The Panic Button

We've all seen the cat that sits on the curb as you round the corner - and waits until you drive halfway down the street - then darts out in front of you, heading for the other side. This is fun for Tabby in the middle of the day but gets serious at dusk. Cats are gamblers.

So are people - the elderly woman who did precisely the same thing as I drove to work this morning is a case in point. She stood at the edge of the road watching me approach, braced herself, then gently jogged across in front of my Suzuki as drove by. Fortunately I dodged and missed her. I did not wind the window down and scream imprecations at her. Not that I did not want to - but it would have been pointless - I don't speak Cantonese and I doubt if she understands Canadian.

Well...I have seen photographers indulge in the digital form of this behaviour. At a party I watched one dear lady change the settings for her Nikon camera and flash so many times that the internal computers of the two devices had no idea what to do. As she didn't either, the resulting images reflected the fact. She slipped rapidly from party mode to panic mode - in the end she would have been better to put the camera down and pick up a wine glass.

She needn't have despaired, and neither should you, if you are using a Nikon or Canon outfit. Both companies have realised that with the proliferation of settings and controls on digital SLR cameras that people can take far more control than they can handle. Both companies have put panic switch set somewhere in or on the camera. You'll see the Nikon D7100 buttons in the illustrations. Canon have put a reset into the menus setting on the LCD screen.

To recover from wherever you have mistakenly gotten with your fiddling, just press both of the green buttons simultaneously and hold them down for a couple of seconds. The camera goes back to a good general purpose factory reset:

100ISO
jpeg
Large normal file
Auto white balance
Matrix metering

If you slip your Nikon flash to TTL BL you can cheerfully launch out and snap away with the assurance that something decent will obtain. It might not be perfect, but you will not finish under the wheels of my Suzuki.

I thoroughly endorse this idea, but I would go one further - two clicks on the rear control wheel will bring the quality setting to RAW - and this will give even greater safety in recovering images later on.

Of course, if the aspiring photographer would set the damn thing correctly for the job in hand....then NOT change the settings every time they chimp the screen...none of the panic would arise. And they could devote more time to the chardonnay and the cheese balls.