One of the first things that everyone does when they get a new camera is disable the autofocus confirmation beep. The reason why it’s activated to begin with is because of the need for an audio confirmation that the camera you’re using is actually acquiring and locking with its autofocus. But photographers instead have just always used the visual cues on the LCD screen or in the viewfinder. They tend to work well enough; but recently with my dive back into retro point and shoot cameras, I’ve been thinking more about the autofocus confirmation beep. Considering how seriously lacking of a sensory experience modern photography is, I think that it’s a great idea to keep is on situationally.
These situational exceptions are when it won’t be a bother to other people or draw too much attention to you. In that case, you should never use it during a wedding or any other quiet event. Modern cameras also have the option to lower the volume on the confirmation beep and sometimes even change the pitch of it. In most cases, you’d only hear the autofocus confirmation beep if you’re very close to it. It’s not going to ring through a church or a concert hall — but when combined with the autofocus assist lamp, it will probably annoy someone for sure. I know that this is possible with Nikon cameras, for example.
Here’s the thing, modern cameras and digital photography majorly lack a sense of romance. They’re all using more or less the same sensors, the same designs, and the same everything else. If most people were to blindly handle one camera or another, then they probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between many of them. I dare you to try it — can you change your camera settings in the dark without looking at your camera or do you rely on the touchscreen interface to do it?
Of course, there are exceptions to this. There’s the Nikon Zf, the Leica M11, and some of Fujifilm’s more retro-style camera bodies. Additionally, Panasonic has a little textured ISO button that helps you find it in the dark. But otherwise, all of the dials on a camera aren’t necessarily very easy to track. With a Nikon Zf, I know that I have to turn the shutter dial a specific number of times until I get from 1/30th to 1/250th. That’s the type of sensory input that makes someone more intuned with the device their using and taking the photos that they care about. But more importantly, it gives us a sensory experience.
You’re probably wondering why this is so important. Well, look at your phone! When you interact with it, you’re actively using your eyes, your ears, and your fingers on top of any brain functionality. With a camera, you’re just using your eyes and your fingers. And in most of those situations, you’re seeing the same thing as every other brand offers.
I can say this with confidence as a legally blind man who had two surgeries to correct his eyes and to make the world more visible again. Try operating your camera without using your eyes and having the camera mess with the creative vision in your mind. Seriously, give it a shot — it will tell you what camera manufacturers need to do to cater to folks with bad vision as all of our eyes are getting worse due to staring at screens all day.
