Originally posted by BigMackCam the manual explains the settings in every menu option, but not what the effect of the settings will be
I've been frustrated by this for 15 years, specifically as it relates to connecting and using the myriad components of audio and video systems. The various types of cables and connections used between them, the sequence of connecting them, and the various settings possible on each individual component have various limiting effects on the next component down the line and on the system overall, but you don't know that other than by trial and error and experience. I am similarly frustrated by camera manuals - they don't tell us HOW, only WHAT.
When I read the User Guide for a camera (I read every User Guide cover-to-cover twice right after I get the camera) I'm fully aware it will not tell me HOW to use the camera to achieve an effect; it will only tell me what each button and menu setting controls. It frustrates me, but I no longer expect it. I intuitively
know they're not documenting everything, because they can't do it.
As it is, the K-3 manual pushes 300 (1/2 sized) pages just to label the settings. I can't imagine how big it would be if there was a call-out for each possible combination of settings and states (OBF used vs. OBF not used, with and without slaves, for each type of lens, for instance).
There are two problems for the manual writers:
levels of detail; and (assuming the logic that the level of detail should be consistently applied across the entire manual)
how many levels of detail deep to go.
Think of it as a pyramid. The deeper you go, the larger the manual gets, in
orders of magnitude. If they make a Call Out note for the single circumstance of
remote and OB flash operating changes using the pop-up flash as a controller, using an auto lens on
lens aperture control versus using an auto lens on
camera aperture control, wherein P-TTL is disabled versus enabled (which I believe is a quite 'deep' level of detail) how big would the manual be if every other feature and sub-system was explained to that same level? There would be orders of magnitude more use-case call-outs than there would be straight text.
I'm going to hazard a guess that somewhere in the K-30 manual a single entry in a table states that for M lenses (or A lenses using manual aperture) P-TTL is disabled and the OBF operates at 100% power. What's missing is the connection to the effect that design limitation has on situational use of OBF with remote slave flashes. If I were writing the manual I might decide to leave that detail to the slave flash manuals (assuming the slaves are Pentax flashes). The manual writer likely believes the OBF use
is fully documented
at the level of detail determined suitable for the entire manual.
The frustrating thing is they can't get in each user's head and know only the use cases that interest each user. From CeeCee's perspective the call out for this use case seems at a higher level - thus worthy of a call-out in the manual - than other detailed settings are. It's frustrating, but it's an understandable omission.
I suppose we need a Herbert Keppler for the 21st century.