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One thing that would be invaluable simulating is a variable aperture lens rather than this constant f/2.8 simulation. My girlfriend just got her first DSLR and

by lusr 14y ago

One thing that would be invaluable simulating is a variable aperture lens rather than this constant f/2.8 simulation. My girlfriend just got her first DSLR and was struggling with changing the aperture. While she understood the concepts, she wasn't familiar with working with a DSLR alone and since I wasn't physically present, it took me a while to realise over the phone she'd been changing the aperture by changing the focal length of the lens. (The D5100 has a pretty crappy and unintuitive control combination for setting aperture.) Had I been able to point her to a simulation like this it would have been clear to her that she needed a distinct method of setting aperture.

Tloewald 14y ago
What? To set aperture on a D5100 switch to A and use the command dial. (Shooting in Manual mode is simply torturing yourself unnecessarily if you don't know exactly what you're doing. In Aperture priority — or Program shift — setting aperture is simple and intuitive.)
- lusr 14y ago
  In manual mode it's not that simple from what I could glean (haven't touched a D5100 myself). You have to half depress the shutter release, simultaneously press the exposure compensation button and only then you can adjust the aperture with the command dial (otherwise you'll just change shutter speed). That's pretty crummy IMO and rather elaborate for a beginner. My D7000 is more straightforward since it has a separate dial for this and no need to half depress the shutter release. (I assume you can also change the settings using the LCD, but that's of no use if you're looking through the viewfinder and trying to set manual exposure.)
  - subhro 14y ago
    lusr, that is extremely non intuitive for sure. Have you checked in Nikon addressed this in a later firmware release?
    - lusr 14y ago
      Looking at the manual you apparently don't have to half depress the shutter, just the exposure compensation button (which has an aperture symbol next to it), but other websites suggest you do have to. I'll look into it when I can see the camera in person in a few weeks.
      - naitbit 14y ago
        I'm pretty sure that you don't have to touch shutter in manual mode. I have d5100 so I can make sure in the evening if you want confirmation.
  - Tloewald 14y ago
    Why do this in manual mode?
    - slantyyz 14y ago
      Agreed, a beginner fiddling in manual mode vs A mode is going to go insane. Edit: A mode on Canons is Av mode.
    - lusr 14y ago
      Why not? Every pre-digital photographer did manual exposures. It teaches you to pay attention to your environment, and ultimately, I believe, makes you a better photographer because it develops your intuition about a given scene and what does and doesn't work. I started off with P&S cameras and before I knew the mechanics of cameras I was frustrated with the automatic exposures; once I discovered I was missing "manual mode" I never turned back. Sure, from time to time I'll use the priority or program modes when the shot is more important than the learning experience, but after 4 years of hobbyist photography I still find myself with much to learn and I enjoy the challenge of manual exposures.
      - Tloewald 14y ago
        I started out with manual everything cameras processing my own film, and I got pretty darn good a judging lighting by eye. Unless what you're trying to learn to do is become a human light meter, the "education" you're describing is pretty silly. You can accomplish the same results more quickly using the correct automatic setting and exposure compensation.
chwahoo 14y ago
You can change the aperture in this simulation. Perhaps it was just grayed out since you were in shutter-priority mode?
- tominated 14y ago
  It doesn't actually do anything
  - Bob_Sheep 14y ago
    The aperture on an SLR only closes once you press the shutter release (or press the depth of field preview button, but those are becoming rare on consumer grade hardware). If the aperture closed as soon as you changed it the camera would be unusable because the viewfinder would become very dark, and the autofocus would stop working.
    - ben1040 14y ago
      >or press the depth of field preview button, but those are becoming rare on consumer grade hardware I bought a Nikon D5100 last summer, my first SLR since a Pentax K1000 I had for decades. The lack of a DoF preview button was a little hard for me to adjust to.
      - kamjam 14y ago
        Can you expand on that a little... I'm looking to buy a D5100, is this using the LCD or the viewfinder?
        georgieporgie 14y ago
        Viewfinder. The depth of field preview just closes the shutter to the expected aperture while you're looking through the lens. It will darken significantly, but if it's reasonably lit where you're shooting, you'll be able to get an idea of the DOF.
        14y ago
georgieporgie 14y ago
That's a rather contrived complaint. The idea of the simulator is to quickly show how the different settings affect the outcome. The simulator isn't designed to simulate your exact lens configuration. Your complaint is like if you were teaching someone to drive and they kept cutting in too much in corners. You tell them to steer wider and they complain that they'll go too fast if they do so. What? It turns out that their car is FWD and, in order to steer wider, they were flooring the throttle to in order to cause understeer (i.e. cause the front end to slide). Well, the two (accelerate:turn or zoom:aperture) are completely unrelated functions that happen to have a certain incidental overlap in their output.

