[OT] Cameras (was Re: Why is Python popular, while Lisp and Scheme aren't?)

[Donn Cave]

Quoth Michael Hudson <mwh at python.net>:
| Fernando Pérez <fperez528 at yahoo.com> writes:
|> If you just want convenience for 4x6 prints from negative, a P&S is
|> fine. But even a basic SLR like a Canon Rebel is about as easy to
|> use as a P&S, while allowing you to 'go manual' when you feel like
|> it.
|
| What strikes me is that with modern, decent print film, going manual
| -- at least wrt. exposure -- makes next to now difference.  I don't
| know enough about the area to say what's going on, but I was
| surprised.

Or not so modern color or BW negative film.  The constraints are
much tighter with transparency emulsions because they're final
generation.  If you look at a negative, it's relatively "flat",
and you can imagine it's easier to manage to get the extreme values
within the range of the emulsion's sensitivity;  from there, the
printer just needs to adjust to the correct baseline.  That's
simplified, the response functions aren't so linear and exposure
can have subtle effects at the extremes.  See Ansel Adams for more
details, and then cube that for color.

Hm, straining for an analogy here ... well, note that the point and
shoot concept is more relevant to today's programming environments
than any differences between programming languages, but maybe one
could observe that there's some class of languages where the programming
environment is less of an issue because of the tolerances.

The "what can you do" issue is more poignant if you go all the way
to the view camera as the hard core alternative, since it lets you
make some fundamental decisions about the way the picture is going
to look - not just focus and exposure but the actual shapes of things.
Definitely not something ``most people want'', but then most people
have no idea what it's about.  That probably has its analogies in the
present context, too.

	Donn Cave, donn at drizzle.com