Red-Ringed Tupperware Party with (ineffective) Tin Foil Hats

Woolburr wrote in post #2436527
You would be amazed at what some people have no concept of....there are plenty of green box and runningman photographers floating around that have no clue.

It's also amazing how many of them charge for their work.

Turnerzdad wrote in post #2436544
I discovered something about the green box on our XTi that I bought for work recently. It chooses the ISO automatically! I couldn't believe it!

I shoot strictly on AV and Manual, but was showing someone else how to use it. I was surprised to see AUTO in the ISO area. Who knew?!

You know, it's kind of funny when people post very simple questions about camera performance, I can't always answer them. And it's because I NEVER used the green box or P mode on my DSLR. I'm an old film shooter, so it was Av and M for me from the beginning.

I started by taking a manual photography class at the local community college. We started with connecting a film canister to a coat hanger hanging off the front of the camera. Then we started at 2.8 (or whatever the particular lens would do), then moved it one stop at a time. Then we printed the pictures and learned about depth of field. Had to keep notes on each photo.

Then we had a spinning light ball, turned off the lights and worked on shutter speed in a similar manner.

It was really effective to help learn the concepts.

They still do that sort of assignment. I did some assignments for a young videographer who has no interest in still shots and that's the type of thing they expected.

Woolburr wrote in post #2436545
There is also mountain and flower to go with the other two....plenty of people shoot with those features alone. The get real frustrated when they can't get any reception on Tv.

ROFL

Woolburr wrote in post #2436547
You have no control at all in those modes...the camera uses a set of predefined parameters...and what you get is what the camera gives you.

I did a work shop this past weekend. One of the guys (who also had a 30D) was shooting in the green zone in the beginning. He was frustrated that he couldn't get proper exposures. I explained to him that he was letting the camera make all the decisions and if he ever wanted to get a proper exposure in anything but the most stable conditions, he needed to start taking control of the camera and not be controlled by it.

He couldn't figure out why his airplane shots were always blobs in a bright sky.

Turnerzdad wrote in post #2436544
I discovered something about the green box on our XTi that I bought for work recently. It chooses the ISO automatically! I couldn't believe it!

I shoot strictly on AV and Manual, but was showing someone else how to use it. I was surprised to see AUTO in the ISO area. Who knew?!

Auto ISO, auto focus point, no RAW, and all CFn's set to default plus half your menus disappear. Not a very attractive proposition once you're used to the additional control, eh? Another reason to use P or start n00bs in P - because P gives you full control of all of those settings.

I once set my 350D to green box auto while demo'ing the control dial to someone, went home, and forgot about it.

Later I was trying to take a pic of something else with my ST-E2 and 430EX in full wireless flash config with the 60 macro and I thought I was absolutely going NUTS, because I Kept pressing the "select focus point" button, the way it has been done for the last two years for me, and the camera was simply ignoring it!!

Switch to M, 1/200, f/8, E-TTL2, and equilibrium has once more been restored in the universe...

I had no idea until I read a recent post that the menus disappear. Why do they do that? Is it to minimize the complexity or something?

Lightstream wrote in post #2436561
Auto ISO, auto focus point, no RAW, and all CFn's set to default plus half your menus disappear. Not a very attractive proposition once you're used to the additional control, eh? Another reason to use P or start n00bs in P - because P gives you full control of all of those settings.

I once set my 350D to green box auto while demo'ing the control dial to someone, went home, and forgot about it.

Later I was trying to take a pic of something else with my ST-E2 and 430EX in full wireless flash config with the 60 macro and I thought I was absolutely going NUTS, because I Kept pressing the "select focus point" button, the way it has been done for the last two years for me, and the camera was simply ignoring it!!

Switch to M, 1/200, f/8, E-TTL2, and equilibrium has once more been restored in the universe...

That's funny! I had a similar occurrence at work. Someone left it in the green zone. I went to take picture (have to hold the dang shutter button down half way there -- man I hate that!) and the flash popped up. It surprised the heck out of me. I'm so not used to that!

liza wrote in post #2436573
I had no idea until I read a recent post that the menus disappear. Why do they do that? Is it to minimize the complexity or something?

Yes, the n00b looks at all the advanced features in the menu and goes "OMG THIS IS SO HARD TO LEARN!!"


I don't use the green box mode but I have explored them so that they do not trip me up at inconvenient times...also to understand why I should not use them

Edit: I just took a look at my 5D, which has a green box (but no other modes except the main ones we use). More than half the items in my menus disappear and the camera FORCES the defaults (Standard picture style, standard color temp, AWB, overrides all CFn's).. YIKES... please NO

liza wrote in post #2436573
I had no idea until I read a recent post that the menus disappear. Why do they do that? Is it to minimize the complexity or something?

Yep, you don't get to make any decisions about any of that stuff in those modes, so why be tempted by it?

Well folks, I've got to hit the hay.

Have a good night (or day, depending on location)!

Later.

night TD!

Turnerzdad wrote in post #2436576
That's funny! I had a similar occurrence at work. Someone left it in the green zone. I went to take picture (have to hold the dang shutter button down half way there -- man I hate that!) and the flash popped up. It surprised the heck out of me. I'm so not used to that!

That happened to me after I let a student use my camera. Scared the crap out of me!

liza wrote in post #2436573
I had no idea until I read a recent post that the menus disappear. Why do they do that? Is it to minimize the complexity or something?

Yep....keep things as simple as possible.

Hmm... actually in that situation the popup flash suddenly popping up on my 350D would have been a dead giveaway that I was in the wrong mode (I am never in AUTO because of that dang popup flash appearing at the wrong moment!!). Unfortunately, with the ST-E2 in the hotshoe, that would have prevented the popup from giving away the fact I was in AUTO.