Viewfinder?? We don't need no stinkin' viewfinder!
15about this time last year, the wife and i took the boy to a pumpkin farm. i decided to take my good camera with me (nikon D90). wanting a picture of the three of us and not wanting to look like a tool trying to take a selfie with a full size DSLR, i asked a nice young lady (probably college age) if she'd take a picture of us. here's the conversation that ensued:
me: hi, can you take a picture of us?"
her: sure.
i hand her the camera
me: just press this button halfway. it'll beep, then press it all the way down
her: ok.
she hold the camera up and then gets a confused look
me: something wrong?
her: yeah. where do i look?
me: what do you mean?
her: the screen's off.
me: oh, that's normal. just look through the viewfinder.
her: the what?
inaudible sigh from me and i walk over
me: the viewfinder. it's right here. just put your eye up to it and you'll be able to see what you're taking a picture of.
her: ok
she takes the picture
her: here you go. that's a really weird camera. i've never had to look through a hole to take a picture.
i'm fighting the urge to say "in my day..."
me: yeah, it's an older camera. thanks though!
am i really just getting THAT old? i don't think i'm that old. i don't think i look that old (i hope). i know i don't feel that old. i take pictures with my cell phone 90% of the time. but for that other 10%, i just don't trust a cell phone to always capture the scene. (plus, i like to shoot RAW)
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I miss viewfinders. I still have a digital camera with one but it's slow and big so I don't use it much. I think it has a 10X optical zoom.
I have the screen turned off on mine and only use the viewfinder, also. I have also had people get confused by it. I feel like I get better pictures using the viewfinder over the screen. Of course, I pull out the DSLR less frequently than the phone, but when I use my camera, I want to do it right (well, as right as I can in auto mode). You're not old; you're smart.
Viewfinders are great for sunny days. Not as great for knowing if the pic is in focus. Also great for when you have the screen off so you can take "stealthy" photos... (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)
@medz I always have a problem believing that the image is in focus when I use the screen. I just don't trust it.
I've always used Canon PowerShots and made a point of only buying versions that include a viewfinder. If for no other reason, turning off the screen and using the viewfinder gives significantly longer battery life. It's been a while since I've upgraded and I fear the viewfinder will be a thing of the past.
I don't have the camera thing in common, but my kid found a cd and my old discman in the garage and couldn't figure out what it was. When I showed him, he pointed out that we've come a long way since I was young.
Thanks, kid.
@jaremelz
Discman? Luxury! I still drive a car with a cassette player.
@KDemo We also found my collection of tapes dating back to Billy Idol's Rebel Yell. I can send them right to you!
@jaremelz it feels weird knowing I'll be the last generation to know what physical media was like, not have the Internet our whole lives, rent movies from an actual store, and not have cell phones as a kid.
@JonT you could just mess with your kids and pretend that cassette tapes are a brand new technology that you are beta testing.
"Child! look at this new technology that only you and i are privy to!"
"wow dad! what is it!"
"it's a magnetic storage medium for data! and it has built in security so the data will degrade itself as it gets used more and more often."
@carl669 this is a genius idea, I'm surprised this isn't a YouTube channel already - tricking kids into thinking old tech is new!
@JonT i called dibs! if only i had the time and motivation to do this. i also think we'll have to wait a few more years to pull this off successfully.
@JonT I think the worst one was explaining to our kids that at one point, you got up every time you wanted to change the tv channel.
But on the up side, there weren't that many to choose from.
@carl669 I for one can't wait to see the spin you put on the sound quality of these
@JonT the React channel on YouTube does something vaguely like this- they gather their panel of teenagers and show them a thing, and ask a couple of questions about it first. Afterwards, they have them try to use it, and then get their thoughts on this. They've done episodes on older music, classic consoles, and TV shows.
@dashcloud I love that channel.
@mfladd Perfect
@carl669 photo challenge. I want to see little Carl with a jack-o-lantern on his head. So cute.
