The Art of Selling Cameras

[Grant]

A while back I picked up a brochure for a camera, it happened to be a Nikon but that shouldn't matter. While I was drooling at all the wonderful photos, that are there to sell cameras to droolers, I noticed that not one image was taken in Auto mode. In fact with that particular camera all the images were shot in manual mode.

I became a bit curious at how many other cameras are sold this way. So it was off to the Canon web site to check it out. Figuring this should be a good cross sampling as Canon has 28 Digital Cameras listed. The three high end cameras have no images but the other 25 have 3 to 4 images each to showoff their abilities. This totaled 98 images, I figured that was a good sampling. What is the break down?

Manual = 51
Aperture priority = 39
Shutter Priority = 3
Program = 2
Macro = 2
Auto = 1

Humm if we read between the lines maybe .... So tell me do you still shoot in Auto?

What you do when you have too much time on your hands!

[NMarti]

Grant
You really need to get out that paintbrush!;) ;)

Yes - unfortunately I'm still an auto person :o but am on the path to manual. I am working my way back through my John Hedgecoe books and getting better at judging those aperatures and shutters!

I drooled over those pictures too but didn't bother to see what settings they were on - just sucked me right in!

[e-mailsucks]

Grant, that's a very interesting observation you made. The next question to ask is who actually took the pictures? I've seen the pictures that the pros have taken, and seen the same photo taken by an amateur in auto mode, and they don't even come close to being near the same. Not blaming auto mode, but there is such a skill in angles, lighting, etc. What ever possessed you to investigate this sales idea?

Brian:)

[Grant]

I drooled over those pictures too but didn't bother to see what settings they were on - just sucked me right in!



Nancy

I'm not sure that you were sucked in you did end up with an excellent camera. A camera is a tool just like a hammer is. In the hands of a master carpenter a hammer can make a magnificent building in my hands a sore thumb. We just have to learn how to use our tools.

[Grant]

The next question to ask is who actually took the pictures?




Brian

There is no doubt who took them and they weren't amateurs. I doubt that the sales department of Canon or any camera company would leave advertisement up to chance.

Now a while back Canon of Canada did a ran a very interesting "contest" for the lack of a better word. They took 13 leading Canadian celebrities and each participant was given a Canon PowerShot SD500 digital camera, a SELPHY CP-400 compact photo printer and a memory card. The images were posted on their Canadian web site. I do believe that most of the participants were culled from the arts so I suspect that they have an artistic nature and I do know one of them well enough to call by his first name and he is an extraordinary photographer but none of these people were pros. the images ranges from not really exciting to awesome. The cool thing is that all proceeds went to charity.

This link is a non supported link and you may stray to another Canon site location and not be able to get back. Also the site seems a tad slow.

http://www.canon.ca/digitalphotography/english/whatsnew_g.asp?sid=64

[Carbone]

Grant, this is brilliant! More than brilliant.. outstanding? I lack the words to say how good I think this is. Anyway, I liked it much !!!

Thanks a lot for this information, I'm sure this will inspire owners of cameras to go out and try Av, Tv and M modes once at least or if not more often!

Ray

[e-mailsucks]

Thanks for the links Grant. I'm a little disappointed in some of the shots by some celebrities that I thought would do outstanding pictures. David Suzuki was average and Robert Bateman should stick to his brushes. I thought for sure he would have outstanding photo's.

Brian:rolleyes:

[Shane Sitter]

Grant... interesting information. Here is my two cents for what it is worth. I have moved from auto to AV mode as I am trying to understand exposure, SS, etc. better. I seem to understand aperture better than shutter speed so I use AV to set the aperture that I want and let the camera choose the shutter speed. Still trying to learn all this. I do ok with composition but the technical side of it does not come as easy for me. Next on my list is custom white balance. I have also started working with a grey card which I still have not mastered.

[NMarti]

Nancy

I'm not sure that you were sucked in you did end up with an excellent camera. A camera is a tool just like a hammer is. In the hands of a master carpenter a hammer can make a magnificent building in my hands a sore thumb. We just have to learn how to use our tools.

Grant - I have no thumbs left :D :D
I agree - I have an awesome camera - but still have to use it to it's full potential. I see those awesome pictures and say - hey - if I buy this camera that's the kind of pictures I can take .... someday!;)

[troush]

Grant,

Well, I took the kids to the park when it was so warm the other day... I took most pictures in A mode - it was a bright, overcast day (a rarity here in Denver), and most of them turned out well. But, tried some Panning (which I did terrible at - that will take MUCH practice) so I switched to S mode. The exposure was still good, I just had trouble following my action subject (the boys in their swings) smoothly.

And, a few days ago, I played around in M mode, on the living room floor. Exposures turned out okay, but getting the kids to cooperate! Argh...

-Trish

[bwolford]

Grant, I shoot more in apeture or shutter priority modes. Rarely shoot in Auto. I need to learn to use manual so I can control everything, but it's a matter of how muc time do I want to or can spend learning the hard way (RTFM and experimenting). I know manual mode will buy me so much more. I also need to learn to do a better job with manual focus. I take many action shots in low light (can you say nearly impossible) and when I get a good shot, I've more often than no screwed up focus.

Brice

P.S. Oh, and I waste 70% of my time reading these darn threads!!! :)

[Chuck S.]

I'm engaged in a multi-year study of the effectiveness of the P (Program) mode on Canon cameras. At the end of the third or fourth year, I'll start using Av and Tv and.....perhaps....M to create a benchmark. So far, I've been impressed with the selections made by P.....!

:rolleyes:

Chuck

p.s. I really am going to try this year not to use P except under extreme time pressure. I'll give Av, Tv and especially M my best shot (so to speak).