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SLR Camera Simulator

camerasim.com

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Re: SLR Camera Simulator

#11

Post by lusr »

Tloewald wrote: post #7
lusr wrote: post #4

One thing that would be invaluable simulating is a variable aperture lens rather than this constant f/2.8 simulation. My girlfriend just got her first DSLR and was struggling with changing the aperture. While she understood the concepts, she wasn't familiar with working with a DSLR alone and since I wasn't physically present, it took me a while to realise over the phone she'd been changing the aperture by changing th…

What? To set aperture on a D5100 switch to A and use the command dial. (Shooting in Manual mode is simply torturing yourself unnecessarily if you don't know exactly what you're doing. In Aperture priority — or Program shift — setting aperture is simple and intuitive.)

In manual mode it's not that simple from what I could glean (haven't touched a D5100 myself). You have to half depress the shutter release, simultaneously press the exposure compensation button and only then you can adjust the aperture with the command dial (otherwise you'll just change shutter speed). That's pretty crummy IMO and rather elaborate for a beginner.

My D7000 is more straightforward since it has a separate dial for this and no need to half depress the shutter release. (I assume you can also change the settings using the LCD, but that's of no use if you're looking through the viewfinder and trying to set manual exposure.)

Re: SLR Camera Simulator

#12

Post by modoc »

lusr wrote: post #10
chwahoo wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can change the aperture in this simulation. Perhaps it was just grayed out since you were in shutter-priority mode?

No see you're as confused as she was :) Most zoom lenses are variable aperture, e.g. at 18mm they will open up to f/3.5 but at 55mm they will only open up to f/5.6. The simulation doesn't address this, and it can be surprising for a beginner to see the aperture changing as they zoom - they may become fixated on zooming as a way to control aperture without realising they are observing a side-effect.

Better lenses are fixed aperture though, so I don't think it's unreasonable to replicate that here. My 24-70 is 2.8 across the board.

Re: SLR Camera Simulator

#13

Post by 5h »

Tloewald wrote: post #6

Is this the same SLR simulator I saw a couple of years back? Can't tell because it's Flash. Seems to me like DSLRs don't really need simulators. Pick up a DSLR, dial it to P or green or whatever, and go. It's simpler and more responsive than a point and shoot, just bigger and heavier. (My four year olds love using my smaller DSLR and have less trouble using it than a small P&S.) Anyone wanting to learn the fine point…

While I agree, there is no shortcut to simply picking up a camera and getting a few thousand shutter actuations to learn whats what (and most definitely not on green box mode if learning is the intention), some demonstrations like pulling two instances of this up and putting distance/focal length at opposite extremes in each to show the compression of the compression of the backdrop work very well.

Re: SLR Camera Simulator

#14

Post by Bob_Sheep »

tominated wrote: post #9
chwahoo wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can change the aperture in this simulation. Perhaps it was just grayed out since you were in shutter-priority mode?

It doesn't actually do anything

The aperture on an SLR only closes once you press the shutter release (or press the depth of field preview button, but those are becoming rare on consumer grade hardware). If the aperture closed as soon as you changed it the camera would be unusable because the viewfinder would become very dark, and the autofocus would stop working.

Re: SLR Camera Simulator

#15

Post by lusr »

Tloewald wrote: post #6

Is this the same SLR simulator I saw a couple of years back? Can't tell because it's Flash. Seems to me like DSLRs don't really need simulators. Pick up a DSLR, dial it to P or green or whatever, and go. It's simpler and more responsive than a point and shoot, just bigger and heavier. (My four year olds love using my smaller DSLR and have less trouble using it than a small P&S.) Anyone wanting to learn the fine point…

Where it has value, I think, is giving people a reference for the number of important variables. Modern DSLRs are covered in controls and symbols and modes, etc. and I believe for a beginner it can be quite overwhelming. Having just these key factors in mind when shooting could plausibly give a beginner the right set of variables to focus on without being distracted by all the other fluff.

