On May 19, 2005, at 10:17 AM, John Francis wrote:
People on this list just love to pick everything apart on nitpicky
details that make not one iota of difference to anyone. There's a lot
of stuff about computers and operating systems, and digital cameras and
film cameras, that no user/photographer needs to know at all.
Obviously, some of us disagree. To use a tool well it's better to have an understanding of what that tool is doing. Knowing just how a particular digital camera processes a RAW file is no more esoteric than knowing how a particular developer affects pushed film. It's not information *every* photographer needs to know, but to dismiss it as information that no photographer ever needs is incorrect.
John,
I certainly agree with the concept of understanding one's tools to use the tools best. But, by analogy, does a user of a computer trying to write a novel using Frame Maker need to know all the specifics of the OpenBoot firmware design necessary to bootstrap the hardware and begin loading the operating system? Most likely not ... an engineer or service technician trying to build or debug a computer need to know that, the user does not.
Same for RAW format ... While how manufacturers implement the specific RAW format for a given camera is interesting technical knowledge and might give an advanced user some insight into the limit condition capabilities of a particular camera, for the vast majority of users such information is completely unnecessary.
What is useful to the majority of users, and particularly to the beginner and intermediate user, is not to overload them with too much unneeded detail information and give them the general concepts/principles of operation that they can apply, practically, to their learning endeavor. Once they have that, they can either learn how to work around the limitations and issues that they encounter, unencumbered by the detail technical knowledge that can be very distracting, and/or choose to delve into the inner workings of the machinery a some point for a deeper understanding, however little that might influence their actual work.
There's a dividing line there that separates the "interest in getting photography done" and "interest in learning all the technical details" user ... I class the former as photographers and the latter as camera enthusiasts. While most photographers are a little of both, depending upon one's current knowledge and interests, the technical details can be overwhelming.
For instance, several treatises on the engineering of mirror actuation linkages for reducing vibration and improving camera stability in SLR have been written. Does a photographer really need to understand all of those to use their camera effectively? No ... a photographer needs to know when their camera needs a support or the use of mirror lockup/prefire to ensure adequate stability. They might be interested in the technical detail as helping them determine when for a given camera these things should be looked into, but only after understanding the concept of mirror slap and when to use a stabilizing workaround.
Godfrey
