Push The Button - We Do the Rest!
In case you don’t remember, this was a slogan used by Kodak in the early days of photo-processing. Kodak sold a really simple camera to a beginner-level market, and offered to do all processing of the film, plus printing the pictures. This was a new concept at the time.
Nowadays, with digital cameras dominating the market, some things still remain the same. There is still a huge market for the “push-the-button” type cameras, which supposedly take perfect pictures with absolutely NO effort required from the photographer!
Recently, I happened to notice reviews of some entry-level digicams. There was for instance a Panasonic FX500 digicam, which seems to do most of the thinking for you: …”An Intelligent Auto mode analyses the scene and automatically sets the Panasonic FX500 to the proper Scene mode, and Face Detection is capable of detecting up to 15 faces in a scene.”
Not bad - fifteen faces! This little wonder also sports 10.1 Megapixel image resolution, a 5X zoom factor, and a 3-inch, touch-screen, LCD viewfinder. All of this for a little over $300.
Or how about this Canon SD790 - a similar point-and-shoot camera which you can get for around $250 or less:
…”All I had to show them — no matter their age — was where to find three buttons: the Power button, the Shutter button and the Zoom ring … there are buttons and a dial and they do offer useful functions … But the beauty of this ELPH is that you rarely have to use them“…
So, I guess what most people want in a digital camera is still the same that Kodak offered to give them about a hundred years ago: an instrument that doesn’t make them think!
The difference is that with today’s advanced technology, you can easily manufacture a camera which *almost* thinks for you. Is that a good thing? Yes I guess it is. It is much more fun to use a tool if it does a decent job for you with as little effort as possible from your side.
Most people don’t have the inclination to spend much of their time learning about how to make better pictures. All they want is to make some snapshots from vacations and family events, without needing to spend time figuring out how to use a camera.
Sure, if you are really interested there is LOTS of information out there! For instance, you can buy e-books (yes, downloadable - you don’t need to go to a bookstore!) - with loads of useful tips and in-depth information on how to get the most out of your digital camera. Here are some examples where you can learn digital photography technique: Example#1 and Example#2.
Take a god look at these - even by simply taking advantage of the free offers, you have a chance of improving the quality of your pictures! Plus the e-books come with a rock-solid money-back guarantee.
However, it does take some of your time to actually absorb this information. I’ve noticed that one type of sales argument for these Photography e-books is something like …”learn the closely guarded secrets of photography that the pros don’t want you to know!”…
In my opinion, there is no such thing as “closely guarded secrets of photography”. The information is out there - available to anyone who is committed enough to bother with the effort of absorbing it!
But most people aren’t. They prefer to buy a little camera which “automatically detects … up to 15 faces in a scene”.
Photo Credit: Frog picture by “Hamed Saber“.