I haven't had this happen yet, but what normally happens is they try to push 10 buttons before they finally release the shutter.
...I'm not that old either...
Lots of things are better when they are done RAW.
@2many2no
@2many2no
@jaremelz uhh...i'm thinking i don't want lemon juice anywhere near anything that's RAW.
@jaremelz
@nadroj Just don't look up lemon party. You've been warned.
@jaremelz I hate politics.
@nadroj Yeah, it's a political thing. Call it that and don't go looking.
I love my Fuji. Optical viewfinder most of the time, with an electronic phase-detect focus patch, full electronic when I need it, and best of all — it's in the right place! (Far left, though they inexplicably sell models with an EVF centered like an SLR also). Also I can control it from my phone, so no pawning it off on third parties.
Remember when you would ask someone to take a picture with your phone and you had to explain how to use it? We've come a long way in a short period of time.
@cinoclav People still try to tap my screen to take the pic. All that does is focus on whatever they tapped on. You have to tap the camera icon or press the volume rocker to take the photo. I assume with iphones you just tap the screen since this seems to be a very common problem for me.
@medz No, it's the same thing with iPhones. Tapping the screen focuses on that area. Press the on screen shutter button or either of the volume keys to actually take the photo.
@cinoclav Now I have to ask people to hold my selfie stick and watch their expressions when they see what I mean.
@editorkid I've asked people to hold my selfie stick. Only been arrested 3 times. Probably should have waited til selfie sticks were invented.
Okay, photogs, what happened here? I didn't post any of these (super moon pix) last month because I was so disappointed with them (one of these days I'll learn how to properly take shots of the moon....rule number one...make sure it's in focus).
But almost all of the pictures I took have this double image.
Canon 40D (the kind with a viewfinder). I have a battery adapter so it's plugged in and a timer switch.
@lisaviolet I don't even photography, but my guess is. it's similar to a lens flare with the sun. The bright part of the moon caused the flare which is why it's shaped like that.
This was the last one I took. You can see a faint moon image at about ten o'clock.
@lisaviolet yeah. definitely looks like lens flare. (disclaimer: i'm not a professional photographist)
@lisaviolet I'm pretty sure it's another planet. Mars?? ;)
@lisaviolet I don't believe that this is flare, I believe that this is ghosting (the two are often confused). Your lens (assuming I'm finding data on the correct one) has 16 pieces of glass in it, some are stuck to each other, so effectively there are 12 air gaps where the light coming in gets to go between glass & air & back again. While lens designers try to minimize reflection potential on glass, it's difficult and costly to do so, so we get ghosting - highlights in your image reflecting around internally. This is typically more of a problem with cheaper lenses, and more of a problem at the long end of a zoom (which, generally speaking, is the less performant end). Ordinarily, this happens with the sun, or other boring point light sources - you just end up with either circles of light or oddly-shaped chunks of light (from aspheric elements) in your normal, daytime image. As a photographer, I think what happened with yours is kind of neat - that ghost is actually a moon ghost, since your point light source was actually a moon! Final thought, the moon itself is overexposed &mdash I'm guessing, perhaps, you had some kind of averaging meter mode set, which saw a whole lot of darkness in the scene and overcompensated. It's a tricky scene, and spot metering the moon (and even then, probably manually riding your EV comp) is likely necessary. If the exposure were a few EV down, details on the moon would be visible, and the ghost would likely be dark enough to fade into the sky.
(Side note: at least, to me, flare is a different phenomenon… also partially related to internal reflections, but where point light sources, often from out of frame, first spread into large blankets of light (from hitting the front piece of glass) that cause an overall increase in light and therefore reduction in contrast in a large portion of the frame.)
@luvche21
@luvche21 I like that explanation. If I could zoom in, maybe I could see some salt water...
@brhfl Thanks for the explanation, that makes sense. The lens is a Canon 28-135mm Ultrasonic.