by lusr 14y ago

Tloewald 14y ago

What? To set aperture on a D5100 switch to A and use the command dial. (Shooting in Manual mode is simply torturing yourself unnecessarily if you don't know exactly what you're doing. In Aperture priority — or Program shift — setting aperture is simple and intuitive.)

lusr 14y ago
In manual mode it's not that simple from what I could glean (haven't touched a D5100 myself). You have to half depress the shutter release, simultaneously press the exposure compensation button and only then you can adjust the aperture with the command dial (otherwise you'll just change shutter speed). That's pretty crummy IMO and rather elaborate for a beginner. My D7000 is more straightforward since it has a separate dial for this and no need to half depress the shutter release. (I assume you can also change the settings using the LCD, but that's of no use if you're looking through the viewfinder and trying to set manual exposure.)
- subhro 14y ago
  lusr, that is extremely non intuitive for sure. Have you checked in Nikon addressed this in a later firmware release?
  - lusr 14y ago
    Looking at the manual you apparently don't have to half depress the shutter, just the exposure compensation button (which has an aperture symbol next to it), but other websites suggest you do have to. I'll look into it when I can see the camera in person in a few weeks.
    - naitbit 14y ago
      I'm pretty sure that you don't have to touch shutter in manual mode. I have d5100 so I can make sure in the evening if you want confirmation.
- Tloewald 14y ago
  Why do this in manual mode?
  - slantyyz 14y ago
    Agreed, a beginner fiddling in manual mode vs A mode is going to go insane. Edit: A mode on Canons is Av mode.
  - lusr 14y ago
    Why not? Every pre-digital photographer did manual exposures. It teaches you to pay attention to your environment, and ultimately, I believe, makes you a better photographer because it develops your intuition about a given scene and what does and doesn't work. I started off with P&S cameras and before I knew the mechanics of cameras I was frustrated with the automatic exposures; once I discovered I was missing "manual mode" I never turned back. Sure, from time to time I'll use the priority or program modes when the shot is more important than the learning experience, but after 4 years of hobbyist photography I still find myself with much to learn and I enjoy the challenge of manual exposures.
    - Tloewald 14y ago
      I started out with manual everything cameras processing my own film, and I got pretty darn good a judging lighting by eye. Unless what you're trying to learn to do is become a human light meter, the "education" you're describing is pretty silly. You can accomplish the same results more quickly using the correct automatic setting and exposure compensation.

chwahoo 14y ago

You can change the aperture in this simulation. Perhaps it was just grayed out since you were in shutter-priority mode?

tominated 14y ago
It doesn't actually do anything
- Bob_Sheep 14y ago
  The aperture on an SLR only closes once you press the shutter release (or press the depth of field preview button, but those are becoming rare on consumer grade hardware). If the aperture closed as soon as you changed it the camera would be unusable because the viewfinder would become very dark, and the autofocus would stop working.
  - ben1040 14y ago
    >or press the depth of field preview button, but those are becoming rare on consumer grade hardware I bought a Nikon D5100 last summer, my first SLR since a Pentax K1000 I had for decades. The lack of a DoF preview button was a little hard for me to adjust to.
    - kamjam 14y ago
      Can you expand on that a little... I'm looking to buy a D5100, is this using the LCD or the viewfinder?
      - georgieporgie 14y ago
        Viewfinder. The depth of field preview just closes the shutter to the expected aperture while you're looking through the lens. It will darken significantly, but if it's reasonably lit where you're shooting, you'll be able to get an idea of the DOF.
      - 14y ago

georgieporgie 14y ago

That's a rather contrived complaint. The idea of the simulator is to quickly show how the different settings affect the outcome. The simulator isn't designed to simulate your exact lens configuration. Your complaint is like if you were teaching someone to drive and they kept cutting in too much in corners. You tell them to steer wider and they complain that they'll go too fast if they do so. What? It turns out that their car is FWD and, in order to steer wider, they were flooring the throttle to in order to cause understeer (i.e. cause the front end to slide). Well, the two (accelerate:turn or zoom:aperture) are completely unrelated functions that happen to have a certain incidental overlap in their output.