The value of squeezing is not displayed
Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2010 11:43 pm
I’m getting to know my new A850, though I find there is actually very little new to learn for a user of the A700. As far as I can see, only the top LCP mini=panel, arrangement of the top-plate buttons, micro-focus adjust, setting the APC size capt, menu item, the workings of the Intelligent Preview and the mirror lock-up function are new.
So for these I have reached for the A850 instruction manual.
Now, I know I won’t be the first or last user of a product originating from what used to be called the Far East to have a quiet chuckle at some of the language used. We probably all have our own favourite instruction manual language howlers. “Gently scratch the backside of this card in right spot to reveal your code” and “Press Star followed by a harsh key to complete the request” are two of my own.
In my A850 handbook I did not have far to look to find the first pearl: right on the front cover we find “Before your operation”. This alarmed me a little, as I am presently in and out of hospital in Glasgow and I was wondering if the far-sighted Sony people had some advice for me on pre-op preparations. Alas not.
Then on Page 79 where a list is given for what to expect from the various creative styles, we read that Clear is ‘for capturing images in a clear tone with limpid colors in the highlighted area, suitable for capturing radiant light’’ while Deep is ‘for capturing images with deep and dense color expressions , suited to capturing the solid presence of the subject.’ With some effort you can just about arrive at the beginnings of a notion of what all this actually means. But the language here and elsewhere is so imprecise, so fluffy as to be almost meaningless.
The A850 manual is by no means the worst ever produced. But just a bit of care and cash spent on this manual, and so many others like it, could have made it a hundred times better. Imagine how readable and useful it would have been if they had got someone like Gary Friedman to write the thing! One of my biggest interests is in language; it’s also an occasional source of income for me. I don’t speak Japanese but I (and probably a good few others) would gladly have proof-read a manual like this for not all that much money. Then users of the camera would have had a fighting chance of understanding how to use functions like the creative styles.
Now, it’s easy enough to have a laugh at the expense at what are probably criminally underpaid translators in some Asian language school sweatshop for whom English is definitely not the mother tongue. And it’s not as if we native English speakers are polyglots ourselves. But I’ve never really understood why a giant corporation like Sony can produce marvels of technology and then explain how to use them in such inept language.
I realise that many people hardly ever read manuals anyway, and so this is no burning issue for them, but you would think that how you package, present and support your product should be worthy of some thought from major camera makers like Sony.
I’m curious to hear whether I am alone in caring about this, and also to hear if other forum members have their own favourite instruction manual gems.
PS
Sony’s support site also has this cracker, found on their FAQ page for the A850:
“When an astronomical telescope or the microscope is attached to the camera, adjustment of exposure is realised by changing the shutter speed. (The value of squeezing is not displayed.)”
As Manuel of Barcelona used to say, “Que?”
So for these I have reached for the A850 instruction manual.
Now, I know I won’t be the first or last user of a product originating from what used to be called the Far East to have a quiet chuckle at some of the language used. We probably all have our own favourite instruction manual language howlers. “Gently scratch the backside of this card in right spot to reveal your code” and “Press Star followed by a harsh key to complete the request” are two of my own.
In my A850 handbook I did not have far to look to find the first pearl: right on the front cover we find “Before your operation”. This alarmed me a little, as I am presently in and out of hospital in Glasgow and I was wondering if the far-sighted Sony people had some advice for me on pre-op preparations. Alas not.
Then on Page 79 where a list is given for what to expect from the various creative styles, we read that Clear is ‘for capturing images in a clear tone with limpid colors in the highlighted area, suitable for capturing radiant light’’ while Deep is ‘for capturing images with deep and dense color expressions , suited to capturing the solid presence of the subject.’ With some effort you can just about arrive at the beginnings of a notion of what all this actually means. But the language here and elsewhere is so imprecise, so fluffy as to be almost meaningless.
The A850 manual is by no means the worst ever produced. But just a bit of care and cash spent on this manual, and so many others like it, could have made it a hundred times better. Imagine how readable and useful it would have been if they had got someone like Gary Friedman to write the thing! One of my biggest interests is in language; it’s also an occasional source of income for me. I don’t speak Japanese but I (and probably a good few others) would gladly have proof-read a manual like this for not all that much money. Then users of the camera would have had a fighting chance of understanding how to use functions like the creative styles.
Now, it’s easy enough to have a laugh at the expense at what are probably criminally underpaid translators in some Asian language school sweatshop for whom English is definitely not the mother tongue. And it’s not as if we native English speakers are polyglots ourselves. But I’ve never really understood why a giant corporation like Sony can produce marvels of technology and then explain how to use them in such inept language.
I realise that many people hardly ever read manuals anyway, and so this is no burning issue for them, but you would think that how you package, present and support your product should be worthy of some thought from major camera makers like Sony.
I’m curious to hear whether I am alone in caring about this, and also to hear if other forum members have their own favourite instruction manual gems.
PS
Sony’s support site also has this cracker, found on their FAQ page for the A850:
“When an astronomical telescope or the microscope is attached to the camera, adjustment of exposure is realised by changing the shutter speed. (The value of squeezing is not displayed.)”
As Manuel of Barcelona used to say, “Que?”