[ChristianG]

Along the lines of various other "rants" which have appeared in these pages I submit for your "edification" the following:

• How a camera handles is important to me.

Why? "Handling" is entirely subjective at the best of times. Not only does it depend solely on your own interpretation of it, and we're all (thankfully) different, but underwater the camera has nothing to do with it anyway, you do use a housing don't you? Sure, if the buttons are laid out logically (only by your standards) on the camera it follows that they should be similarly laid out on the housing - but whose to know what convoluted tricks the housing manufacturer got up to? Besides, it's quite amazing just how well the hooman bean is capable of adapting anyway. When it comes time for me to buy a new camera I completely ignore things such as "handling" thinking, quite correctly thus far, that I'll get used to individual foibles. In fact on my last camera purchase I'd not even looked at it (other than in pictures) before it landed on my doorstep.

Sure:
* A larger sensor would have been nice.
* The buttons could have been set out a little differently.
* The grip could have been better shaped to better accommodate my broken right index finger.
* The list goes on.
* Notice anything? All of that is personal preference.​

• Please tell us what you've got and what you've already done to try to fix the problem.

Yes, that's before you ask a question. "My housing leaks" is not a question, it's a plea. We don't do pleas (nobody does) particularly well, if at all.​

• When doling out advice, tell us why.

There is nothing worse than someone saying "buy such-and-such" without saying why that item should be bought. Special exception made, here, in the case of dealers who, but of course, are never biased. ​

Do you agree? Do you disagree? More importantly, do you have something to contribute?

 

[Tim Digger]

I do agree that more details of the equipment with a problem in a number of posts asking for help would help the OP get sensible answers, but at the time one has a problem (particularly one threatening an expensive piece of kit) clear thinking is often not going on.
If the person is seriously hoping for help then they will respond to questions asking for more details, if not it weeds out those who never reply and may well never look at any advice posted.
Tim Digger

 

[11431]

Hmmm.... can I join in please, just a little one?!

If you are giving people advice, please make sure it's accurate. If you're not sure, then please be clear that you might be wrong. If you're trying to dumb it down to make things "simple", please at least base it on the correct roots. Nothing will confuse a newbie trying to learn something more than conflicting advice, or trying to relearn when they discover the initial advice/info was wrong!

A couple of examples of things I've had to correct in the last few weeks are, I believe things taught during paid for workshops.....

- Increasing the ISO will increase the sharpness of the photo..... (no it won't, quite opposite, increasing ISO will introduce noise and reduce sharpness)
- Don't worry about the strobes, they are just lights... turn them on and let them do their thing.... AaaaaaarrrrrrrgggggggGGGgggghhhhhhhhh!

I'm sure there's more, but then it is Monday morning

 

[15070]

how about if someone asks a question, then that question actually answered, instead of the OP being told to do things different, listen to what the OP is asking

 

[ChristianG]

how about if someone asks a question, then that question actually answered, instead of the OP being told to do things different, listen to what the OP is asking

Good point, it's something that I do believe we are all guilty of at different times. Nevertheless, sometimes that's not possible, if only because the OP is not asking the right question in the first place.

For example I often suggest that a strobe should be left alone until such time as the user fully understands the relationship between ISO, aperture and noise (in their, particular, camera), especially where raw is concerned and, today, we mostly discount any camera incapable of shooting in raw. If an OP then asks "what is ISO?" we have a huge can of worms on our hands because "this depends". Last time I looked none of us is particularly happy to provide an essay. It's why NigelH has, for example, written a particularly good (IMO) website describing, in "layman" terms, the sometimes convoluted reasoning behind many bits of kit. He doesn't touch on cameras if only because I believe he considers himself less than an expert on the subject (whatever an "expert" may be). I often recommend his website to newbie (and not so newbie) divers.