I'm missing Real Cameras...

In this world of digital cameras with multiple menus I sometimes forget how great some of the older film cameras were to photograph with. I miss and long for real dials and controls that just made sense and made for faster shooting.

Ken Rockwell wrote this about the Pentax 645N:

The Pentax 645N is a real camera. Everything just works. Pick it up and you're shooting. Forget reading the instruction manual; it's awful. There are no menus; everything has its own knob, as it should.

The 645N allows exposure compensation in third stops, has an auto exposure lock and manual metering reads to thirds of a stop with a six-stop range bar graph! This outdoes anything from Nikon or Canon.

Top, Pentax 645N.

The 645N is even easier to use than today's Nikons, and a lot easier to use than today's Canons.

To set the various exposure modes, just move the aperture ring and shutter dials. If a dial is set to a shutter speed or aperture, you get what you set. If one of the dials is set to A, the Pentax 645N sets that automatically. If both are set to A, you're in Professional (previously called Program) mode. If both are set to speeds and apertures, you're in manual mode. There is no need for an old-fashioned mode selector as Nikon and Canon still have to use.

Check the five green marks above, and you're ready to shoot. From the top left, the green settings are A on the lens aperture, 0 exposure compensation, 0 exposure bracketing, A on the shutter speed dial (which gets you the Professional exposure mode with the A setting on the lens), and [*] below the shutter dial to set Matrix metering. Don't forget to turn on the power, which shows in red.

Well said Ken, some things were just better in the 'the good ole' days.'