BebuLamar

Thank you!

JMCPHD Loc: Maine

I think it is much easier to learn to shoot manual now that we have immediate feedback with a digital camera. In the past I would have to wait till I finished the roll and got it processed and to really learn I would need notes on what settings I had used.

hassighedgehog Loc: Corona, CA

First camera was automatic in the sense that there was no adjustment possible (brownie knockoff). First three were manual only, Argus C3, Canon FL-QL and Pentax K-1000. Took about 3 or 4 rolls of slide film to learn.

chasgroh Loc: Buena Park, CA

...pretty much like you. Got my first SLR in 'Nam and figured it out fairly quickly. Lots of bland slides later...lol...

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Learning manual is a very good thing to do, but modern cameras do very well in the various automated modes, shutter priority, aperture priority, auto ISO, which are good to learn also. They are faster to use than full manual in most cases, and can enable capturing an image that would be missed with manual. All of these modes are worth learning and understanding in the hope that the photographer can make better decisions than the camera, no matter how sophisticated.

BebuLamar

Thank you for all the replies. Assuming that one would want to know how to use all the modes available on the camera. My thought was that it would be faster overall if one starts with manual then learn the other auto modes later rather than starting with an auto mode then learn the manual mode last. Still I am not sure if I am right or wrong because most of the responses are from those who started with manual mode. I think we only have a couple of responses from people who started with auto.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

It is also important to remember that different people learn in different ways, as Will Rogers is oft quoted: “There are three kinds of men. The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.”

kcooke Loc: Alabama

2 days with my tlr rolliechord

LeeK Loc: Washington State

I feel I'm still learning about my camera (Nikons - D3100 and D5300). I always shot auto until about 2 years ago. I then took some classes. Both were beginning classes to learn manual. It wasn't until the 2nd class did I start to feel comfortable with the manual. I also use A and S but almost always M. I do feel there's still a lot for me to learn in general.

BebuLamar

Thank you.

Toad Rancher Loc: Central PA Mts.

I started with an Agfa Viking f6.3 that was given to my family in 1958 by a great aunt. It was about 20 years old at the time and had no meter and no rangefinder but we did get a beginners manual with it. After studying the manual it took me one foll of film to learn to use it which is not to say that I had learned to make photographs. I still have the camera.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

My first adjustable camera was a rangefinder Yashica Minister III with a built-in light meter. The meter gave me an EV reading which I set on a ring on the lens. Based on that EV setting, another ring set shutter speed / aperture which were tied together by that EV setting .... so I didn't have a choice - you can view this anyway you want to, but I needed to be engaged enough to set EV, and beyond that it was shutter priority or aperture priority depending on which part of the ring I was focused on.

BebuLamar

I would like to quote your post in another thread about the exposure triangle.

ez22 Loc: The World

Since I started with film in the '60s and the cameras didn't have any bells and whistles, you had no choice in the matter, as far as the cameras I used. When the 35mm cameras started having some auto features, I wasn't interested. Now with the Canon 5Ds and all the auto functions, I still use manual even though I'm paying for the bells and whistles, but never expect to use them. Manual is for the control freaks, like me 🤗

btbg

I think I was seven at the time. Manual was all there was. I bought a used kodak camera at a yard sale for a dime. Don't remember the model. Pulled weeds in my grandmother's yard to buy a roll of film. The box had a set of pictures with baseline settings for different light settings. First roll of film was fine. It was shot in direct sunlight with the sunny 16 rule. Took three or four rolls to get the exposures right for cloudy, or for dusk.

The camera really didn't have the capability to shoot at night without a tripod so didn't even try No problem with exposure since then. Moved up to an slr in junior high and although it was manual it had an exposure meter with a needle that lined up when the camera said that the exposure was correct. Most of the time it was pretty close. Once again three or four rolls to figure out when the light meter needed some adjustments.

Shooting in manual really isn't that tough and it should be even easier now since you can go back and look at the image on your screen and at least see if the exposure is close to right or not, so you get instant feedback instead of having to wait two or three weeks to get enough weeds pulled to pay for the processing and then another week for the roll of film to come back.