Do you let friends and family hold/shoot your camera?

Perhaps when you go to a bar you should just consider leaving the camera at home.

I trust a handful of people...folks whom I've "trained" to use the camera. I basically set the thing up - ISO, flash, etc. However, I'm never satisfied with the results. I take great shots of family members, my kids, friends, etc. when I'm shooting by any time I'm in the shot, I'm not thrilled....mostly because I like being behind versus in front of the lens, but often times people are too far away, it needs to be cropped, angle is bad, etc., etc. I don't let anyone use my camera unless I am right there with them and they have at least some working knowledge of how to use the darn thing.

Here's my 15-year-old step-daughter and my 22-month-old daughter...
I AIN'T SCARED!!

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One more for the hell of it!

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man, why in god's name would you do such a thing as making sure that your FRIENDS don't get a good picture?

i let my wife use my camera (i set everything up for her)
i let my mom try it out more than once
i let my 8 year old nephew use it
i don't mind lending my camera and lenses to my friends (i trust them and worst come to worst, they can buy me new things if it breaks)


i don't know about you but to me, my friends and family are worth way more than my crappy 1D and crappy L lenses. i also know that if something happened, they will make things right..

i let my girlfriend play with my camera one night. I come home, she's crying her eyes out, and shows me my camera. she was cleaning her room and the hutch on the desk fell on it and it hit the display.

repair was about 200bucks, but it was about time I upgraded from a D30. I got a 300D and repaired the D30 for my birthday, and I still let her shoot with my SLR b/c she still wants to learn photography too. I even let her 2year old god-daughter play with my d-SLR a few times bc she is at the stage of her life of being curious as to what a camera does and I think getting all experiences she can get is important; of course she tends to throw and drop things so I got a little worried and held on to the strap. I guess its b/c I grew up playing around with my relatives cameras and they still even lend me their expensive lens.

now, if someone asked me if they could drive my car....thats a whole different story.

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I used to shoot a lot of bands in bars, clubs and smaller venues, and got the "hey, lemmeseeyourcamera!" most times. A polite "ask the singer/drummer/guiteri​st/manager, it's his camera" usually got rid of them. Anyone sober? No problem.

Oh, and it that last picture my step-daughter has one of my LAPtops on her LAP!! What in God's name was I thinking in letting her put my LAPtop in her LAP! I MUST be out of my mind letting someone use my stuff the way it's meant to be used!

I'm thinking now's a good time to figure out your New Year's resolution!!

I'm just playing around with you. I do understand being nervous of other's handling our stuff. It took some cringing and looking away, but I finally got over it! I hope ya'al had a nice Christmas and I wish ya'al the best this New Year!

I just let my friends take my XT to Australia for 2 weeks. Of course, I've upgraded to the 30D and the XT is relegated to the backup role. I figured, what the heck....

Jonathan Consiglio wrote in post #2448253
Oh, and it that last picture my step-daughter has one of my LAPtops on her LAP!! What in God's name was I thinking in letting her put my LAPtop in her LAP! I MUST be out of my mind letting someone use my stuff the way it's meant to be used!

I'm thinking now's a good time to figure out your New Year's resolution!!

I'm just playing around with you. I do understand being nervous of other's handling our stuff. It took some cringing and looking away, but I finally got over it! I hope ya'al had a nice Christmas and I wish ya'al the best this New Year!

Let's just say I am near the age of your step daughter, and I don't trust myself holding my own gear. Hence, the love of the neck strap, from I.

I understand that! But, I've got it hung up on too many things myself!!

Jeff Solenberg wrote in post #2446878
Do you get better results from her in P mode?

actually yes i do...lol (she has a better eye than me but doesnt wanna take photos... go figure)

Someone said it was JUST 30D, but to me my 10D is my everything.

My parents are really protective of my camera as well. They know how hard I worked to save enough to get a dslr and a bit of glass.

I'll offer people to try it out but usually they're intimidated and refuse. My dad and step-dad (both huge photography buffs as well) are the only ones other than myself who have used it.

I'll let my kids use my camera, they are 11 and 13, after they get the 'overprotective mom speech'. They do have the ability of getting some pretty interesting exposures.

My husband, on the other hand, I am not too eager to hand my camera over to. We seem to wind up with a lot of pictures of my butt if he is the one behind the camera....

I don't mind family and friends using my camera if I'm around. Strangers are different and it depends on the circumstances (someone interested in getting a DSLR vs noisy drunk, for instance...)

I once asked my mom to hold my 16-35L while changing lenses and she almost dropped it in shock after hearing how much it cost