OP: I can’t find this thing.
Me: Does this help?
You: OMG, this is exactly what is wrong with Blender development!
LOL
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I have those disabled also (I think like most people that don’t use a pen…?) For these cases it’s not a good approach for this button.
Is it better?
But enabled Lock Camera to view with opened lock,
disabled with closed lock, to be consistent.
With closed lock you can’t change camera view, with opened lock you can - simple.
Imho “Lock” is a bad term for “View Lock” section. “Bind” maybe more suitable (or similar)?
“View Binding”
“Bind to Object”
“Bind To 3D Cursor”
“Bind Camera to View”
This is not better. Why should one object type - camera, have one specific button in the outliner? It doesn’t make any sense. Outliner should always have only buttons which are shared by all the object types outliner can display. This would set a very ugly precedent which could make future of outliner very messy. It’s all the worse given the fact that there’s no immediate indication of what the lock icon does. Most people will think it means locking transform or selectability. Lastly, what happens if you lock multiple cameras? I mean can you think about a use case where you want to lock multiple cameras to your perspective view and move them all around locked to view at the same time?
I am sorry but this really makes no sense at all.
Like this?
3D Cursor tab in the Tool tab, Collections and Annotations can be in the Tool tab too.
But I repeat, in my opinion “Lock” is not a good word to understand what it’s meant.
“Bind Camera to View” is much clearer.
6 Likes
Hi Harleya,
I am the OP of this thread that started 2 years ago and every few months i am revisiting it with disbelief as i am finding again and again how a fundamental worflow issue as this (that requires minimal research and developement time compared to other issues) is still a problem.
There were some nice suggestions back in 2019 and early 2020 by other users but if have to be honest, a Lock Camera To View Button shouldn’t even be necessary. When a user presses ‘0’ to go to camera view it means only one thing. Camera framing needs to be checked and probably manipulated. So the camera should by default be locked to view and View Controls like SHIFT+ΜΜΒ, or MMB should be switched to camera movement and not used for view movement.
If a Lock-Camera-To-View button is needed so that veteran Blender users will not be confused, it should probably be immediately visible in the UI when a viewport is changed to camera view.
Having said that, it is nice to see that someone decided to do something about this!
3 Likes
Yes, exactly like that. That’s what I had in mind! The only thing I would change would be giving the header button a Camera icon 
That way, pretty much every newbie would find that feature easily, because a button with the Camera icon on it would most likely be the very first place they look when searching for that feature.
To be honest, I have no clue why lock view to 3D cursor exists. I can’t think of a single workflow using that feature which would even remotely make any sense. I could somewhat understand it if it meant that the 3D cursor moves with the view, but it does the exact opposite. Moving the view does not move the cursor, but moving the cursor moves the view. I wonder who requested it because that feature really makes no sense.
I have no problem with the Lock term. I find “Bind” to be equally as ambiguous.
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I wanted to make Camera icon first , but imo it mislead users, expecting camera settings there instead of overview.
I have no problem with the Lock term too, just thoughts.
Upd: forgot to add “Orthographic View” checkbox somewhere in that popup window…
Well, it’s hard to get confused, because technically they are camera settings. Perspective view is technically a camera too, it even has “Focal length” parameter which is camera specific term. I don’t think many people would get confused by that. And it has literally an override for Local, viewport specific camera and has the aforementioned lock camera to view checkbox. So Camera icon is indeed the best visual description of what that popover contains.
The OP’s problem was that the Lock Camera To View was hard to find. So the most important aspect is to make it easier to find. And I still think the easiest way to show user where the Camera related setting is located is by putting it under a Camera icon. I think anyone who has spent at least a week in Blender will easily grasp the concept that the settings of the actual Camera scene object are only available once the camera is selected, and are present in the properties editor, not in the viewport header.
Following the same logic, one could also be concerned that people will get confused by seeing textured shaderball icon in the header and confuse it with the material edit panel:
In reality that is not the case, because users very quickly realize that the top right corner of the viewport groups the buttons containing viewport properties. And especially combined with the descriptive tooltips, it’s very hard to misinterpret what it does.
It make sense (about icon). Or someone can suggest custom icon with Camera and viewport lines.
Exactly…
2 Likes
I think this is irrelevant because anyway the users will go crazy if they do not find how to disable it when they want to fix the final position of the camera. The important thing here is that the option is well visible and easy to find.
EDIT:
Oh, it is already there. Thanks @Harleya!
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No one disables it. This feature does not exist anywhere else, this is a blender exclusive issue only.
I’d vote for its removal and keep things sane, always locked
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After finally framing the scene as I wish (assuming that the camera is not animated), I want that the option is disabled so to not to accidentally move the final position of the camera that I chose without having to remember keyframe the position.
2 Likes
See? You just ended up revealing another fundamental flaw in blender, which is “undo view”. This is a mandatory feature that all the major 3d apps have. So instead of relying on painful workarounds, you should ask for the proper fix. While this feature exist it is very unlikely that a proper solution will land. So let’s get rid of those nasty hacks to give room for real progress 
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In general I hate having to constantly Undo actions (not camera-related, one of the reasons I love having Release Confirms disabled) . And “accidental” means that you may not have even realized that you made a change. So, I prefer it continue as now (that is, do not remove Lock Camera to View option).
How is disabling it gonna help the users fix the final position of the camera? Isn’t that the opposite of what they should do?
In camera view with Lock Camera to View checked and when you use mouse/keys to navigate (orbit, zoom, move) you are actually moving the camera position, so I don’t understand your question. Maybe you come from another program where you only move the camera with gizmo/buttons in GUI, but framing the scene with Lock Camera To View with mouse/keys is much faster and more efficient at least for me.
Three things
- Lock camera should just be on by default and unlocked by user action not the other way around
- I like being able to pan the camera view or zoom beyond it’s visible range. It’s more of a flaw in other software which doesn’t offer the feature.
- We need an undo camera movement function irregardless of any user preferences on the “lock to view” issue.
Beyond that Harley’s proposal looks absolutely fine to me. Maybe a tad disorienting since outside of the camera the icon has a different use. I guess we need to actually use it to properly see if it works, I think.
1 Like