| Sign in: |
| Members log in here with your user name and password to access the your admin page and other special features. |
|
|
|
|
|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Time change - don't forget to change your camera clocks
David Harpe, Photographer
 |
Louisville | KY | USA | Posted: 1:03 PM on 11.01.09 |
->> I always seem to forget to do that...or change one but not the other. Also a good time to sync up the clocks on multiple cameras (it'll last for awhile anyway).
And hey, don't forget those smoke alarm batteries... |
|
Nick Morris, Photographer
|
San Marcos | CA | United States | Posted: 1:26 PM on 11.01.09 |
| ->> Thanks David... |
|
Mike Strasinger, Photographer
|
Nashville | TN | USA | Posted: 2:53 PM on 11.01.09 |
| ->> Thanks |
|
Yamil Sued, Photographer, Photo Editor
|
Peoria | AZ | USA | Posted: 4:11 PM on 11.01.09 |
->> Did that happen today??
I never know, I live in AZ and we don't do that!!
Y |
|
Stew Milne, Photographer
|
Providence | RI | USA | Posted: 6:53 PM on 11.01.09 |
->> Shouldn't out $4000+ cameras do this on their own? And be smart enough to know that if you reside in AZ, not to change the time? Also, when are we going to get rid of this silly daylight savings time anyway? I don't like the sun setting at 4:40pm.
Oh, and thanks David. Another reminder: change the box of arm & hammer baking soda in the fridge. :) |
|
Danny Munson, Photographer
|
San Dimas | Ca | United States | Posted: 7:28 PM on 11.01.09 |
| ->> Thanks David. I sent in my MIIn to get serviced a few months ago and went a month before I realized my clock was off. Thankfully I needed the date info from a game and was able to catch it relatively early. |
|
Steve King, Photographer, Student/Intern
|
Ann Arbor | MI | USA | Posted: 7:45 PM on 11.01.09 |
->> My Nikon D2 & D3 series cameras have Daylight Savings Time settings, so no worries here. I just checked and all three have the correct time settings too. Then again, my thermostat and bedside alarm clock are not the same yet. :-)
Smoke Alarm & CO detectors are updated too. Thanks David. |
|
Steve Ueckert, Photographer
|
Houston | TX | | Posted: 9:28 PM on 11.01.09 |
->> Stew--
Daylight Saving Time provides an extra hour of daylight in the afternoon at the expense of an hour of daylight in the morning.
It is with standard time, to which most of the USA just reverted, that the extra hour of daylight shifted to the afternoon with DST, is restored to the mornings.
Perhaps it is with standard time that you have an issue.
In 1973 President Nixon, during the Arab Oil Embargo, ordered Daylight Saving Time kept in effect across the winter. As a result those of us with 8:00am classes were going to them in the predawn dark. But we was still light after supper.
--Steve |
|
David Harpe, Photographer
|
Louisville | KY | USA | Posted: 9:33 PM on 11.01.09 |
->> Congress changed the DST dates back in 2007, which messed a lot of stuff up. Newer bodies like the D3 probably have the correct changeover dates so the automatic settings will work, but older cameras or technology like alarm clocks and watches that aren't field-upgradeable might not. Pain in the butt, ya know?
And nothing worse than realizing you've been shooting with a screwed up clock for a month or more. Easy to change in Photo Mechanic once you realize what you did, but still a hassle. |
|
Jim Colburn, Photo Editor, Photographer
|
McAllen | TX | USA | Posted: 10:43 PM on 11.01.09 |
->> A better idea...
Set all of your camera's to Greenwich Mean Time and have done with it. No Daylight Savings, no worry about traveling to different time zones, just a world-wide standard time setting. |
|
David Harpe, Photographer
|
Louisville | KY | USA | Posted: 12:03 AM on 11.02.09 |
->> GMT
Sounds good in theory, awful idea in practice.
