The one with the 600 page manual…. 
Edit: (Not including the two “WiFi connectivity” manuals - another 200 pages)
1 Like
I like my 5D Mk4. And when I wanted to know how something works, I mostly looked online.
High quality point and shoot, fixed focal length film cameras are very popular. I’m sure Pentax now what they are doing.
These Yashica’s are going for 2 or 3 hundred quid, sometimes more, and they’re 30 years old. They may be autofocus (probably still zone), but are annoyingly laggy.
The old Nikon L35AF, is auto focus. The automatic selected focus is shown in the viewfinder, (mountain or number of people). So, the user has to check if the focus is correct, which it quite often isn’t, and if necessary try to auto focus again.
Probably just as easy to manual focus. The vast majority of shots will be taken at infinity anyway.
2 Likes
I’ve got the manuals printed at A5 size (somebody on the auction site, IIRC).
The main one is impressively thick.
A Canon 6d mk 11 is the plan. Thanks for asking,
1 Like
DS colour looks interesting-thanks!
7 slides is £18.74 inc wesendit which I’m guessing if the slides are lost by the post office then at least you’re sent the digital files out in advance. Using a nikon coolscan years ago was the most tedious thing in the world.A couple of years ago I had a shot of Janet Jackson that a gallery’s customer wanted which I’d had published in Record Mirror decades ago - it took using a very old laptop and a coolscan to do it because the software wouldn’t work on more modern computers.
I really can’t understand the new interest in film cameras at all. Pre digital print quality was so variable even from professional printers and buying expensive film now then only to scan it or pay for it too be done is a really backwards step…
5 Likes
The Yashicas are sought after due to the rather excellent Carl Zeiss lens stuck on the front, fixed focal length if memory serves correctly.
Sad bit is I used to own one but p/x’d it, cracking little camera.
2 Likes
I am sure there is a thread of things I part exchanged and wished I hadn’t
My Nikon Z8 trumps that at 1,200 pages.
The online book I bought to explain the manufacturers manual runs to just under 1,400 pages!
Purchased the camera early February &, with a bit of luck, will have finished reading & be ready to try it out the same time next year…
2 Likes
Would that have been one of Thom Hogans excellent series of Nikon guides…
Yes it would.
I’ve just got past the 370 odd page introduction & into the bit about the camera itself!
Appears good value for about £40 for the PDF but I hate reading more than a couple of pages on a computer screen (& thumbing backwards and forwards) so I had it printed out on A4 paper & put it in two binders.
I didn’t print it myself as I had already printed 1,200 Nikon pages out & couldn’t face doing it again. However that cost me an additional £80 & was only in black & white. A poor choice as it turns out as the many illustrations would be far easier to follow in colour! I will probably end up printing it out myself at some stage.
Why couldn’t something of this size be produced as a normal book?
I have conventional books explaining my D300 & D500 which have prooved invaluable in the past. There seem to be several books available for the Z8 but I have preferred sticking to authors that I know.
Still, it all makes War & Peace seems like a quick read!
2 Likes
I have a T3, but I used to have a T5.
I think you’re correct, people pay more because of the Zeiss lens, but I don’t think there is much difference between the yashica, Olympus MJU and Minolta Hi Matic.
The MJU’s are nearly as expensive as the yashica’s, but the Minolta’s are a lot cheaper…
Picked up a rare Mamiya M a few months ago. Very similar to the Nikon L35AF.
Not used it yet, apparently has a very nice lens.
6 Likes
Bonkers isn’t it? There are a couple of T2’s coming to an end on fleabay which look like they’re going for around a Grand a piece, for a point and shoot that happens to have a Zeiss 2.8 nailed to the front of it. Nuts.
Sold out in 24 hours.
But they are still likely to produce a couple of K mount cameras, one of which is ‘fully manual’ apparently.
1 Like
[quote=“Canaryfan, post:376, topic:31476, full:true”]
Yes it would.
I’ve just got past the 370 odd page introduction & into the bit about the camera itself!
Appears good value for about £40 for the PDF but I hate reading more than a couple of pages on a computer screen (& thumbing backwards and forwards) so I had it printed out on A4 paper & put it in two binders.
I didn’t print it myself as I had already printed 1,200 Nikon pages out & couldn’t face doing it again. "However that cost me an additional £80 & was only in black & white. A poor choice as it turns out as the many illustrations would be far easier to follow in colour! I will probably end up printing it out myself at some stage.
Why couldn’t something of this size be produced as a normal book? "
I think you have just highlighted why the only camera I have just at the moment is a Canon 4000, the smallest, lightest and cheapest SLR Canon have produced . These days I have a concern that we make things unnecessarily complicated
1 Like
In the very early days the Hogan books were a printed book, and a cd, and later the books got too big and they ended up as a purchase pdf download, - cheaper and easier to deliver. I have thought them a better book than some of the other offerings, which are little more than the Nikon manual with a bit of extra fluff added, and the odd colour image. Hogan delivers a detailed and deep understanding of the Nikon cameras. Making sense of the complex customisable options of the later cameras is a task in itself, let alone understanding the subtleties of the autofocus system. Yes, a book on screen is not so easy to manage, and constantly scrolling back and forth is irritating. I could not justify the printing and binding, so stuck with the screen pdf and put up with the inconvenience.
ps I am still in the Nikon dslr series, and have not considered a move to the Z series, but then my Naim system is still “Chrome Bumper” so I am quite resistant to change. Still got a film camera but have not used it in decades I guess.
2 Likes
In a word, money… as in cost of production.
Also the 5D4 book has roughly the same dimensions as the camera body itself. You’d need a bigger box!
What pi$$es me off, though, is the manuals for Canon’s software (DPP, et al). No PDFs that I can stick on my iPad & read on the train, it’s all “interactive on-line” requiring an internet connection. Comparisons with ”chocolate teapots” spring to mind.
2 Likes
& @Ian2001
You are probably right with your money comment.
However, when someone has spent nearly £4,000 on a camera body I don’t think they would object to a few bob extra for a printed manual/guide to be consulted from time to time as more detail is required on aspects of the cameras performance.
I have several of the late Martin Evening’s Photoshop books at nearly a thousand pages. They are not books you read immediately cover to cover, but I suspect, as I have done, you dip into the relevant sections as & when you want detailed information on various techniques to obtain the best results possible. I have probably read the last book cover to cover more than once this way.
I personally think that Scot Kilby’s Photoshop books can’t be beaten for teaching the photographer about the program. I love the way he just tells you what keys to press to achieve what you want to do without going into pages of detail. The Martin Evening books then fill in the detail on the techniques I wish to find out more about, when I can sit in comfort, with a cup of coffee, instead of spending hours staring at a computer screen!
It is a real shame that there won’t be any more books from Martin.
PS - At least Nikon do provide all their manuals in PDF from for use as you require or printing out as I often do. Perhaps you should ditch Canon & change to a decent brand! I say this with tongue-in-cheek as the satisfied long term owner of a Canon G7X MK11.