Do you ever?

[PhotoPatzer]

Just sit around with your camera in your hand... flipping through the menu. Exploring the buttons. Practicing your dials.

Just because you love the feeling of the camera in your hands?

I'm asking because, I just sat through a movie and I've been simply twiddling with my camera... 1.5 hrs later and I kinda feel a little smoother, a little more confident in my control of my camera.

I just thought I would share it with others. Its been great practice!

[Jim Bryant]

I perform all the functions while reading my manual once or twice monthly. This kind of gets me doing it without thinking, sort of second nature. One of the best things you can do is get to know your camera and lens abilities and limitations.

[Rolling Stone]

That's a private issue between me + my camera my friend. ; )

[RLucas]

Yes, and my family thinks I am a geek too! It's all good though!

[Aleix]

I must admit: yes

[Raoul Isidro]

I would say, for me, it is a must do thing to do... for anybody who is serious to his camera, photography, art, hobby or profession. Even if you don't trigger the shutter, feeling the camera much like an integral part of your body and your motor function is a great advantage.
If you see anybody with a high end camera fiddling around with the functions while the prized shot gets away, you would know for sure they haven't done their homework...
Afghan rebels use their AK-47 as a pillow.

[klr]

I love doing this.

My Nikon D90 came with a 'mini' manual you can keep in your bag. It comes in handy often when I can't figure out how I want to do something.

[junglebear]

Having grown up with videogames, knowing instinctively which buttons to press without looking comes pretty naturally to me. After a couple of months with my camera I had it all remembered, so I don't really need to practice!
But yeah, it's definitely something you need to do, especially for subjects like sports and wildlife

[Swisstony10]

Yep, I do that. And once every week or two, I completely go through my camera bag and make sure all my lenses are clean and sparkly, all my batteries are charged, all my memory cards are clean, and everything's as it should be. I make sure it's arranged as efficiently as possible, and remove anything that doesn't need to be in there.

And just a couple of weeks ago, I actually bothered to set up the C1 and C2 positions on the dial, so I can easily flick between custom settings that I use regularly that take vital extra seconds to arrange. It's just annoying that there are only two custom setting positions on the 50D. I'm going to have to get me a 5D II, I thinks... ;-)

Russ.

[Rolling Stone]

Originally Posted by klr

I love doing this.

My Nikon D90 came with a 'mini' manual you can keep in your bag.

That's what I did with it! Thanks.