That being said, I absolutely agree that the only way to learn photography is to get out there and shoot.

Re: SLR Camera Simulator

#16

Post by sp332 »

lusr wrote: post #10
chwahoo wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can change the aperture in this simulation. Perhaps it was just grayed out since you were in shutter-priority mode?

No see you're as confused as she was :) Most zoom lenses are variable aperture, e.g. at 18mm they will open up to f/3.5 but at 55mm they will only open up to f/5.6. The simulation doesn't address this, and it can be surprising for a beginner to see the aperture changing as they zoom - they may become fixated on zooming as a way to control aperture without realising they are observing a side-effect.

You're not at depth limit, HN just limits replies per minute to reduce the incidence of flamewars taking over the page.

Re: SLR Camera Simulator

#17

Post by subhro »

lusr wrote: post #11
Tloewald wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? To set aperture on a D5100 switch to A and use the command dial. (Shooting in Manual mode is simply torturing yourself unnecessarily if you don't know exactly what you're doing. In Aperture priority — or Program shift — setting aperture is simple and intuitive.)

In manual mode it's not that simple from what I could glean (haven't touched a D5100 myself). You have to half depress the shutter release, simultaneously press the exposure compensation button and only then you can adjust the aperture with the command dial (otherwise you'll just change shutter speed). That's pretty crummy IMO and rather elaborate for a beginner. My D7000 is more straightforward since it has a separa…

lusr, that is extremely non intuitive for sure. Have you checked in Nikon addressed this in a later firmware release?

Re: SLR Camera Simulator

#18

Post by lusr »

sp332 wrote: post #16
lusr wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No see you're as confused as she was :) Most zoom lenses are variable aperture, e.g. at 18mm they will open up to f/3.5 but at 55mm they will only open up to f/5.6. The simulation doesn't address this, and it can be surprising for a beginner to see the aperture changing as they zoom - they may become fixated on zooming as a way to control aperture without realising they are observing a side-effect.

You're not at depth limit, HN just limits replies per minute to reduce the incidence of flamewars taking over the page.

Ah cool I see. I'll update as appropriate.

Re: SLR Camera Simulator

#19

Post by lusr »

modoc wrote: post #12
lusr wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No see you're as confused as she was :) Most zoom lenses are variable aperture, e.g. at 18mm they will open up to f/3.5 but at 55mm they will only open up to f/5.6. The simulation doesn't address this, and it can be surprising for a beginner to see the aperture changing as they zoom - they may become fixated on zooming as a way to control aperture without realising they are observing a side-effect.

Better lenses are fixed aperture though, so I don't think it's unreasonable to replicate that here. My 24-70 is 2.8 across the board.

While I agree with the point on quality, constant aperture zoom lenses tend to be MUCH more expensive than variable aperture lenses. Your single lens costs more than twice her entire starting kit :) They also tend to have fairly specialist zoom ranges. I find it hard to imagine somebody with a constant aperture zoom lens would find benefit in this camera simulation. The majority of the kind of people using it will be beginners with kit variable aperture lenses.

Re: SLR Camera Simulator

#20

Post by subhro »

lusr wrote: post #10
chwahoo wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can change the aperture in this simulation. Perhaps it was just grayed out since you were in shutter-priority mode?

No see you're as confused as she was :) Most zoom lenses are variable aperture, e.g. at 18mm they will open up to f/3.5 but at 55mm they will only open up to f/5.6. The simulation doesn't address this, and it can be surprising for a beginner to see the aperture changing as they zoom - they may become fixated on zooming as a way to control aperture without realising they are observing a side-effect.

Unfortunately, I do not completely agree with the post. With the prices of DSLRs coming down, nowadays everyone has a DSLR. And most of them don't give a crap about photography and its internals.

While I agree that constant aperture lenses are substantially costly than their variable aperture counterparts, cameras like Canon 5D Mark III is coming with a 24-70 F/2.8L II lens as a kit.

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