Poorly or undocumented features in PDF Manuals

[sumocomputers]

Since getting my GXRs and 28/50mm lens a couple years back, the firmware updates and features have increased steadily.

However, the features and menus have become more packed. I wanted to just understand more about these, so I went through all of them, and found a few that are either undocumented or poorly documented. For instance, one feature is mentioned briefly in the PDF manuals, but not really explained. However, I found a Ricoh web page that documents it in more detail, but it is still not totally clear for the beginner.

As an advanced amateur, I actually do understand what most of these do, but still feel that a manufacturer should provide everything needed in their manuals. I am not asking you for an explanation to these, that is not the point.

Wanted to see if you noticed the same thing, or if you had anything to add, before I let Ricoh know.

Setup > Minimum Distance (Show/Hide) - Not in manual. Minimum distance for what?

Setup > Focus Ring Settings (AF+MF/MF Only) - Not in manual. More details would be nice.

Setup > ISO Step Setting (1EV/1/3EV) - No Detailed Explanation in Manual. Would be nice to know why this would matter to someone (I know why it matters to me).

Shooting > Distortion Correction (Off/On) - No Detailed Explanation in Manual. Would be nice to know more technical details on what types of Distortion Correction it performs and under what circumstances.

Shooting > Flash Exposure Compensation (0.0-3.0) - No Detailed Explanation in Manual. Would be nice to know the difference between this and Manual Flash Amount. Interestingly, there are more details on a web page than in the manual here:

http://www.ricoh.com/r_dc/support/faq/b ... 01046.html

 

[Remko]

I do agree with you. Some of these are briefly documented in the firmware update features document here: https://www.ricoh.com/r_dc/download/fir ... vup_en.pdf

Minimum distance show/hide: is the minimum focus distance. When on, If you switch modes or presets the minimum focus distance is shown (on the 50 there is a different min focus distance in normal operation as in macro mode).

Iso step setting: 1ev only let's you select 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200 iso so in full stops only. In 1/3 ev setting you get to select intermediate values also.

Distortion correction, correct lens distortion (for jpegs only).

Flash exposure compensation is handy when you want to lower the flash output but relative to the automatic value to camera chooses. Compare this to exposure compensation when you change the automatic exposure this is different to manual exposure. Exposure compensation is automated with your influence instead of fully manual.

Focus ring setting AF+MF let's you also adjust the focus with the focus ring in autofocus mode instead of only in manual focus. (I do need to check this since I don't have my GXR at hand to verify).

Remko

 

[Tom Caldwell]

My take "nobody reads the manuals" - not true of course, but quite common, especially with other brands. Bought a NEX6 recently and it came with a very flimsy excuse for a quick start manual. The real manual came in a pdf file on the cd. All 250+ pages if you want to print it yourself. This was for a camera that is arguably very simple and basic as far as the firmware is concerned. The GXR is so complex that if everything was explained in detail then the manual would have to be four times as long.

So who pays for a nice 1,000 page manual, maybe a set of manuals? Or do Ricoh join the herd and provide a 12 page "oh so simple" guide for their camera and the 1,000 page manual on cd for a devoted user to print out at their own expense on A4? What about Ricoh's fairly frequent firmware updates? Do they suitably revise a manual for us to download and print again?

In the end I think it is a question of balance. I really like Ricoh supplying their little, easily carried, manuals in the box. They are necessarily brief to save space and not to provide an intimidating amount of technical data that surely would tend to encourage more users simply to file and not use them at all. At least most of what the camera can do is included in a sort of brief overview. If it is not over-precise then we can have "fun" working out just what that function might do. Learning can be an uplifting experience. However I like the OP have had my moments of being completely baffled by coded bevity.

I have suggested before that Ricoh needs more detailed technical manuals. My suggestion is that the manuals suupplied as excllent and cover the scope of the camera even if not in sufficient detail for the enquiring mind to quickly grasp. If Ricoh were to maintain technical manuals in more detail on their site then sufficiently interested users could access the site and download them or the parts that are needed. This would save printing cost and they could always be refreshed and updated with the release of new firmware.

The editorial cost of a fully detailed complex technical manual even on their site only would not only be very considerable but also probably further delay the launch of a product. Is this what we really want?

I also saw that many users would be happy to make contributions to such a manual, but it would have to be subject to Ricoh's editorial style policy and their technical writers lest it end up a jumbled mish mash of unco-ordinated tips ranging from pretty obvious to amazing sleights of hand.

The other possibility would be for the user group to make up their own tips record. I think we already so this in an informal way but it is "everywhere" and probably repeated often in different words. To make this into a useful manual of technical assistance would be a labour of intense love.

Meanwhile just ask and someone is surely going to help.

Tom

 

[Blow-in]

I think I agree with Tom. Somewhere a line has to be drawn between a manual on how to take photographs and a manual on how to select the features of the camera. One year later and I'm still finding new things on the GRD4 and have only scratched the surface of the GXR. One useful area on the Ricoh web site which is there to support the how to take photographs side of the equation.

See: http://www.ricoh.com/r_dc/photostyle/

Richard

 

[Tom Caldwell]

Richard

I think I would rather have the horsepower that Ricoh provides even if it is largely undocumented than not have the "go faster" tricks at all.

I was busily trying to remember an undocumented function yesterday when I discovered one of my own!

Press and hold the "direct" button and then successively press the "disp" button and the overlaid direct screen will cycle through it's levels of transparency. If altering this is your need, then you can do this easily this way without entering the menu. A small thing, logical when you think of it, and just the sort of attention to detail you get from Ricoh firmware.

What I was trying to remember was something I learned from someone else - whose name I still cannot remember - a much more useful finction:

When in menu by holding down the "direct" button and pressing the "+" or "-" key you can move through the menu a page at a time.

Something useful for a GRDIII/IV user:

If you wish to make the camera "silent" and have already switched off tell tale shutter light, auto playback of a capture and then cycled through the display screens until the display is "off" .... "Oh!" you say "I cannot see the settings that the camera is using, I might want to adjust them". Easy - with the lcd switched to blank screen - by pressing Fn1 the numbers and histogram appear for a second or two so that they can be checked and adjusted if necessary. No bright image - just a set of technical data. This of course assumes that you are shooting over the top of the camera or have an auxillary ovf on top.

Doesn't work with the GXR but you can switch the lcd off instantly with the vf/lcd switch with no evf attached.

Tom