Complex cameras (updated twice)

I love the power of modern cameras, but let's face it, digital camera makers are insane. Cameras are so complex! I was just trying to figure out how to make bracketing work on a camera, and it simply would not work. Finally I found out that somehow I had mistakenly selected "multi-film mode". I have no friggin clue what that even means!

And who needs or wants "film modes"? These are digital cameras, and any effect can be made better later in the computer anyway. And the scene modes too. You can never predict what they are going to do, all they do is confuse people with a lot of options.

The camera has *three* "function buttons". I pressed one by accident, and this again meant that the functions I was trying to set simply did not work, because the camera was set to "Intelligent Auto", meaning "the user has no control". And the big problem is that the button is easy to press by mistake, and beyond a tiny symbol on the screen there is no warning. (The saving grace is that I could change the function of the button so it at least would not f**k anything up if I did happen to touch it.)

My opinion is that they would make much more powerful and useful cameras if they got off this kick of stuffing in as many "features" as they possibly can.

Many years ago David Pogue wrote in a book about a famous movie star he was coaching on using MS Word. The guy got delighted when he found out he could remove menu items he did not want. In the end he only had two left: "bold" and "print"! Love it.

Pogue also once asked: why are simple word processors not selling? Why does everybody want the bloaty MS Word app,  like they want an SUV instead of a useful car? Well, we are addicted to power, even if it's power we will never use.

But maybe there is light at the end of the carpal tunnel: Fujifilm's upcoming X100 camera, a quality camera with simple, physical dials is generating tons of interest, way more than Fuji themselves had expected.

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Dave said:

Since I have no interest in studying photography. "Intelligent auto" is the only feature I'd want. Maybe a button that says "Closeup. Really."

Good point. The trouble is you don't know what it will do. I just discovered that in iA mode, my camera (the otherwise excellent Lumix GH2) reduces the resolution of the image from 16MP to 8MP!

I mostly use "P" for Programmed mode. It works almost all the time. The few exceptions are mostly when I want full aperture for a very blurred background, then I use "A" for Aperture Priority. 

In the seventies cameras where either fully manual or had only Aperture priority or Shutter Speed priority. It was a revolution when the first cameras came in the eighties which had both modes as well as the new Programmed mode, where the camera selects both and balances them. 

For very critical use, where ultimate image quality is more important than speed, Programmed mode is not ideal of course.


Update: Adam Engst pointed to this article.
I'm feeling snappish because my wife Daphne's point-and-shoot camera died after only three years of infrequent use, and because I cannot find a sensible replacement. Each "simple" point-and-shoot that I have looked at is more complicated than the next.
[...]  In principle it is possible to ignore many of these "features," but in practice menus often get changed accidentally, either when you try to change some other setting or when you hold the camera in your lap and touch some buttons accidentally, buttons like the "Fn" button on the EX1, which has no evident function save to facilitate destroying images by throwing away resolution.