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From: ron@brl-tgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie )
Newsgroups: net.rec.photo
Subject: Re: Aperture vs shutter priority: which is better?
Message-ID: <8200@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Sun, 10-Feb-85 18:22:36 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.8200
Posted: Sun Feb 10 18:22:36 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 13-Feb-85 03:13:08 EST
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Organization: Ballistic Research Lab
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> Does it make a difference if a camera has aperture or shutter
> priority? I have a Canon AL-1 and am considering purchasing
> a T-70. I kinda like the AL-1 with apreture pririty,
> because I can pick an f-stop for depth of field You also get
> to see what your camera sees, since the lenses actually stops
> down. Whith shutter priority, the lens is wide open until
> you actually press the shutter.
> 
My camera will go either way.  In addition, you don't have to
have the camera stop down to use aperture-prefered.  There's a
little widgie on the lens that tells the metering what the lens
is set at and what it is capable of doing.

What mode I use depends what I'm doing.  If you're shooting something
moving fast or your shooting hand held in dim light where your shutter
speeds are likely to get low, it's handy to set the shutter speed to
the maximum (or mininum) speed you will tolerate and then let it
pick an aperture.  Of course, for the reason you state, aperture
priority is also handy.

My first camera was aperture preferred only, it did however warn
you when the shutter speeds were getting out of range.  My current
camera, has some way of running in aperture perferred mode and specifying
a limit on speed (at which point it fudges the aperture?) but it only
works in one direction and I don't use it enough (like not at all) to
remember how to do it.

For what it's worth, it is almost always easier to twirl the aperture
ring than it is the shutter speed knob on every SLR I've run into.
I guess that's another plus for a-preferred.  When I run manual (yeah
I know, I could use the +/- automatic exposure compensation widget,
but it's a pain, I can match needles with the best of 'em), I therefore
vary the exposure with the aperture (so I'm sort of s-preferred in
manual mode, for human engineering purposes only).

-Ron