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How do YOU hold your camera????

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Sandman

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Hey Gang,

I went to my favorite butterfly house last Sunday after church and the place was MUCH more crowded than usual (I usually go during the weekdays in the early morning, so almost no one is there). Now, when I'm shooting butterflies, I usually don't pay much attention to anything else and really concentrate on getting some good shots. Well Sunday all of these people were in MY butterfly house and they were all carrying these tiny little plastic and glass things with LCD screens attached. I even noticed that these THINGS produce a flash from time to time.

These people were holding these THINGS out in front of them at arms length and they were snapping pictures like crazy, but the subject was rarely in their frame. Now for my question: IS THIS HOW YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO HOLD A CAMERA? I mean I almost got up on a convenient soapbox right there in the butterfly house and say, PEOPLE, PEOPLE, PEOPLE! Who said this is how you hold a camera?

But then I thought, maybe I'm not holding my camera right! So tell me please, how do YOU hold your camera? Do you look through the hole in your camera or do you use the LCD to frame your pics?

Just always curious about the strangest things!

jim

--
galleries at: http://www.pbase.com/sandman3
critiques at PhotoSig: http://www.photosig.com/userphotos.php?id=15764
 
Actually this is an old hobby of my ,that i think that it does not worth to change it ,now that i got a camera ... hahaha J/K :-)
Sandman said:
Hey Gang,

I went to my favorite butterfly house last Sunday after church and
the place was MUCH more crowded than usual (I usually go during the
weekdays in the early morning, so almost no one is there). Now,
when I'm shooting butterflies, I usually don't pay much attention
to anything else and really concentrate on getting some good shots.
Well Sunday all of these people were in MY butterfly house and they
were all carrying these tiny little plastic and glass things with
LCD screens attached. I even noticed that these THINGS produce a
flash from time to time.

These people were holding these THINGS out in front of them at arms
length and they were snapping pictures like crazy, but the subject
was rarely in their frame. Now for my question: IS THIS HOW YOU
ARE SUPPOSED TO HOLD A CAMERA? I mean I almost got up on a
convenient soapbox right there in the butterfly house and say,
PEOPLE, PEOPLE, PEOPLE! Who said this is how you hold a camera?

But then I thought, maybe I'm not holding my camera right! So tell
me please, how do YOU hold your camera? Do you look through the
hole in your camera or do you use the LCD to frame your pics?

Just always curious about the strangest things!

jim

--
galleries at: http://www.pbase.com/sandman3
critiques at PhotoSig: http://www.photosig.com/userphotos.php?id=15764
Click to expand...
--



Olympus..C2100UZI+A200.1.5X_P-400..HP970Cxi=ZIO_USB..Sanyo1600 NiMh=Manfrotto 190DB+141RC
My mini gallery http://www.sigma-sa.com/kt/pelion/index.htm
 
which camera I am using... if I use the C21oo I usually use the hole in the camera to look through and frame what I want... if I use the "purse" camera D510z I usually use the LCD to frame my pic... as the D510z isn't a TTL viewfinder... but the UZI is... does that count?
Regards,
MaryB
 
LOL! Jim! Where are the pictures of these wanna-bes??? A sight to see for sure. I LOVE using the viewfinder, hardly ever use the LCD screen. It comes in handy now and again, but I could live without it. As you know, being able to view a lot of setting details in the UZI viewfinder is a GREAT feature!

Come on... you gotta have just 1 of shot of these "freaks" :-)

--
Clicker
 
I agree with you, it drives me NUTS when I see them doing that. There is no way they can get a good frame and keep it with the way they hold it.

And there is no way they can tell if it is focused or what the camera settings are doing.

--
Bill Huber, Fort Worth, Tx
UZI, http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber
 
I'd also like to know (see picture of) how people hold their camera when they take portrait shots. Not sure if I'm holding it right....btw, I'm left-eyed.

To answer your question, Sandman, I look thru the EVF. But when I get my new glasses in 2 weeks I might use the LCD screen....bifocals will be stronger and should be able to see the little screen better.
Sandman said:
But then I thought, maybe I'm not holding my camera right! So tell
me please, how do YOU hold your camera? Do you look through the
hole in your camera or do you use the LCD to frame your pics?

Just always curious about the strangest things!

jim

--
galleries at: http://www.pbase.com/sandman3
critiques at PhotoSig: http://www.photosig.com/userphotos.php?id=15764
Click to expand...
--



Debbie
2 UZI's/EZI/2020

Please excuse the typos....I catch them after I press the post button...wish I could go back and correct them......
 
I always, always look through the hole, especially while taking macros...that's with the C2100UZ...don't know about other cameras.

Kathy
Sandman said:
Hey Gang,
Click to expand...
Sandman said:
PEOPLE, PEOPLE, PEOPLE! Who said this is how you hold a camera?

