Thread: An incident at Thanksgiving dinner prompts a question

We celebrated Thanksgiving at my wife's sister's house.

After dinner, we wanted to look something up on the Internet, and our niece brought out her MacBook Pro. While we were looking at an image on her screen, her Mom, who owns an iPad, did a swipe move that she normally uses on the iPad on the screen to enlarge the image. It didn't work, and my niece said, "Thanks, Mom, for putting at big thumbprint on my screen!"

We all laughed, but it raises a serious question: how much sense does it make to use the screen on the camera -- which is also used to view, frame and define the image -- as the touch screen for controlling the camera?

For viewing the image, you want as clean a screen as possible. For controlling the camera, you want to touch the screen with your potentially grubby paws.

Does anyone else see a potential conflict here? (Heck I put screen protectors on my cameras to keep them as pristine as possible).

Maybe somebody who owns a touch-screen camera can chime in with their experience.

I'm biased but I have never liked touchscreens on cameras. And, while I prefer viewfinders (OVF or EVF), I have no real problem using the rear LCD. But touchscreens, IMHO, are more trouble thatn they are worth. There are usually too many false commands detected and one ends up turning off the touchscreen - which defeats its whole purpose. Now, there are some useful advantages to touchscreens but I just don't think they are worth the trouble. I'm sure many younger people will disagree with me. If one is raised in the touchscreen era, one is likely to be more comfortable with them. And, with the proliferation of smartphones and the recent introduction of Android-based cameras, I suspect we'll see more touchscreens in the near future. I can adapt and have adapted, but Fuji's X series of cameras with their old-school external manual controls, have resonated with many for a reason.

With audio and visual focus confirmation, I find I don't need much viewing clarity/resolution. Sure, the cleaner/more detailed the better, but for me, it just isn't necessary. I already know what I'm looking at, the LCD/EVF is primarily used to select my subject, focus confirmation then frame. While a fingerprint on the LCD or laptop monitor is annoying, I seriously doubt it, either alone or with friends, will diminish using a camera or computer.

Gary

The Olympus EM5 has touchscreen. The only thing I really found it useful for was taking a picture by tapping the focus point on the LCD. The screen is one of those that does not seem to attract dust or oil. It was always clean. But you could easily keep a microfiber cloth with you and do a quick wipe if necessary.

I also use screen protectors and I really never view an image on the camera's LCD except to confirm exposure or to make sure I got the shot.

Nowadays I pick up a camera and wonder why it doesn't have a touchscreen. Compared to a smartphone or tablet it feels to me like a wasted opportunity to better interface with the camera. Until touchscreen I basically never changed my focus point from the centre, but the ability to do that via touch AND fire the shutter as well is a brilliant addition to a camera.

Re, the potential of smearing the screen: I rarely have to clean the screen on my phone, and my camera (whose touchscreen doesn't get nearly as much use as that on a phone) is no different.

Originally Posted by Luckypenguin

Nowadays I pick up a camera and wonder why it doesn't have a touchscreen. Compared to a smartphone or tablet it feels to me like a wasted opportunity to better interface with the camera. Until touchscreen I basically never changed my focus point from the centre, but the ability to do that via touch AND fire the shutter as well is a brilliant addition to a camera.

Re, the potential of smearing the screen: I rarely have to clean the screen on my phone, and my camera (whose touchscreen doesn't get nearly as much use as that on a phone) is no different.

this is one thing i like about my camera phones

I'm fine with the touchscreen on the OMD. I don't use it a lot, but I use it to trigger the shutter sometimes, whether in auto or manual focus (where touching anywhere on the screen triggers the shutter). Not a huge deal, but I'd rather than have it than not.

-Ray

I use the touch screen to take photos of the inside of my camera bag, my feet and other random bizarre stuff. Then I turn it off.

I don't want a touch screen on a camera, to the extent that I wouldn't buy a camera with the feature. But then, I have a big nose...

Sent from another Galaxy