P3D Point and Shoot?

[Project3D@xxxxxxx]

Andrea Blair posted to Photo-3D:


>>>>George Themelis writes (in part): Don't need to touch any settings 

while shooting indoors.  Realist has become a point and shoot 

camera!<<<<



This is not the first reference to the Realist being a "Point and Shoot" 

camera. Am I the only one this is starting to bug? My understanding of a 

"Point and Shoot" camera is one that you put film in, point, and push 

the button (a.k.a. the "PHD" camera - Push Here Dummy). There are no 

settings for the majority of these types of cameras other than lens 

setting for those that support that feature.



Now correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you have to set the shutter speed 

on a Realist? How about the aperture? Hmmm...Seems likes there's a few 

things to be set when using flash, too. This sounds more like my old 

manual Pentax than a modern P&S.  {:>)  >>

Yes, there ARE a number of things that you can set on the 50s stereo cameras,
but (as I'm sure you are aware!) once you have them set, in most situations,
there is no need to touch them again. So you can completely forget about
meters, tape measures etc and just point-and-shoot.

In many ways it could be argued that the TTL functions of modern SLRs have
encouraged knob twiddling. You look through the view finder and it's a bit
fuzzy so you tweak the focus. You notice the light meter needle's not quite in
the middle, so you tweak that, as well. Why bother? In stereo, setting the
focus to a particular object in the scene could, indeed, be counter productive
(because you could easily compromise sharpness in other parts of the scene).
Tweaking the exposure just because a TTL meter says so can also be counter
productive. I know a number of people who got the early RBT cameras, and
experienced uneven exposures. Because it had a semi-spot meter which wouldn't
always be pointind at an 18% grey area...

So, once set, a 50s camera DOES become point-and-shoot! Lock those controls
and
JUST DO IT!

Bob Aldridge


------------------------------