Your favourite mistake...

bigredshark

bigredshark

bigredshark

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So, for the second time in a fortnight I accidentally left my camera set on ISO800 from another project and then went and shot 150+ frames which are now basically unusably noisy. Once was a mistake, twice was pure stupidity.

But it got me thinking, how do you avoid making mistakes like that - checklists ? (mental or otherwise)...and what's your favourite similar slip (I'm sure some of you must do similar silly things and it's not just me loosing my mind)
 
I found those mistakes stopped happening once I got pro bodies - I simply glance over all the buttons, switches and screens to check the settings. Of course the real power user would use profiles...but I can't say I've gone in for that yet.
 
What camera are you using bigred? I can't say I've ever done that on my 40D, but then it has a display and I often change aperture etc. and the iso speed is displayed below those.
 
My favourite mistake was buying my first L lens (the 135F2) when I really didn't have the cash to spare. :D
 
On this occasion I did it on my D200, which is pretty good for most settings as it's all physical switches and obvious symbols but the ISO isn't displayed anywhere unless you hit the ISO button...
 
Creating a 20 min DVD with project that is set for progressive footage and then adding interlaced footage into that project.

Come to export it and its all wrong!

Trying to fix it at the moment - So many rookie errors on this project!
 
This one's technically not my mistake although try telling my Dad that.

I loaned him my D70s and kit lens to go to Australia a while ago. Before I'd given him the camera I had been demonstrating its impressive noise generating abilities at ISO 1600 to a friend. I guess it's not the most obvious thing to check when you're, like him, more of a 35mm film slr type. Anyway...it wasn't until he got back and started checking all the photos and clearly wasn't impressed that I got the phone call to come and see. Every single one was taken at ISO1600. A mobile phone would probably have generated better pictures than this thing at 1600. I still can't help but feel bad about it and he's never going to let me forget about it either. At least he always checks the ISO settings now.Haha!
 
Checking settings are a must now I don't usually fall foul of this, my worse mistake just recently is I have a habbit of leaving my CF card in the card reader attached to my pc :o
 
My favourite mistake was using my 2Gb card instead of my 8Gb for a shoot a few weeks ago

There's a mode on the D80 where it automagically takes HDR frames (1 underexposed, 1 overexposed, and one just right) and I had it on

Needless to say I felt like a dipstick when I'd filled up the card halfway through the shoot :p
 
beermonster said:
Checking settings are a must now I don't usually fall foul of this, my worse mistake just recently is I have a habbit of leaving my CF card in the card reader attached to my pc :o
Click to expand...

I did that once, decided on a spur of the moment trip out to do some long exposure shots one morning, forgot the card in the reader and also the 2 spares that I normally keep in the camera bag.

To top it all off I managed to forget the adaptor for the tripod anyway (I usually leave the tripod itself in the boot of the car) as well so the local wildlife would have gotten an early morning wake up call with me swearing :D

I sometimes forget I've been using manual mode for trickier indoor shots, then wander outside and continue to snap away on a bright afternoon at f2 1/30 shutter and 1600 ISO, luckily I always review the pictures soon after so only missed a few shots like that.

Oh last one is using mirror lock up delay mode then coming back to the camera a few days later and wondering why the hell it's taking so long to shoot anything, done this enough times now that its the first thing I think to look at.
 
Having my 450d set to 'self timer/remote control' mode then forgetting about it the next day when out shooting birds and wildlife. I pan along with a bird in flight and hit the button when its looking just right for a nice shot then all i get is a beep beep beep beep, countdown-timer style. I've also fallen foul of the ISO mistake a few times and my girlfriend is queen of the 'leaving CF card at pc' mistake :D
 
I tend to shoot in aperture priority, and after a while soon became able to sense when the ISO was too high as the shutter speed be equally be too high.

ISO displays on the top of the camera now on this model, so sorted :)
 
The one I make which is really annoying is leaving a longish exposure time from a previous shoot. When I arrive anywhere I normally fire off a test shot to gage settings, then have to wait so many seconds for the camera to finish. Its not a massive thing, just an annoying habit I have.
 
On Nikon you can press the two buttons marked with a green dot, which resets most of the day-to-day settings (eg. ISO, white balance, bracketing) to a known state. I do this before every session -- very useful.
 
I've done the usual "didn't check the settings before shooting" a few times. Yesterday somehow in TV mode I managed to sneak up to 1/8000 instead of the 1/1000 I had set it to, I think this was due to the portrait controls being active and the scroll wheel catching on the strap!

My fav though is putting the camera on my tripod, then swearing a lot at what a rubbish desigh it was as I couldn't elevate much at all, then realising I should have the camera flipped 180deg in the mount.... happy days! :)
 
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