A850 Exposure Compensation and Ambient Light

[richardcooper]

I can adjust the exposure compensation of my A850 when using an on board flash.

On page 118, custom menue of my users guide their is a very short explanation about setting ambient & flash and just ambient.

To me it is still confusing.

Is their any other information or reading information about setting ambient & flash or just ambient?

Thanks

[Javelin]

One setting adjusts the automatic camera settings (like P,A,S modes) to allow more or less ambient light in the picture and leaves the flash output the same. so the camera will adjust whatever it can from Shutter aperture or ISO to make it happen. (thats ambient only mode)

on the other setting (ambient & flash) it will also adjust the flash output. and the exposure compensation.

It's pretty confusing and you really need to sit in a semi dark room with a closeish subject and open distant background and use each setting at the extremes to really understand what is going on.

[UrsaMajor]

Is their any other information or reading information about setting ambient & flash or just ambient?

In my opinion, for any of the Minolta or Sony cameras the best explanation of this subject is found in the relevant book on that camera by Gary Friedman. He also does a far better job than the camera manual of clearly explaining the features of the camera, plus how and when to use those features. You can download an e-book version of each of Gary's books from his web site, which is located at:

http://www.friedmanarchives.com/

With best wishes,
- Tom -

[richardcooper]

Thank you all

[Dusty]

Is their any other information or reading information about setting ambient & flash or just ambient?

In my opinion, for any of the Minolta or Sony cameras the best explanation of this subject is found in the relevant book on that camera by Gary Friedman. He also does a far better job than the camera manual of clearly explaining the features of the camera, plus how and when to use those features. You can download an e-book version of each of Gary's books from his web site, which is located at:

http://www.friedmanarchives.com/

With best wishes,
- Tom -

I find it amazing that Camera and software makers constantly have people who can write better manuals on their products than the people who create them. You would think that somewhere down the line, they would get the idea to either hire them to do the job, or at least go back and grab their old books to emulate them for thier new product manuals.

I recall several years ago being stuck with a mediocre software package, and then getting a book that unleashed all the secrets of it - wow! I even looked in the help files trying to find any mention of the features the book described, but they were not there. Incredible! How many more copies could they have sold if people knew the true abilities of it? Wouldn't that be worth an extra few bucks a copy to produce a good manual?

[/end rant]

Dusty

[jcoffin]

How many more copies could they have sold if people knew the true abilities of it? Wouldn't that be worth an extra few bucks a copy to produce a good manual?
Dusty

I'm not sure, but I tend to wonder whether you may not have things backwards, and they're leaving the manuals poor more or less specifically to support the market for third-party books.

At least in the typical case, somebody can't look at the camera/software manual until after they've bought the package.

By contrast, I can go to a book store and browse through third-party books without spending a thing, and possibly buy one, still spending a lot less than the package would cost. If the manual was good enough that there weren't any third-part books, I'd be a lot less likely to buy the package.

[David Kilpatrick]

Manufacturers do employ writers to produce instruction books. I've written the manuals, for example, for the Agfa C66 print processor (1979), for various films and chemicals (Ilford, Paterson, Kodak, Bergamot Ltd which was our own UK import operation rebranding Chimifoto Ornano products), various own branded products (Jessop), and for Elinchrom's Prolinca flash when first introduced.

Japanese camera makers generally don't employ Western writers to author their manuals. For one thing, they feel unable to release details of the cameras. When Dick Bryant was based in Japan, all of Minolta's literature was far superior, as they had an American senior executive in charge of all that stuff - camera boxes, Minolta Mirror, press info, manuals, the lot.

David

[Neonsquare]

One final thing, not to forget is that technical writing can be quite expensive. The user guides of such international products and all their variants have to be translated in many languages. Depending on the country there are complex regulations on what safety indications and hazard notes have to be in. Among other things I'm working as a core software developer for a software publisher which offers a complex single source editing/publishing system. The customers (really big international corporates) range from engineering over pharmaceutical industry to legal publishing houses - actually really the whole range of technical writing.

[bakubo]

I don't know, but the original Japanese language manuals may have more info. Here is a good resource for finding the translation of English/Japanese camera, lens, digital, etc. technical words:

http://photojpn.org/words/index.html

When I am in Japan I have found this to be a good resource and useful.

[kysham]

If Sony writes a really good instruction manual, then Gary Friedman's books will not be able to sell that well....

[UrsaMajor]

If Sony writes a really good instruction manual, then Gary Friedman's books will not be able to sell that well....

I can say with some certainty that this has nothing to do with the quality of the Sony manuals. Gary has said on several occasions that Sony appears to have no interest in third-party support - getting anyone at Sony to even talk with him is a major challenge.

This is the same comment that I heard from the manufacturer of the very well-regarded Acratech tripod heads. He cannot even get Sony to answer letters from him, while Canon, Nikon, and even Olympus freely loan him cameras to measure to let him design and manufacture anti-twist mounting plates for their cameras.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

[bfitzgerald]

The manuals I have read were simply awful not that Sony are alone read some pretty poor ones from various makers. Minolta manuals were well written for the most part.
Sony are uninterested in third party support? Really I can't believe that at all