Leica CL Trying to make sense of the CL manual ...

[Learner]

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... page 24, right side...

 

top line ambiguity:

 

"up to 8 menu items" ... All at once, or one by one ??

 

======

 

What and where are those functions mentioned under the second bullet (right-pointing arrow):

 

-- "edit Right Wheel Push in Live View" ?

 

and

 

-- "Edit Rear FN Button in Live View" ?

 

 

Rear FN button ?? What is that ??

 

===

 

Sorry to be so thick... I just don't get it. Does anyone?

Edited July 29, 2018 by Learner

[tritentrue]

Yup, confusing.  I took one look at it and put it aside, assuming it was written by an engineer rather than a trained technical writer.

 

But the camera itself is intuitive.  I'm no techie and I set it up the way I want it without using the instruction manual.

 

With the CL, IMO, Leica leapfrogged over other brands in terms of user friendliness and ease of operation.

[jaapv]

... page 24, right side...

 

top line ambiguity:

 

"up to 8 menu items" ... All at once, or one by one ??

 

======

 

What and where are those functions mentioned under the second bullet (right-pointing arrow):

 

-- "edit Right Wheel Push in Live View" ?

 

and

 

-- "Edit Rear FN Button in Live View" ?

 

 

Rear FN button ?? What is that ??

 

===

 

Sorry to be so thick... I just don't get it. Does anyone?

 

Yes, you get a list of options, which you can either switch on off. You can switch a maximum of eight to "on". One by one as you scroll through the list. Hard to see how one would do all at once.

 

Live view means that you have the rear LCD switched on.

 

The rear FN button is the button on the rear engraved "FN".

 

I just picked up the camera, took twenty minutes to figure everything out empirically and then went through the manual to pick up any points I missed. Crystal clear, despite some awkward translations. Don't try to overthink things.

[ramarren]

The edit functions allow you to set which eight camera commands/functions you want to be able to access via the programmable right wheel button and FN button. Each takes up to eight commands/functions in its list.

 

A long press on either brings up a menu to choose from with the commands you’ve set. A short press of the button executes that command or function.

 

Page 88 lists all the functions and whether they are available, plus the defaults.

[Bill W]

Leica engineers "draw straws" to see who will write the technical manual for the particular camera they are developing and this guy drew the short straw. 

[ramarren]

LOL! 

 

I doubt that. I'm sure they have technical writers to manage writing the documentation. The sad thing is, having been a technical writer, many engineering teams consider the writers and documentation to be second-class citizens: They're not given access to the product to study and evaluate it until late in the process, and they're not critical path on the chart of milestones to delivery. Then there are the usual problems of internationalization ... The tech writers are creating the documentation in German and then the docs are often handed to a contractor to translate them for distribution. 

 

Reading the CL manual, it's about average. Most of the issues I see come from what seems to be late/poor/fast translation from German to English. Most of the information, when parsed out and rewritten in proper English, is correct but with the usual overhead of ambiguous expressions and a couple of 'just plain wrong' details either through typo or misunderstanding on the part of the tech writer. 

 

In my professional capacity as an editor, I'd give it a B- grade ... it's a good second draft in most cases, but lacking the polish and finesse that I always wanted my writing work to have once it was released.

 

And for sure I made my fair share of errors in writing documentation too ... I was usually saved by a very cooperative engineering team's review and by a great editor. No one gets it right all the time, every time... And as writers, we're almost always blind to our own errors ... until two months after a piece has been released and published, we re-read it, and say to ourselves, "Omigosh! Did I actually write crap like that??" 

Edited July 31, 2018 by ramarren

[scott kirkpatrick]

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What I find disappointing about the Leica manuals is the fact that when there is a clear approach that might be explained, like the CL's 

 

* choose the functions for each long press button

* to use one, make a short press

* to change to an other, make a long press and choose, confirm (short press or half press of the shutter), then short press to have the new one happen

 

it's buried, not made explicit.  Not hard to understand, but when the manual doesn't point to it, it may be beyond the detective abilities of many users.

 

And Leica doesn't seem to care much about manuals.  For the CL, you have to ask for a hard copy (but it's free), and the online English version still contains the untranslated German phrases, hasn't been updated to describe v2.0 firmware...  If they think these are worth so little, why not go online-only, and save some money, but keep it alive when things change?

[ramarren]

... Another example of considering tech writers and documentation as second class citizens, Scott.

 

It does actually cost a good bit of money to keep docs online and updated. It's actually less costly to consider a manual as being a one time project expense and then done.

Edited July 31, 2018 by ramarren

[Learner]

I reckon that the current English CL manual (pdf) has been online for a week or two. It's an improvement on the previous version: only one German word ("oder", bottom left of p. 94) and a few English misspellings survive. Further, some parts of the manual have been revised and now read well.

 

That said, it's still awkward / unclear in many places.

 

I intend to list what I don't understand and what I think is incorrect. Please let me know, via PM, what you think is wrong and unclear; provide page number(s).

 

====

 

I am in the throes of preparing an index (Excel file) which I'll make available to anybody that wants it.

 

True, the current table of contents is comprehensive, but it's much easier to find a feature / operation within an alphabetical list.

 

If you want me to send you the index, let me know your email address via PM.

 

Your interest / comments re the manual are informative and heartening.

 

Thank you.

Edited July 31, 2018 by Learner

[scott kirkpatrick]

I went to us.leica-camera.com and still saw the old 11/2017 version of the instruction manual.  Where did you see a new one?  And, yes, I'd appreciate a link to your index when it is ready.

Edited July 31, 2018 by scott kirkpatrick

[Learner]

Oops... Looks like I made an error when I wrote:

 

"I reckon that the current English CL manual (pdf) has been online for a week or two."

 

It's been around for months.

 

That said, the version with lots of German and lots of English spelling errors predates the current version.

 

Sorry for the confusion.

 

Thanks to Scott for setting me straight.