The problem with GMT/UTC is it's not particularly useful to most people, and in many cases misleading because of the whole date issue. Most of the time when you need to know when something was snapped, you need to know it in the context of WHERE it was snapped. For example if I take a picture of a busy intersection, I would like to know what time it was relative to the local environment...not relative to a clock in England. I want to know if it's rush hour, lunchtime rush, after school rush, etc. So in a journalistic context, GMT is basically useless without conversion to the timezone where the frame was snapped.
Conversion from GMT after the fact can be a real PITA, particularly if you don't do it immediately. For example, if you shot the picture of the intersection six months ago using GMT and you want to know what time it was in local time, you'll need to know three things: The GMT time and day (from the capture time), where precisely the frame was snapped (timezone), and what the DST offset was on that day.
The last chunk is the really annoying part because they change the DST offset every now and again...so your offset for a couple of weeks in October would be different pre-2007 versus post, for example. If you lived in certain parts of Indiana you would have a different offset for different years as well. Nightmare. Just ask anyone who has tried to write timezone-sensitive software.
The date issue is particularly significant. In North America, GMT offsets are negative. This means GMT midnight arrives at least a couple of hours before local midnight in all timezones. Think about that for a minute. If you shoot something in the Eastern timezone at 9pm, the date stamp on your file is going to look like it's tomorrow unless someone squints and sees you set your camera to GMT. When they figure it out, they have to do the conversion with all of the hassles mentioned above. So something as simple as just knowing what day your shot was taken becomes far more complicated.
Your life would be a whole lot easier if your camera was simply set to the local time at the time the frame was snapped. Then time and location are already correlated versus having to be translated later...and having to do the research to make that correlation correct.
The most useful application for GMT is when you are trying to relate the time a frame was snapped in one location to the time a frame was snapped in another location in another timezone. Generally, navigation applications - like the space program, aviation, etc. are the kinds of situations where GMT is useful. It's useful in astronomy for similar reasons.
If you happen to be in one of those situations, using a GPS module is your best bet because modules like the Nikon GP-1 record UTC straight from the satellite along with your location. Then you can set your camera time to local time and have the GPS record UTC...best of both worlds. |
|
Stew Milne, Photographer
|
Providence | RI | USA | Posted: 12:12 AM on 11.02.09 |
| ->> I just have a problem with changing all the clocks in my house. Plus my cars and cameras. I also like waking up when it's just getting light and I don't like eating dinner when it's dark. So maybe it's Standard time I have an issue with. Thanks Steve. :) |
|
Martin McNeil, Photographer
|
East Kilbride | Lanarkshire | United Kingdom | Posted: 4:40 AM on 11.02.09 |
->> Note: the D3 does not *automatically* adjust DST settings -it has to be done manually.
Within the "World Time" section of the Setup Menu, you'll find a toggle which will (with one 'click') advance the clock one hour when ON is selected, or revert it to 'normal' when OFF... which is about one step easier than changing the clock directly :)
Now if only someone could have reprogrammed my kids to have stayed the "extra" hour in bed last Sunday; at age 3 and 18 months, they had no concept of this time change, so woke my wife and I at 6am instead of 7 - go figure. |
|
Jim Colburn, Photo Editor, Photographer
|
McAllen | TX | USA | Posted: 9:06 AM on 11.02.09 |
->> "...when you need to know when something was snapped, you need to know it in the context of WHERE it was snapped..."
CST = GMT - 6hr. It's easy to figure it out for any other time zone on any day of the year, and you never again have to worry about re-setting your camera's clock. |
|
David Harpe, Photographer
|
Louisville | KY | USA | Posted: 9:33 AM on 11.02.09 |
->> Jim,
CST is CST, and in locations that do not abide by Daylight Savings Time that works fine. But most do, so if you do that conversion on a frame that was snapped when CDT was in effect, your conversion will be off by an hour. |
|
David Harpe, Photographer
|
Return to --> Message Board Main Index
|