R10/M9 software

[jrc]

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One of the things about my Nikon D3 that kills me is that the menus are so extensive, and the options so many, that you have a hard time getting hold of the useful ones. It's like trying to find one name in an non-alphabetized phone book. The information is there, and it's accurate, you just can't find it.

 

I see postings on some forums mentioning features of the D3 that I never even heard of -- even worse, when you turn some obscure feature on, you can alter the behavior of some other very useful feature, and never know why (see Bjorn Rorslett's review about the D3's Live View.)

 

With the R10, Leica has a chance to do something revolutionary with menus, which is, make them comprehensible. I don't know how they'd do this, though.

 

Since you're basically talking about text, it wouldn't take up too much memory, I wouldn't think, to have a number of different optional menus -- or even an index, or perhaps some kind of logic tree, or even a programmable "memos to self" mode. Or maybe an extensive FAQ. The fact is, it is now IMPOSSIBLE for most people, even professionals, to know all the features of these cameras. The manuals are now literally hundreds of pages long...my D3 manual is 444 pages of mostly dense, technical information.

 

Perhaps we could have a menu of "most used parameter changes"; one of "most often encountered conflicts."

 

What do you think?

 

JC

[telyt]

I hope the R10 is as easy to use as the DMR. I'd had the DMR a few weeks before I opened the manual and now almost 2 years later I've only looked at a few pages.

[andybarton]

Me too, Doug.

 

If the R10 has any more buttons than the DMR then Leica will have failed.

 

K.I.S.S.

 

[hamey]

Totally agree.

 

One of the things I love about Leica Is the simplicity of their cameras.

 

All I want is to take a photo, not read the equivalent of the yellow pages before I do it.

 

I will say it again.

 

ANY ADIOT CAN DESIGN SOMETHING COMPLICATED.

BUT IT TAKES A BRILLIANT MIND TO MAKE IT SIMPLY.

 

Happy New Year to all.

 

Ken.

[carstenw]

Things should be made as simple as possible -- but no simpler. - A. Einstein

[rsolomon]

IMO Leica has always done well in this area....

[dhsimmonds]

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The only time that I have needed to look at the DMR manual after setting the back onto my R9 was when I cleaned the sensor for the first time. I only ever look at the menu to format the card! This is how it should be with any camera, leaving the maximum time for taking photographs so I very much hope that Leica will follow this formula for the R10.

[HaraldL]

The Philips company is a good example of how to handle technical improvement. Their slogan used to be 'let's make things better', now it is 'let's make things easier'.

[Overgaard]

Photography is "painting with light" and since the first cameras the development of technology has been around controlling the light.

 

If you look at a camera, most buttons has to do with controlling the light.

 

So any new buttons that does not have to do with that is overkill. That is what is so great about Leica cameras, that they are designed to capture and control the light precisely.

[EH21]

Agreed. The last thing I want to see is a big button on the back of the camera dedicated for direct to print features. Canon "thoughtfully" provided this on a number of their DSLR's but still hasn't the convenient mirror lockup switch that my R8 has.

[Venkman]

Unlikely Eric, since Leica does not produce printers as well