Recently a friend decided that the time was ripe for him to go systemic, he got himself a pre-owned EOS (myself I use Alphas) and then came to the conclusion that he needed some education on how to use this for him unknown piece of technology, he also decided that I should be the one to educate him.
Well, here’s the first lession he recieved…
Let’s start with the equipment which basically consist of two main parts. First and foremost there is what is called a house and no, it’s not intended to be a dwelling for small people or dust rats. In fact it should be dust free in there where the mirror is located. It’s called a single reflex camera for a reason and dust won’t reflect at all with the exception for existential issues as whether vacuum cleaners from Bosch are more dangerous than the ones from Philips.
Attached to the house there is a tube shaped thingie. It’s not a beer can although Minolta actually have a series called just that, it is a pipe with lenses called objective. In this case though it’s not the opposite of subjective, it’s very much subjective what the objective is aimed at.
The tube is attached to the house with a bayonet mount that have nothing to do with weapons, in fact there is no mount that will fit on a rifle for this particular bayonet. In back of the tube, in the house that is, there is a mirror. Sadly for all the ladies this is not a makeup mirror, it’s a vital component enabling you to see anything in the view-finder.
In the front of the device there is a round window with a hatch, this is the end you point away from yourself. Don’t forget to open the hatch, you’ll only get pitch black pictures if it’s closed. Now it gets confusing, at the other end of the camera there are two more windows. However these are square which should help to know which end is front and which is back.
One of the windows is a screen where you not only can see the image but also all the faulty settings you make. The smaller window placed over the other one is the one called view-finder and it basically have the same main function as the larger one which is to see what it is you’re actually taking pictures of, just smaller but in fact more precise.
The time has come to shoot your first picture which not always is unproblematic. It can happen that the square windows are entirely black and for this there can be several reasons. One common source of error is that you have forgotten to open the round hatch or simply forgotten to turn the power on. Another cause for the windows to remain black is that the motif is black or that it is night time.
Sometimes the image is a little blurred, the cause for this can be that you have Parkinson’s disease, that a dust rat actually moved in or simply that the motif is moving.
With this the first lession is concluded and I have managed spending half an hour of your time with nothing but drivel…
