Does a manual camera know the speed of my film?

[pezwookiee]

With my manual camera, I set a dial to tell it what speed film I'm using. In an automatic camera, does it somehow know the speed of the film and compensate with the aperture/shutter speed?

[pezwookiee]

D'oh! I meant for the subject to say "Does an automatic camera know the speed of my film?" woopsy. late night.

[scr4]

Yes. Look on the film canister, and you will notice a pattern of metallic foil. Look in the camera and you should see electrical contact that correspond to the pattern on the film canister. The pattern tells the camera what the speed of the film is. In many cameras, when you insert the film, the film speed will flash on the digital display.

If you do something unusual, like roll your own film (i.e. buy a big spool of film in bulk and roll it into canisters yourself) you need to set the speed manually. Some allow you to do this, some don't.

[Mangetout]

It's called DX coding, which doesn't stand for anything at all; the camera manufacturers (I think it was Kodak) just wanted something snappy to call it and came up with 'DX'

Some cameras read more of the code panel than onthers; it's a structured code, so basic cameras that will only use ISO 100, 200 and 400 films need only read four or so of the squares, whereas SLR cameras, which generally accept a much broader range of film speeds, will read the entire panel.

[Major Feelgud]

Doesn't matter if the camera is manual or "auto". If there is a dial on your camera to set film speed then you know you have to set it yourself. If you can't find the dial to set film speed or there is no dial then your camera knows it automatically. Chances are, if your camera was made within the last few years and cost more than $300 then it sets film speed automatically.

[Mangetout]

You should be able to tell; if there are a number of metal contact pins inside the film compartment (that look like they will be in contact with the side of the film canister), then yes, it will detect the films speed.