A lifelong LOVE-HATE relationship with... (post your stories here)

For me, it's:
TRIPODS!
Today, I bought my 6th (in 30+ years of photography).

I've owned and loved monopods for most of that time because they're so easy to carry, stop major wobbles and double as useful weapons - á la Zorro - if you're in a dodgy part of town. I also have a tiny, wee, super-cute table-top tripod for "family self-portrait" type shots - no issues there.

But the bigger tripods have always ended up being thrown in an angry pile of legs, twist-grips and rubber!!! They're SO heavy, annoying and 99% of what I do doesn't require one...

But I'm shooting a massive classical/operatic concert at Xmas and need to take both bodies and I just know that I'll need to shoot one from a tripod, so if you hear a huge, abusive scream from Japan around December 26th, you'll know this latest addition has gone the same way as the others...so wish "it" and me, luck!

In the meantime, post your pet love/hates - ideally photography related.

Canon G11! It takes awesome photos BUT I am a big guy (6'4"), have big hands, and every time (I mean every time) I use it I end up changing the settings by hitting at least one of the buttons on the back! The back has no space at all to rest your fingers and thumbs when using it. That said, I still love my G11!

JimAskew wrote in post #11175678
Canon G11! It takes awesome photos BUT I am a big guy (6'4"), have big hands, and every time (I mean every time) I use it I end up changing the settings by hitting at least one of the buttons on the back! The back has no space at all to rest your fingers and thumbs when using it. That said, I still love my G11!

Hey Jim,
Nice answer.
I had a play with a G12 in a camera shop on Monday and was impressed with what it can do, but I see what you mean about small buttons.
I'm not a huge guy, but the dials are so "delicate", it seems....

Megapixels
Friend and foe.
Yes HD's are cheap, yes more resolution more detail yippie.
But still, working with 20 MB single layer files makes my PC sad. I am in no way new to working in large resolutions, but after an event with 2k photos to edit, it does get tedious.

Alexei TND wrote in post #11179722
Megapixels
Friend and foe.
Yes HD's are cheap, yes more resolution more detail yippie.
But still, working with 20 MB single layer files makes my PC sad. I am in no way new to working in large resolutions, but after an event with 2k photos to edit, it does get tedious.

Good point!
The industry and the public in general seem so obsessed with megapixels...and yet when you think about it, unless you're going to print images on large pieces of paper which will be viewed up close it's not really that wonderful to have a camera that pumps out 20MB files per image.
Perhaps, for most of us, after we got over 12MB, we'd just about hit what was a good balance between resolution and ease of editing.

Ho hum....

skygod44 wrote in post #11180009
Good point!
The industry and the public in general seem so obsessed with megapixels...and yet when you think about it, unless you're going to print images on large pieces of paper which will be viewed up close it's not really that wonderful to have a camera that pumps out 20MB files per image.
Perhaps, for most of us, after we got over 12MB, we'd just about hit what was a good balance between resolution and ease of editing.

Ho hum....

Unfortunately the vast majority of the camera buying public don't care about whether the additional 5-10MP make any difference in the shot taken. They see the number and assume that it must be better (remember that if you assume, you make an ass of u and me)

neilwood32 wrote in post #11180276
Unfortunately the vast majority of the camera buying public don't care about whether the additional 5-10MP make any difference in the shot taken. They see the number and assume that it must be better (remember that if you assume, you make an ass of u and me)

I know....
But we "mere" Canon dSLR users have approximately zero influence on the whole camera 'thing', so I guess we should just deal with it, and spend more and more money on bigger and bigger computers to cope with the RAW files...


Meanwhile Neil, any pet LOVE/HATE topic from you?

skygod44 wrote in post #11180339
I know....
But we "mere" Canon dSLR users have approximately zero influence on the whole camera 'thing', so I guess we should just deal with it, and spend more and more money on bigger and bigger computers to cope with the RAW files...


Meanwhile Neil, any pet LOVE/HATE topic from you?

That would explain my quad core Intel with 1TB of storage (which is filling rapidly)

My hate is the people who watch you setting up a shot, lining everything up and then cose the second you have everything perfect (light, composition etc) to walk into your shot! Thats what I get for shooting a lot in the city I guess.

The other is people who I am with not realising how long it can take to capture an image (I don't just mean any image I mean THE image). They think that because they take a photo (snapshot) in 5 secs, that's how long every photo should take. They realise why it took so long once they see it hanging on the wall though!

neilwood32 wrote in post #11180369
That would explain my quad core Intel with 1TB of storage (which is filling rapidly)

My hate is the people who watch you setting up a shot, lining everything up and then chose the second you have everything perfect (light, composition etc) to walk into your shot! That's what I get for shooting a lot in the city I guess.

The other is people who I am with not realising how long it can take to capture an image (I don't just mean any image I mean THE image). They think that because they take a photo (snapshot) in 5 secs, that's how long every photo should take. They realise why it took so long once they see it hanging on the wall though!

Yep - totally understand those two incidents!!!

And, I've thought of another LOVE/HATE....and it's a biggie!!!!

SNAPSHOTS.
What I mean is, I LOVE capturing a moment with a camera simply because it's "nice" to capture, but at the same time I HATE how crappy snapshots tend to be, even though mine are (I hope!) better than "average" (whatever that might mean).

But the majority of snapshots I see, for example on Facebook, should have been retained as a 'memory' rather than a photograph, IMO. So I think that the ease of taking a snapshot, either with a low-end P&S that slips easily inside a cigarette pack(!) or with a low quality mobile (cell) phone is a major contributor to why the photographs in general "looks" worse and worse.

Batteries.

I love them, because they make my camera work at all.

I hate them, because when they die they make my camera not work at all.

I once drove 40 miles to take photos only to discover I had left the battery sitting in the charger on the wall at home. Bought a second battery and a grip the next day. Now there's always a battery in the camera.

Problem solved right?

Not when my flash gets bumped on in my bag and eats 4 AA's

Women.

Lazuka wrote in post #11188573
Women.

+1

Computers!!!

Look, we all love them, but man we all hate them too, right!

I'm trying to recover about 4000 images from my server right now. I thought I had a good backup plan, but a recent mishap has shown me that isn't the case. Now I spending a couple of hours every night trying to correct a mistake.

In2Photos wrote in post #11189146
Computers!!!

Look, we all love them, but man we all hate them too, right!

I'm trying to recover about 4000 images from my server right now. I thought I had a good backup plan, but a recent mishap has shown me that isn't the case. Now I spending a couple of hours every night trying to correct a mistake.

I love my computer.

Lazuka wrote in post #11188573
Women.

Up until May this year, I'd have agreed with you....but with the Almost Missus Skygod, nahh.......
She's practically perfect in every way!

In2Photos wrote in post #11189146
Computers!!!
Look, we all love them, but man we all hate them too, right!
I'm trying to recover about 4000 images from my server right now. I thought I had a good backup plan, but a recent mishap has shown me that isn't the case. Now I spending a couple of hours every night trying to correct a mistake.

Totally agree here....mine is wonderful (when it's running smoothly, quickly and does what it's supposed)...but BOY(!) I hate it when things go A-over-T!!!!