I have just been studying the manual for the XP120 - again.

It appears that the 4 second exposure option is only available for 'night tripod' mode. I will have another lab session underground at Cwmystwyth Lefel Fawr this weekend. The XP 120 may well be worth persevering with.

I suspect that working from experience and having a manual option so I just set to 1 second at F6, and adjusting the shutter on trial and error is far too simple and politically incorrect in this day and age, suggesting such a thing would get me banned from Facebook if I was so mentally manipulable to be drawn into signing up to such a thing.

I make a confession.
When I bought the XP 120 I was totally unaware that there was no manual setting option and when I realised this I felt the same way as I would if I bought anew car and found that there was no steering wheel.
I had looked carefully at all the specs, yes. But the above never occurred to me.

I am fully aware of the majority of people who dont know what ASA, aperture, etc is and dont want to, they just want to snap away. OK, but somewhere all these pages of stuff I have had to wade through to find out the above has to be self defeating.

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Just been having my lunch and chewing things over. Its a lovely day outside, bright sunlight, so I thought "ASA100, F8, 200th second", then went outside with the Sony and tried it.

Below is the result

🔗115134[linkphoto]115134[/linkphoto][/link]

So whats easier. Spending hours over a manual studying 'modes' and 'sub modes' or a simple understanding of the aperture and shutter speed and its relationship to light?

"The kings got no clothes on"
:lol:

By way, the settings were right off the top of my head, swear on code of honour

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Bought a Helene 35X, 35mm camera in early sixties and used B&W film. You used the bit of paper that came with the film which showed about 8 light settings and that was your exposure meter. Always gave good results.

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My first decent camera was an Olympus OM1 35mm SLR. You stuck your roll of film in and set a little dial to whatever its ASA rating was. There was a built in light meter, centre was right, up was overexposed, down was underexposed and you set aperture and shutter speed on dials. Common sense, ouch, dictated that too slow a shutter speed and your pictures would be blurred unless you use a tripod.

Instruction book was a handful of pages, mostly photography hints, there wasn't much to explain about the camera. XP120 is 138 pages, possibly explains why I found the OM1 easier to understand.

Having said all this, I do really like the Sony. When I took it outside to set it to my instinctive manual settings I noticed the image in the viewfinder changing as I changed the settings.
I like. This is my idea of technology.

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The OM1 was a lovely camera. Odd design with the shutter speeds set around the lens mount, IIRC. And the LEDs flattened the battery if you left it switched on.

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I never had to replace the battery, and I did sometimes leave it switched on. Odd.
I bought an OM 40 as well as a happy snapper.

There are a lot of archive pics on here taken with the OM 1, but the best ones are the product of better film rather than the camera.

The digital camera is light years better though, my personal issue with technology is that just have to overcook everything.

I have a few pocket torches that I made up and all they do is work. I mean just switch on and off. Low battery indicator is very clever, the torch goes dim.
:lol:

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Thinking about it, the one I used to use, and flatten the batteries, might have been an OM2. It belonged to work where we had mostly Nikon gear. I think the Olympus was a leftover from someone's research grant so might have been bought as a package with a microscope.

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I come from a film background so ASA or even ISO are fully familiar with me Roy the underwater stuff in the days of film was VERY challenging to say the least as well as expensive 😠

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The OM1 had one bad problem. If you put it on a tripod and tightened the locking screw too tight it bent the bottom plate. I think it was the exposure meter was fixed to this and it through the camera out. New several people with them who liked them.

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I never had any trouble with mine, that is until I dropped it on concrete and it didn't work anymore. Not to be deterred I took it to pieces and actually fixed it. Lot and lots of tiny parts.

I bought another SH, cant remember where from.

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Panasonic has just announced the FT7 for next month. Specs are already available. No Raw, but manual settings as FT5, postfocus and viewfinder.

I have been playing around in lefel Fawr again and produced the picture below of the XP 120 on "Night Tripod" mode. It reads as ASA 200, 1/3 second, F3.9.

🔗115158[linkphoto]115158[/linkphoto][/link]

No disrespect to those who like such things, but I have no interest in 'arty' but like reality shown to best advantage. This photo really does it for me. Now I am getting the hang of the XP I may well stick with it. The Sony has playback on screen only so still need to take glasses underground with me.

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I like them Roy.
The simplicity reminds me of the days of film.
I.M.H.O. too many over processed pictures now.
The biggest problem I have with digital is people posting hundreds of variations of exposure rather than a few good selected shots.

There is also a place for highly posed images when done well.