A plea for globally modal camera menus

Cameras keep gaining features. Their menus keep getting longer, more complicated, and harder to navigate. One answer is to offer fewer features. But those features are valuable to somebody. Must we choose between cameras that won’t do what we want and cameras whose menus drive us nuts? I propose another answer: top-level modality. We already have modal camera functions: P, A, S, and M for exposure control; MF, AF-S, AF-C, and Lord knows how many variants of “left eye of the momma bald eagle detection.” I’m proposing something above all that: a mode that governs the camera’s controls, the information it displays, the assistance it provides, and, most importantly, the menus it shows. Flight Simulator offers a useful analogy. In an easy mode, a neophyte can land without pranging the airplane. In a realistic mode, the same approach can end badly. The user chooses how much assistance to receive and how much responsibility to accept. Why shouldn’t a camera offer a similarly consequential…

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