Just always curious about the strangest things!

jim

--
galleries at: http://www.pbase.com/sandman3
critiques at PhotoSig: http://www.photosig.com/userphotos.php?id=15764
Click to expand...
--
Kathy B.
C2100 B300 Bmacro
http://www.photosig.com/viewuser.php?id=22002
http://www.pbase.com/ravenduff
 
Some of these camera don't have a viewfinder, they use the LCD monitor so the only way to see what's in the lens is to hold the camera at arms length (like the Nikon Coolpix 2500 & 4500). Some video cameras are like that too (although lousy for a good picture due to lack of support).

I always use two hands (even with my cheap Jamcam) and look through the viewfinder. With my C700, with the lens tube attached I put my left hand on or under the tube to support it (who's the idiot who designs digital cameras missing the left side of the body so you can't hold it properly, especially for us lefties).
 
Debbie L said:
I'd also like to know (see picture of) how people hold their camera
when they take portrait shots. Not sure if I'm holding it
right....btw, I'm left-eyed.
Click to expand...
I'm also left-eyed, so is Willa. Check out Willa's messages because in a lot of them she has a picture of herself in the mirror taking a picture (just remember it's reversed).

In my case, I added an Orion "accordian" eyecup to my camera's viewfinder to cut down on light leakage due to my nose being in the way when looking through with my left eye.
 
Sandman,

One night the doorbell rang at the apartment of a beautiful young lady. She looked out the peephole and there was no one there. A few minutes later the same thing happened. Then it happened again and again. Frustrated, she finally threw the door open and there on her front porch lay a man with no arms and no legs. She asked him what he wanted. He told her he wanted to make love to her. She laughed and asked him how he could possibly do that. His response was, " How do you think I rang the door bell?" Now ... Jim ... in response to your question of how do I hold my camera ... you just don't want to know!

Erg ( No need to count 'em ... just live 'em )

' I live and breathe to study the words of Newby ... a man of many words ... randomly assembled ( both the words and the man). '
Sandman said:
http://www.pbase.com/ergo/ergoimages
http://www.photosig.com/viewuser.php?id=21003
Click to expand...
 
Good question and comments. With my eyes+glasses I don't know if I
could see enough detail in the lcd screen. w/o the glasses the lcd screen
has to be ~ 4 in away to be in focus and to see the details. Unless the
subject is very big in the frame! I have a problem with extended viewing
thru the viewfinder (which I prefer) that my left eye will start to loose
focusing ability. I have to open my left eye after I have composed the shot
and verified the settings in the vf. This is if I have time to set up the shot,
otherwise, for moving subjects I just end up with a blurred left eye.

Anyone else have this problem?
Just my thoughts.

--
jb
 
Ergo said:
Erg ( No need to count 'em ... just live 'em )
' I live and breathe to study the words of Newby ... a man of many
words ... randomly assembled ( both the words and the man). '
Ergo said:
http://www.pbase.com/ergo/ergoimages
http://www.photosig.com/viewuser.php?id=21003
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
...with 4no arms ner legs...how'd he ring the steenkeen doorbell?...
...hmmm4...(musta had a pal with him)... yeh!.. that's* the ticket!...

...Egro...you can fool some of4 the people some of the time, and drink your water, but I bet ya can't make yer horse do it!...ha-ha-ha!...
...gotcha there ol' 4buddy ol' pal!...
...yer somewhat conspiciously assembled acuaintance,
newb4zy

...PS...hey Sandpebble!...

...yer not makin fun of us poor non evf/ttlv/BVD/sos 2020Z/ov participants, are ya?...
...yer 4at-arms-lengthy pal,
newbiectomy
 
Jim,

99% of the time I look thru the eye thing and that is mainly because of my sight. I don't want to have to wear my glasses.
Sandman said:
Hey Gang,

I went to my favorite butterfly house last Sunday after church and
the place was MUCH more crowded than usual (I usually go during the
weekdays in the early morning, so almost no one is there). Now,
when I'm shooting butterflies, I usually don't pay much attention
to anything else and really concentrate on getting some good shots.
Well Sunday all of these people were in MY butterfly house and they
were all carrying these tiny little plastic and glass things with
LCD screens attached. I even noticed that these THINGS produce a
flash from time to time.

These people were holding these THINGS out in front of them at arms
length and they were snapping pictures like crazy, but the subject
was rarely in their frame. Now for my question: IS THIS HOW YOU
ARE SUPPOSED TO HOLD A CAMERA? I mean I almost got up on a
convenient soapbox right there in the butterfly house and say,
PEOPLE, PEOPLE, PEOPLE! Who said this is how you hold a camera?

But then I thought, maybe I'm not holding my camera right! So tell
me please, how do YOU hold your camera? Do you look through the
hole in your camera or do you use the LCD to frame your pics?

