Photo38]

It depends what I'm shooting or what kind of experience I want to have. It also depends if you can have multiple cameras or not.

I personally have both type of cameras (Olympus and Nikon on one side and Fujifilm on the other).

I like both, but not for the same reasons. PSAM is more efficient, as you said. It's the control system that puts the least friction between you and the exposure changes that you want to make. It's the kind of camera I take with me when the result or the time needed to take the shot is important. Read : paid gigs, events, sports and action and also stuff like hiking or travel when I'm with other people that are not photographers and I don't want to delay the group too much, so the shorter time I need to take a picture the better it is.

Cameras with shutter speed dials on the other hand, are a little less efficient, sometimes considerably so depending on where the dials are located. It's a process that's a little more involved (sometimes) as you're fiddling with dials with numbers on them instead of scrolling through shutter speed value with no real impact on a screen. What I found is that having a shutter speed dial allows you to really be conscious of how many stops you've gone through, as each click is a full stop. With a PSAM camera, you often lost count of the 1/3rd stop increments that you've gone through to get the image exposed correctly and it can lead to exposure errors.

The result is that I use those cameras when I am shooting for myself and I have time to compose and expose my shots properly without any added stress. It doesn't mean that I absolutely *can't* shoot acting with Fujifilm cameras, but it's not the prefered camera system that I would use for that.

One solution to this conundrum though, is that if you get a Fujifilm camera like the X-H1, X-T3, X-T4 or X-T5, those cameras have the ability to kind of emulate the PSAM way.

In short, you can set the camera to only work with command dials, that's what I did with my X-H1 when it was my main camera I used for everything. For shooting sports and actio, where my eye doesn't leave the viewfinder, I had the aperture controlled by the front dial and shutter speed with the back dial. A click on the aperture dial would turn it into the ISO dial. Everything right under my fingers, it was honestly great. The Fujifilm cameras that followed can also do this, generally but the larger X-Tx models have the best feeling (and larger) control dials to make it viable.

When I was shooting the X-H1 for myself, I simply turned the dials / rings out of the A or T position and it was like any other Fujifilm camera with retro dials a rings. I sometimes miss the way the X-H1 worked to be honest, it was a great control scheme. I think the X-H1 is the best camera that can do this, because even when using the control dials instead of the dedicated shutter speed / ISO dials and the aperture ring, you could still see your settings looking at the top display without the need to go look on the back of the screen or in the EVF, thing that the X-T3/4/5 can't do.

 

[jonby]

One thing I would like to see implemented on cameras:-

A 'shift parameter to give normal exposure' button in manual mode. When working in manual exposure mode, the last value you changed manually (aperture or shutter) becomes the 'fixed' parameter, and is highlighted as such, maybe with an underline mark. When you press a specified button, the other parameter jumps to the setting which gives 'normal' exposure based on the meter, while keeping the last-used parameter (and ISO) fixed. This would mean you no longer have to scroll through loads of values in fast-changing situations, and make it close to the speed of using aperture or shutter priority modes, while maintaining the control you get with manual. Pentax had this in many of their DSLRs and it was great, but I don't think anyone else has done anything similar. You could also have another button which keeps both aperture and shutter speed the same but shifts ISO to give correct exposure.