Stupid things Camera Companies leave out...

[Les Sarile]

Extending the film advance lever to activate the meter with half press of the shutter. I suppose the thought process was that this would prevent battery drain when a camera is in a bag and something may contact the shutter accidentally. Of course this method tends to poke into the eyes of those who are left eyed. A more clever implementation can be found in the Pentax MX and LX (possible others too?) that have a shutter lock to prevent accidental activation of the meter or shutter. Also, the meter can be activated and the shutter can be fired without the film advance sticking out.

[Diapositivo]

Minolta invented the Senswitch for the Minolta XM (X-1, XK).
I personally think that was brilliant.
http://www.rokkorfiles.com/XK.html

The X-700 and the XG series have a not less brilliant feature: a surface on the shutter release senses the conductivity of the finger and turns the light meter on. So the light meter stays on when your finger is on the shutter release and stays off (after 20 seconds or so) when you take your finger out of the shutter release.
The result is the same as the Senswitch: you can walk for hours keeping the light meter "on" so that you have it immediately ready but without wasting the energy during most of the time, when you actually just "walk".

[GRHazelton]

Minolta invented the Senswitch for the Minolta XM (X-1, XK).
I personally think that was brilliant.
http://www.rokkorfiles.com/XK.html

The X-700 and the XG series have a not less brilliant feature: a surface on the shutter release senses the conductivity of the finger and turns the light meter on. So the light meter stays on when your finger is on the shutter release and stays off (after 20 seconds or so) when you take your finger out of the shutter release.
The result is the same as the Senswitch: you can walk for hours keeping the light meter "on" so that you have it immediately ready but without wasting the energy during most of the time, when you actually just "walk".

Sounds like a wonderful idea! Does it work with gloved hands?

[Diapositivo]

Sounds like a wonderful idea! Does it work with gloved hands?

No, and it doesn't work with hands which are too thoroughly cleaned with soap.
It works with normal hands normally dirty though

The XM device, on the other hand, works with gloves as well.

[lxdude]

Hmmm..."Stupid things Camera Companies leave out".

You know, I don't really mind if they leave out the stupid things...

[GRHazelton]

Perhaps the thread should have been titled "Things Stupid Camera Companies Leave Out"?

[LiamG]

Hmmm..."Stupid things Camera Companies leave out".

You know, I don't really mind if they leave out the stupid things...

Likewise, that's what prevents a camera from coming with a threatening textbook of a manual.

[LJSLATER]

To Nikon F4 users, you know how the analog frame counter actually counts backward when you're rewinding your film? How come more cameras don't have that?

[benjiboy]

[QUOTE=lxdude;1415839]It goes right behind the eyepiece.[/QUOTE

[Les Sarile]

To Nikon F4 users, you know how the analog frame counter actually counts backward when you're rewinding your film? How come more cameras don't have that?

Didn't know the F4 did this too as my Nikon experience ends at the F3. The Pentax LX does this too keeping the frame registration perfectly so that you can go back and forth to multiexpose any frame.