I do think it's pretty neat, I tried to do a little video with the series, but there weren't enough to use (I had to move the camera to keep the moon in view). The more light on the moon, the farther away the ghost moon was.
And it never helps when it's damp outside. That's what happened during the last eclipse.
I kind of figured it was over exposed because of the light halo. I really need to work on my moon shots. I can get them okay during the day, but at night, forget it. I'm hoping for the next super moon eclipse, I'll be ready (what, like thirteen years or something?).
@lisaviolet i think the next one isn't until 2033. plenty of time to get your night moon shots figured out! unless @jaremelz comes by and messes it up.
@carl669 As soon as the coffee kicks in, I'm jumping up to take that moon out.
@jaremelz don't do it! if you destroy the moon, you destroy the earth! and that's where i keep all my stuff! (for now)
@carl669 You planning on taking off any time soon?
@jaremelz the mothership is coming soon to take us away. at least, that's what the cult leader promised us.
@carl669 Your mothership welcome package should be delivered shortly.
@carl669, I had that exact thing happen to me when @dalek and I were in Europe last year. We asked a group of older women to take a photo of us and they were super confused that they had to use the viewfinder on my D3000.
@hollboll hmm...i thought this phenomenon was only applicable to the younger generation. now i have to rethink my "damned youngins!" philosophy.
@carl669 right? It was super weird.
@hollboll Somewhat related - When in Vegas many years ago, my friends and I asked a couple of older ladies if they'd take a picture of us. They said sure, then proceeded to use their own camera.
@pitamuffin i'm not sure if this is hilarious or creepy. maybe both.
@pitamuffin that's actually fantastic.
In the vein of everything old is new again, my oldest is currently playing on a Gameboy and a Gameboy Color. If only I'd known to keep all my old systems, I could have been the best mom ever.
@jaremelz If you've still got the games, but no system, you should look into getting a Retrode 2- it's a device that you put your cartridges into, and then plug into your computer through USB- you can then use your favorite emulator to play your cartridge, and usually read & save progress directly to the cartridge.
Otherwise, Gamestop.com has a good selection of systems and games.
@dashcloud Believe it or not, we donated everything years ago. Five different systems, plus games. If you'd told me a decade ago that my kids would be this crazy about such old games and systems, I'd have thought you were nuts.
@jaremelz If your kids are still into retro stuff later this year, I could send you some Gameboy stuff, and some games for other systems.
@dashcloud Seriously, how am Imissing comments to me?
Thank you, very much! I'd have a hard time turning down any Gameboy stuff, whenever you can! I'll pay shipping. Or trade a felted or knitted piece, if you'd like.
@jaremelz Sorry to dredge this thread up again, but if you're still interested in Gameboy stuff, email me at dashcloud19 at gmail.
@dashcloud Answered, and thanks.
@dashcloud Ah, it's your fault I necroposted!
@jqubed You are wrong sir- it's @christinewas's fault you necroposted.
My cellphone shots raw, with full manual controls (lens has a fixed aperture at f1.8, which is a little annoying when everything else is adjustable, but I guess I'd prefer that wide open aperture in most situations). I know what you mean, though.
@jqubed your cell shoots raw? what phone do you have? i'm due for an upgrade (4.5 year old SGS2) and there hasn't been anything out there to push me over the edge to actually do it.
@carl669 I have an LG G4. The slightly newer LG V10 seems to be similarly spec'd but has an extra gig of RAM, so I'd probably go that way (and have indeed thought about selling the G4 and upgrading). I did just get upgraded to Marshmallow and it does appear to have actually improved the phone's battery life, which was already pretty good. It has a removable battery and mine came with a promo where I got a spare battery and a charging cradle to keep the battery in, plus a free 32 GB microSD card (supports up to a 2 TB microSD card). The sound quality isn't as good as my old HTC One, but everything else is better.