Call to arms ...

[DonSchap]

Gentlemen ... and Ladies,

I would like to ask for your assistance in a discussion concerning the implementation of the aforementioned "INFO" button feature for the SONY Alpha line of cameras.

In my own experience, an information convenience like this, for a new user, would be amazingly simple to implement in a digital LCD equipped device (the camera itself) and could offer answers to those procedural questions (Q&A) that always seem to come up, not only here ... online, but in camera shops and on the telephone (with its inherent two-hour wait with customer assistance).

New users could have SONY's ear on this (for a very short time), should there be a concerted interest in its implementation and development.

Please add your support to the following thread (<- click here), on the SONY Style forum and tell these people that having information about your camera is a good idea ... the more the merrier. This could/should & would definitely affect the future design of these cameras ... offering a better understanding to you ... the user. Hey, it's your frustration we are talking about here ... I say reduce it when you can.

To the forum: Good luck and thanks for any and all participation. We can change things ...

This could represent the greatest single improvement in the digital-design for an SLR that it could have never enjoyed, before. Using technology for training and robotic assistance in the future operation of your hobby.

SAMPLE Idea:

• "LENS" would be auto detection of the capabilities and limitations of the lens you have mounted, from an internal lens database detailing key features, such as Minimum Focus Distance (MFD), MACRO, Aperture limitations, operational details.
• "OM" - Camera's Owner's/User's Manual
• "DOF" - Automatic Depth of Field calculation at set aperture, distance and focal length (zoom) setting for lens mounted.
• "TUT" - Tutorial mode, offering additional training for specific shot scenarios and camera's "creative modes."
• "FLSH" - Only offered if a SONY flash is attached, offering the SPECIFIC Flash User's Manual and Wireless/SLAVE operation detail

SAMPLE Idea: (next page)


SAMPLE Idea: (more explanation of selected topic)


Note: The above is only for illustrative purposes and is not currently available in ANY of the SONY Alpha cameras.

[DonSchap]

As an afterthought, this proposal is so other users can help one another, instead of constantly being tied back to the forums for simple answers.

I look at it as you telling SONY to help you ... use their product successfully. There is a lot of merit to something of this nature ... take a few minutes and try to make it happen.

Thanks

[DonSchap]

Finally, just where would you locate the infamous "INFO" button?

Actually, since MENU is a toggle w/o a second function ... right there.

[sparkie1263]

Don did you check with Sony to see if they have any job opening for you. I would like to see the images you take while living in China.LOL
Frank

[DonSchap]

Look, I am a consumer by choice. If I work for "the man", my hobby then becomes my work ... and how much fun is that. I would never be paid for the amount of effort I put into it. I spent twenty years in solid "Information Technology" and have a couple old computers to show for all of it. Technology marches on. It was fun for the first few years, designing the layout and installing the network full of equipment the company would use to make it all happen, but then the "maintenance nightmare" began ... and it was ten years of a day-after-day torturous grind trying to placate the users and dealing with the associated stress-levels that can consume your soul. Well, I want to be a user, for once.

I would like to make the tool better for all of us. Adding more bang for the buck and kicking the other two big-guys-on-the-block right in the fun-package for being short sighted. There are only so many opportunities to improve this art form ... and I would like to see the up and coming "non-filmers" learn faster how to do it.

Besides, I do not speak Mandarin.