Just always curious about the strangest things!

jim

--
galleries at: http://www.pbase.com/sandman3
critiques at PhotoSig: http://www.photosig.com/userphotos.php?id=15764
Click to expand...
--
Gary W. Hebert
You can rate & critique some of my photos at
http://www.photosig.com/userphotos.php?id=29423

'When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not seen them all.' -Edward O. Wilson
 
Guess I must look like one of those strange people you spoke about, Sandman....I always use the LCD, tilting my head back so I'm looking through the lower (bifocal) part of my glasses....I don't hold it out at arms-length though....closer than that.

I used to try using the viewfinder, but being another left-eyed, lefty, using the viewfinder left the dreaded nose-marks on my LCD, plus, my camera doesn't show the full photo in the viewfinder as in the LCD. So for best composition, I almost always use the LcD.

And, I recently purchased an Extend-A-Lens from Photosolve and FINALLY can see the LCD in sunlight! It's wonderful!

Have you noticed how many lefties are in this forum! (-; Watch out righties....we're takin' over!
--
Lucy
Olympus C3020Z
pbase supporter http://www.pbase.com/lucy
 
I nearly always use the viewfinder (as apposed to TFT display), but the C700Uz has a wide angle TTL viewfinder, so this is the natural choice. If you have an optical viewfinder then the lack of accurary of the viewfinder and its small size would be a problem for me. The other plus with the viewfinder is reduced wobble.

As for general holding, I posted a comment in an earlier thread about camera wobble, which gives soem explicit advice about how to hold you caera, so have re-pasted it here..

P.S. I have taken some 15,000 shots using these techniques.. !

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I also do not miss IS. I find that the use of a handheld tripod to provide a handle to the camera radically reduces the amount of wobble-blur. These are very cheap and the bendy leg versions fit in your pocket like a very fat pen. It seems to me that blurring occurs largely due to camera rotation as the shutter is depressed. Having a handle greatly reduces this.

Of course, I only use the tripod occasionally, as much of the time it it possible to get fast shutter speeds at 10x zoom. The need for stabilisation help is only for gloomy conditions or interior shots.

If I forget the mini tripod then I revert to holding the camera using a vice-like grip, which the heel of your hand on the base and fingers on the top (not the back or front of the camera). The camera can then be held very firmly with the left hand, reducing wobble when operating the shutter.

With these methods in hand I rarely get wobble blur.
Sandman said:
Hey Gang,

I went to my favorite butterfly house last Sunday after church and
the place was MUCH more crowded than usual (I usually go during the
weekdays in the early morning, so almost no one is there). Now,
when I'm shooting butterflies, I usually don't pay much attention
to anything else and really concentrate on getting some good shots.
Well Sunday all of these people were in MY butterfly house and they
were all carrying these tiny little plastic and glass things with
LCD screens attached. I even noticed that these THINGS produce a
flash from time to time.

These people were holding these THINGS out in front of them at arms
length and they were snapping pictures like crazy, but the subject
was rarely in their frame. Now for my question: IS THIS HOW YOU
ARE SUPPOSED TO HOLD A CAMERA? I mean I almost got up on a
convenient soapbox right there in the butterfly house and say,
PEOPLE, PEOPLE, PEOPLE! Who said this is how you hold a camera?

But then I thought, maybe I'm not holding my camera right! So tell
me please, how do YOU hold your camera? Do you look through the
hole in your camera or do you use the LCD to frame your pics?

Just always curious about the strangest things!

jim

--
galleries at: http://www.pbase.com/sandman3
critiques at PhotoSig: http://www.photosig.com/userphotos.php?id=15764
Click to expand...
--
Jeff Rollason
 
Sandman said:
But then I thought, maybe I'm not holding my camera right! So tell
me please, how do YOU hold your camera? Do you look through the
hole in your camera or do you use the LCD to frame your pics?

Just always curious about the strangest things!
Click to expand...
Remember, not everybody has a camera with a viewfinder that shows the exact scene to be shot (either an electronic viewfinder or a SLR mechanism the pro cameras use), so framing the shot with the LCD is the only real way to get an idea of how the shot will look. Also, many cameras out there do not have a diopeter control for the viewfinder for those of us wearing glasses (or even if the camera had it, whether people have read the instruction manual and use it is another question). I find myself, I go back and forth between the two. Certainly for tripod work, I always use the LCD. If I need more detail in framing, I use the LCD. If I'm taking pictures at low light, I tend to use the LCD. If I'm using my old D-510Z that doesn't have an electronic viewfinder, I will use the LCD more often. If my eyes are tired, I often times will use the LCD. Certainly in bright sun, I use the viewfinder. For most shots, though I do use the viewfinder.
 
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