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#21
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Rant about the term "ZLR"
Bryan Olson wrote:
We should do away with the term "ZLR". In language, theory follows practice. Meaning is defined by usage and understanding, even when logic dictates otherwise. We express aperture by F-number; unfortunately, as aperture increases, F-number decreases. Electricity is the flow of electrons; strangely that flow is from negative charge to positive. "Thoroughbred" is a breed of horse, not a description of purity of breed. Compulsive workers are "workaholics", even though there is no such thing as "workahol". Lamentable as the above terminology may be, any opportunity to fix it has passed. The pioneers of optics and particle physics have won immortal recognition, as they deserved. Those who coined and adopted the term "workaholic" were not slapped silly -- as they deserved. The past is fixed, and we are far too few to alter established usage. The best we can do is to avoid making matters worse. Let's not adopt terms that are counter-intuitive, technically wrong, and, well, stupid. That's where "ZLR" comes in. "ZLR" literally stands for "zoom lens reflex". Despite its literal meaning, people use it to to mean cameras with electronic viewfinders. (Sometimes they also assume "ZLR" means a fixed lens. It's not clear whether they are deliberately considering only current fixed-lens cameras, or whether they merely lack the wit to think further.) The term is counter-intuitive, technically wrong, and stupid. It has not yet entered common usage, so there is still time to correct this error. I have bought exactly two digital cameras (for within a few pennies of the same price): A Sony F-707, and a Canon Digital Rebel with kit lens. Both fit the "ZL" in "ZLR" by having a zoom lens. The Canon Digital Rebel had "reflex"; the Sony F-707 did not. Thus the Canon was a 'zoom lens reflex', while the Sony was not. So utterly stupid is the proposed meaning of "ZLR" that my Sony F-707 would be a "ZLR", and my Canon Digital Rebel would not. Why should we fabricate and adopt terminology that is so contrary to fact? So let's say what is right. When we mean "through the lens", let's say so; "TTL" works. If we mean an electronic viewfinder, then "EVF" is perfectly clear. A fixed lens is a non-interchangeable lens, and let's say one of those, even if there isn't an established abbreviation. This term "ZLR" is crap to be flushed. Brian, Well, drive on 'parkways', and park on 'driveways'. Why should we get excited about 'ZLR'? Grin. |
#22
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Rant about the term "ZLR"
Leonard wrote:
David J Taylor wrote: wrote: [] Aparrently the cameras that are being described by ZLR shouldn't even have the "R" part, because they do not have a mirror to reflect the image onto a viewing screen (usually ground/etched glass). [] The reflex is electronic - not optical. Surely it's the ground-glass that's replaced by electronics. There is no reflex in an EVF camera. I'd say that the way EVF operates is more like what you get with a view camera. The electronic nature of it means that you don't have to swap the viewing plate for a film holder when you want to take - because viewing and taking now use the same component. - Len Yes, but on a ground glass screen the image is upside down. The electonics reflects that image to display it the right way up. I suppose, pedantically, you caould even say that the LCD is mounted upside-down! "Reflex" has a broader meaning than just optics. David |
#23
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Rant about the term "ZLR"
"Bryan Olson" wrote in message . net... We should do away with the term "ZLR". I have never heard this abbreviation used - have you just made it up ? |
#24
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Rant about the term "ZLR"
What fun! All you guys explaining physics are missing the point.
