A small rant...

[Barbara]

So this has been an interesting thread for me. I've learned that:

• Manuals are written to be ignored or ridiculed
• Video tutorials are designed to waste your time and promote the Vlogger
• Forums are great places to rant and ask silly questions.

Seriously, I enjoyed reading the responses my "Little Rant" elicited. Many valid points were brought up. There are good and bad manuals and whether you read them or not is your choice. Material on YouTube, or other platforms can be entertaining, sometimes useful and frequently a waste of time. I like the forum because I can trade ideas, ask questions (sometimes silly or simple) when I get stymied, or just simply chat with others that share this hobby/profession.

Fly safe and enjoy the day.

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

To be honest, with most things, I don't bother reading the manual. I'd rather watch informative videos that demonstrate clearly and quickly how to do something instead of read pages of text which tries to explain the same thing. The more complex that "thing" is, demonstration is a lot more efficient than explanation in text form.

For example, I can't imagine how to write a book to explain Adobe Premiere Pro. (I'm sure it's been done though). But for me, it's much easier to just watch a video to learn about the specific functionality I want to learn. Whether it's colour correction, cutting, transitions etc...

I have the Photoshop Bible for version 6 and it is, like it says in the title, as big as a bible (actually much bigger). Even then, it doesn't cover everything. As Adobe Beta testers at the time, we found plenty that was lacking and missing.

 

[PhantomFandom]

to be fair I and most would want you to answer the question whether the info was available else where or not. Surely that is what the forum is for and if you don’t want to answer don’t -There could be a rafter of reasons that they haven’t consulted the manual - They may have already and didn’t understand It or wanted support or reassurance from a friendly and helpful Drone community -Surely there is No need to bust somebody’s balls over the head of it - You’re under no obligation to help or respond

There are two sides to every story. In the cases I spoke of, it is extremely evident that the OP never bothered to read the manual. Reading the manual is a good thing for those that are putting a complex piece of machinery into the air.

Sure the forums are about asking questions and getting answers, but a little basic research would be expected. Honestly it comes from laziness in most cases. If someone can't take two minutes to look up the answer that is very well documented, or even use the search on the forum here for a question that has been answered a million times then it is not "busting balls" to gently guide them to the answer.

For those of us who are here every day, and for those of us who answer literally hundreds of questions, these types of questions just add clutter to the forum.

Just my $.02

 

[Barbara]

There are two sides to every story. In the cases I spoke of, it is extremely evident that the OP never bothered to read the manual. Reading the manual is a good thing for those that are putting a complex piece of machinery into the air.

Sure the forums are about asking questions and getting answers, but a little basic research would be expected. Honestly it comes from laziness in most cases. If someone can't take two minutes to look up the answer that is very well documented, or even use the search on the forum here for a question that has been answered a million times then it is not "busting balls" to gently guide them to the answer.

For those of us who are here every day, and for those of us who answer literally hundreds of questions, these types of questions just add clutter to the forum.

Just my $.02

I agree, I believe one should make at least some effort on basic questions. Fortunately, you can ignore them and they will quickly slide out of sight.

One thing I will say though, searching the forums to see if a subject has been brought up before, if the thread is older, the answers may no longer be valid. Things change.

 

[Formosa Straight]

It isn't too difficult to cater for both overview and detailed information in an instruction manual. Many companies already do it by having a quick introduction guide for those who just want to turn something on and use it with default or auto settings. They also have a detailed user manual which goes through EVERY feature and setting for those who want to know about everything their new gizzmo has to offer. My 35mm Nikon DSLR is a great example. When I first got it all I wanted to do was turn it on and take some pics so I went straight to the quick start guide and was shooting pics in minutes. I then wanted to get better results so I went to the detailed user manual and it has everything and I mean everything about the camera in it. It isn't hard to do if you adopt the right attitude from the start at the corporate level and employ professional people to write the things. Given the volumes of product they sell the cost is also negligible. All too many companies think an instruction manual (and this isn't just limited to Asian based companies) is not an overly important part of a product. For my part, if you are doing a manual then do it 100% right in the first place, partial information is just frustrating as discovered by the original poster of this thread.

 

[PhantomFandom]

All too many companies think an instruction manual (and this isn't just limited to Asian based companies) is not an overly important part of a product.

I agree with everything in your post.

The issue though is that too many users feel the manual is not even worth reading. I am sure these companies do studies and focus groups. They find out very quickly that many (maybe most?) users never bother. We see it here in the forums all the time.

 

[Barbara]

It isn't too difficult to cater for both overview and detailed information in an instruction manual. Many companies already do it by having a quick introduction guide for those who just want to turn something on and use it with default or auto settings. They also have a detailed user manual which goes through EVERY feature and setting for those who want to know about everything their new gizzmo has to offer. My 35mm Nikon DSLR is a great example. When I first got it all I wanted to do was turn it on and take some pics so I went straight to the quick start guide and was shooting pics in minutes. I then wanted to get better results so I went to the detailed user manual and it has everything and I mean everything about the camera in it. It isn't hard to do if you adopt the right attitude from the start at the corporate level and employ professional people to write the things. Given the volumes of product they sell the cost is also negligible. All too many companies think an instruction manual (and this isn't just limited to Asian based companies) is not an overly important part of a product. For my part, if you are doing a manual then do it 100% right in the first place, partial information is just frustrating as discovered by the original poster of this thread.

DJI's GO 4 Manual, or Pilots Guide was available on their Website. I say was because I was just there and it's now broken. The links to the different subject pages all take you to, well, advertising. Their Pilots Guide was always a pain because you couldn't search it (you could only search the page you were on), they didn't always specify which features applied to which drone, and it was written in 2017.

There are PDF Copies out there to download, compiled by other drone enthusiasts, but the links don't work and there are no bookmarks/table of contents. One could fix that, if you own a copy of Adobe Acrobat (or whatever it's called these days). I ported it to a Word document so I could try to generate a Table of Contents and fix the links, but gave up when I decided it was just too much work for what's really a so-so and dated document in the first place.

 

[Camino Ken]

Both manuals and YouTube videos are good sources but must come with a caveat, neither are always correct or clear. In today’s world I find mistakes in manuals and even more mistakes, or bad information on YouTube. My solution is to find and keep trusted sources, especially on this forum, that consistently give accurate and useful answers.

 

[tribar]

When you switch to manual mode, the same 5D button now controls the shutter speed and you cannot lock the AE setting.

Auto Exposure (AE) is turned off in Manual Mode......?????

 

[Barbara]

Auto Exposure (AE) is turned off in Manual Mode......?????

It appears to turn off the AE Lock and change the way things function.

When I go into manual mode (video, haven't tried it in photo) The AE beside the lock icon on the screen is grayed out and does not respond to presses/clicks. Also, if you go to camera settings the AE value displayed is fixed, but it will change automatically with changes to the ISO or Shutter speed. Additionally, the 5D pad, which I have configured to change the AE value, now responds by changing the shutter speed, not the AE value. (which may result in changes to the AE value).

 

[tribar]

NOT changing anything (ISO, shutter speed & aperture (M2P)) in Manual Mode has the same result as AE-lock in Auto Mode.
AE-lock prevents those changes in Auto Mode.
So what's your point?

 

[Barbara]

My experience is with the M2Z, I can't speak for the M2P. My original point was that there is much that isn't documented in DJI's manuals. That's all.