How long to learn camera controls?

[jrkliny]

I have been using aperture priority and occasionally manual mode for years. I quickly learned how to use the Fv mode on my Canon R7 but it is still far from automatic to make adjustments quickly on the fly. Knowing and using are different.

 

[AWG_Pics]

Since the early 1980s I have tried to learn about camera gear and photography. But, two challenges keep cropping up over and over:

1 - the gear keeps evolving and changing. I have to re-learn so many things.

and

2 - my interests keep evolving and changing. I have to figure out so many things I had not thought about before.

Oh well. No one makes me do this except myself.

 

[tbcass]

2 - my interests keep evolving and changing. I have to figure out so many things I had not thought about before.

Oh well. No one makes me do this except myself.

Same with me. I have attempted just about every type of photography except astro which takes special equipment and patience, and underwater. If I had to stick with one specialty I would get bored.

--
Tom

 

[SoCalAngler]

I mentioned that to focus on great composition someone has to learn how to use camera without thinking about every setting which could take a while, and someone answered to me it took them "one week" to learn camera controls i did not believe it, but then someone else said the same thing to me that it took them also "one week" so i don't know anymore perhaps i am the only one who took 6 or a year to have good understand :

• How Aperture affects DoF, sharper lens, diffraction.
• How focus distance affects DoF and background blur.

Only much later after couple years of photography i learned

• How to use high ISO properly to use it to avoid excessive noise.
• How to set metering AF/MF/Continous focus & Creative style and other camera settings that not directly affect shot, but still help.

And me is a technical person who learn all this by trial and error doing lots of field tests and comparisons, perhaps if i read the book about photography i could have learned all this much faster, but still to understand how this works it took me years of practice, not "one week".

How long it took you to learn this things to the point when you don't need to think about camera controls anymore and always able to set appropriate settings subconsciously for every scene type?

Regarding learning managing basic photography parameters (e.g. relationships between shutter speed, aperture, film ASA speeds, DOF, etc) I learned via reading, experimentation, and high school photography classes in the 1970s.

In the digital age I really started learning metering, managing ISO and other factors when I purchased my first DSLR in 2006. I am still learning because cameras have changed for the better. This is a continuous process. For example, the metering on my current Nikon Z bodies is different than my older Nikon DSLRs. It took me a few years to arrive at a good working understanding of Nikon Picture Controls, yet I am leaning more now because Nikon has expanded the number of parameters that can be adjusted.

Regarding understanding and becoming familiar with camera controls if you hand me any current Nikon DSLR or Z body I will be familiar with the controls withing a few hours if not immediately. Even with the new ZR, which uses different control layout, because the menu system is nearly identical to the other bodies.

Now being familiar enough with the controls to know where they are and get to them without much though is not the same thing as using them to the greatest effectiveness for me. When I got my first Z body, a Z5 I had the camera set up and ready to use within an hour. I based the initial set up on how my D7100 was set up. But it took me about six months of weekly usage to get it configured to the point where I really didn't need to think about much when capturing images with the features and functions, including focusing and metering modes, that I use regularly. A considerable part of that effort is learning all the interrelationships between menu settings and controls (e.g. which settings disable or otherwise limit other options, settings and controls which may override others, what the automatic settings actually do, etc.)

For functions that I do not use regularly, like interval shooting, focus shift, or any video, HDR, double exposure, to name a few, I have to dig into a reference book, and then I'm likely to forget again since those are not capabilities I use regularly. Sometime in the next year I am going to add a Nikon Z5II or Z6III in will probably need about six months of experimentation to really setup the focusing system the way I want and configure the control accordingly. Even with four years with my Z5 I still occasionally make some changes to my configuration as I find was to do things that work better for me.

There is enough similarity between camera controls on Nikon, Sony, Canon, Fuji, Panasonic, etc that If I were handed one today I could be capturing good images within a few minutes. I would take me a day with the manual and other guides to learn what the controls are and how they could be configured. It may take me a week to get to an initial configuration that I was comfortable with for most of the photography that I do. But like with my Nikons, it is probably going to take at least six months of frequent usage to start to get really comfortable with the capabilities that I use most frequently - perhaps even longer since the buttons are arranged differently and the menu systems are very different.

I find the process a continuous one as I learn new techniques or better understand camera capabilities. I recently made a beneficial (for me) change to how I have my D7100 configured and that is a camera I have had for 11 years.

I don't think anyone can really come in cold to a new system and within a week learn how to configure the controls and use them in the most effective and efficient way possible. Even if the system is familiar, there may be changes to menus, the metering system, focusing, etc. that require more time investment.

 

[5354photos]

Even for my 10 years old M43 cameras, there are so many controls and settings to understand. Quite often, I thought I knew and only found out I was not really using it properly.

 

[tclune]

It only takes me until I start post-processing to learn whether I chose the right aperture and shutter...