Touchscreen Controls

2012.11.20

Six years ago, touchscreens were appearing on digital cameras. This was a disturbing trend at the time and still is. While these type of screens may have their place on phones and tablets, there plenty of reasons to avoid them on digital cameras:

• Smudges: No matter how many times you wash your hands, that LCD gets smudged! Digital cameras are exposed to sunlight more than any other device and, when it is time to take a shot, the light is what it is. With a phone, you can turn around so that your shadow falls on the screen but a camera has to be pointed in a certain direction to take a specific shot.
• Gloves: Most modern touchscreen do not respond to gloves. If you photograph in a cold place and take off your gloves each time you take a shot, pretty soon you lose sensations in your fingers.
• Nose: A camera with a touchscreen is a bad idea but one with a viewfinder and a touchscreen is much worse! With such camers, it is easy to change settings and even fire shots with your nose while trying to frame the image you actually want.
• Fog: In extreme temperatures, hot and cold, LCDs frequently get fogged up. Any LCD has to be wiped to be usable again but only touchscreens change your camera settings while doing so!
• Screen Protector: Hard screen protectors prevent touchscreens from being used. That's a good thing until you realize you paid the the touchscreen which you cant use.

This was a public service announcement for the Aliance Against Touchscreen on Digital Cameras. Please support this cause by saying No to touchscreens on digital cameras ;)

Should you already have a camera with a touchscreen, you may consult the user manual to find out how to disable it. So far, most of them can.

• Digital Camera
• Technology