So just WHY does my camera have separate portrait settings for 'Man' and 'Lady'?

[SybilBeddows]

It seems very peculiar to me. Any ideas?

That is so weird. Is there a Hitachi product helpline you can call to ask?

It sounds like a pointless gimmick.

oh please someone ask to give me something to laugh at on my next break

I will, since it's my camera! Thanks Alice!

hmm, turns out it wants me to pay £12 if satisfied with the answer. Not sure about that....

I'll email official Hitachi support.

'Hello, I have a Hitachi HDC-886E digital camera from 2008.

The camera has 2 portrait settings, 'man' and 'lady'.

The manual says 'Portrait Man: Select this mode when you want to capture an image that makes a man stand out against a blurred background.
Portrait Lady: Select this mode when you want to capture an image that makes a lady stand out against a blurred background.'

Can you please explain to me what is the difference between these two settings? I don't understand why different settings are needed for men and women. For instance, which setting should I use if I want to take a photo of a woman who is shaped more like a man, or a man wearing women's clothes?'

That is excellent

It may be to do with make-up.

A made up face reflects light differently to an unmade up face, so may possibly need different settings.

It's a completely bizarre gimmick though.

I could see more sense in it if it distinguished between Portrait Adult and Portrait Child... For real gimmickry, it should offer Portrait Man and Lady, with a special feature that allowed the camera to decide which was which, so that the Man doesn't appear prettily fuzzy and the Lady too strong-featured

(Have just realised that this is not the kind of discussion I'd have expected to find in Feminism/Women's Rights. In fact I've been avoiding F/WR threads up till now, maybe I was wrong?)

Your email is pure class.

We need a cat setting on our camera, as the boys obsessively photograph the cats. Mere human beings don't get a look-in. It is a Fuji, which does have a range of settings but only one Portrait. Maybe it's just too down-market, or maybe Fuji don't make silly assumptions about who's wearing makeup or who wants to look all fuzzy

I used to have a camera that had a 'baby' setting. Thank goodness it wasn't a gendered baby setting because my friend has boy-girl twins and we just wouldn't have been able to take any photos of them together. Ever.

Looking forward to Hitachi's reply!