Of course, physicists know that the charge on an electron is negative and electrons flow from the negative to positive terminals of a power source. But, any dufus can tell you that things naturally flow from where there's more (+) to where there's less (-). And there are a lot more dufuses than physicists in the world. Okay, I'm not going to get into name calling, but does this mean that dufus's think that rivers flow from the ocean onto land where there is less (-) water? Eric Miller |
#25
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Rant about the term "ZLR"
Maybe that's why I never heard of it until now. But I've heard of "chicken fried steak" many times. Do people really talk of "chicken fried chicken"? How does it differ from fried chicken? Well, and this is just my opinion, but I think that the usage of this word was a shortcut to "chicken fried steak fried chicken." It's a "chicken fried steak" but with chicken. Eric Miller |
#26
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Rant about the term "ZLR"
RustY© wrote:
"Bryan Olson" wrote in message . net... We should do away with the term "ZLR". I have never heard this abbreviation used - have you just made it up ? Not at all! Please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZLR There is a newsgroup devoted to ZLRs: rec.photo.digital.zlr David |
#27
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Rant about the term "ZLR"
On Sat, 3 Dec 2005 11:16:20 +0100, Philip Homburg wrote:
In article Ewbkf.23151$Gd6.19543@pd7tw3no, Matt Ion wrote: If you really wanna get into it, "electric current" IS considered to "flow" from positive to negative, and it does so at very near the speed of light. What kind of experiment proves that current flows from positive to negative and not the other way around? (Just curious. My understanding is that what is important are current changes what causes the current change. Information does not travel faster than the speed of light, so the current change spreads from the point that caused the current change). The classic experiment for determining the actual sign of charge carriers is the Hall Effect. Stripped to the basics, if you flow a current in the presence of a magnetic field, a voltage is created perpendicular to the direction of current flow. The sign of the voltage depends on the sign of the charge carriers. Poor Hall, though. This was his PhD thesis work (back in the late 19th century), and his results didn't make any sense. He measured a whole bunch of metals and found that most of them had negative carriers (electrons). Some, however, had _positive_ carriers, and he had no idea why. The half-assed explanation that he came up with didn't appeal to his advisor, and he nearly didn't graduate. It would eventually take quantum mechanics and band theory to explain hole-dominated conductivity. -dms, went to the same graduate program as Hall, though a century later. |
#28
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Rant about the term "ZLR"
On Sat, 3 Dec 2005 07:10:31 -0600, millereric wrote:
Maybe that's why I never heard of it until now. But I've heard of "chicken fried steak" many times. Do people really talk of "chicken fried chicken"? How does it differ from fried chicken? Well, and this is just my opinion, but I think that the usage of this word was a shortcut to "chicken fried steak fried chicken." It's a "chicken fried steak" but with chicken. Ah, thanks for the explanation. That makes sense. Sounds good too, at least to someone with the palate of an Elvis. I wonder when it originated and if he had a chance to try hot chicken fried chicken sandwich? |
#29
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Rant about the term "ZLR"
On $DATE , Bryan Olson wrote:
We should do away with the term "ZLR". In language, theory follows practice. Meaning is defined by usage and understanding, even when logic dictates otherwise. We express aperture by F-number; unfortunately, as aperture increases, F-number decreases. Electricity is the flow of electrons; strangely that flow is from negative charge to positive. "Thoroughbred" is a breed of horse, not a description of purity of breed. Compulsive workers are "workaholics", even though there is no such thing as "workahol". Lamentable as the above terminology may be, any opportunity to fix it has passed. The pioneers of optics and particle physics have won immortal recognition, as they deserved. Those who coined and adopted the term "workaholic" were not slapped silly -- as they deserved. The past is fixed, and we are far too few to alter established usage. The best we can do is to avoid making matters worse. Let's not adopt terms that are counter-intuitive, technically wrong, and, well, stupid. That's where "ZLR" comes in. "ZLR" literally stands for "zoom lens reflex". Despite its literal meaning, people use it to to mean cameras with electronic viewfinders. (Sometimes they also assume "ZLR" means a fixed lens. It's not clear whether they are deliberately considering only current fixed-lens cameras, or whether they merely lack the wit to think further.) The term is counter-intuitive, technically wrong, and stupid. It has not yet entered common usage, so there is still time to correct this error. I have bought exactly two digital cameras (for within a few pennies of the same price): A Sony F-707, and a Canon Digital Rebel with kit lens. Both fit the "ZL" in "ZLR" by having a zoom lens. The Canon Digital Rebel had "reflex"; the Sony F-707 did not. Thus the Canon was a 'zoom lens reflex', while the Sony was not. So utterly stupid is the proposed meaning of "ZLR" that my Sony F-707 would be a "ZLR", and my Canon Digital Rebel would not. Why should we fabricate and adopt terminology that is so contrary to fact? So let's say what is right. When we mean "through the lens", let's say so; "TTL" works. If we mean an electronic viewfinder, then "EVF" is perfectly clear. A fixed lens is a non-interchangeable lens, and let's say one of those, even if there isn't an established abbreviation. This term "ZLR" is crap to be flushed. I've no objection to "flushing" it, as I've never used it before,... or heard of it. "TTL" has always meant "Transistor-Transistor-Logic" to me. EVF is perfectly clear. "Reflex could relate to the mirror. Why not just use "single lens" without the "reflex" So my Fuji Finepix S9000 would then be a DSL EVF +LCD, and that solves the whole matter PDQ. -- Regards, Fred. (Please remove FFFf from my email address to reply, if by email) |
#30
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Rant about the term "ZLR"
Bryan Olson writes:
We should do away with the term "ZLR". We ended up using it, as you perhaps remember, because people were unhappy with "SLR" encoding interchangeable lenses (which it seems to, from nearly 70 years of use for 35mm cameras). So we ended up with "slr-systems" and "zlr". No, the cause doesn't seem to directly lead to the effect, does it? -- David Dyer-Bennet, , http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/ RKBA: http://noguns-nomoney.com/ http://www.dd-b.net/carry/ Pics: http://dd-b.lighthunters.net/ http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/ Dragaera/Steven Brust: http://dragaera.info/ |
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