I started learning Blender 5 months ago, come from MAX. With that said, the camera controls make me nuts. Is there a way to zoom, dolly, truck and perspective in/out like in MAX? My work around is to open a camera viewport change the azis to local and grab/move the camera along the Z axis in order to dolly in and out of the scene.
Would you please let me know if you have found a better way. I get it that I can set up a constraint so the camera follows and/or stays fixed on the subject but it seems so cumbersome.
AlsoâŚI wish for a light and camera target that can be linked to an object , a viewport originating from a spot or area light. Then the targets could be moved in time for animation.
Not sure about how MAX camera works, thereâs an addon you have to activate that has more ⌠complete camera rigs.
Itâs in addons-> Camera: Add Camera Rigs.
Shift + F âŚenter a camera navigation modelike fly.
This is actually pretty good way to move the camera. You have to know that you can move stuff along the local axis by pressing the axis shortcut twice.
So if you are in camera view do not change the coordinate system to local. Simply select the camera which you can do by clicking the black rectangle in the viewport.
Then press âgâ for grab followed by âzzâ.
or press ârâ for rotate followed by âyyâ to roll the camera or âxxâ to pitch it.
Either that or you can Lock the Camera to the view in the n-Panel â View â âCamera to viewâ. I believe that is the same behavior as Max but its been a while since I used Max and I am beginning to forget a lot of things. You might want to assign a shortcut.
However, comming from Max myself I find the Blender way superior once you are used to it. I remember having to deal with tons of accidential camera tucks in max which you sometimes donât notice until after rendering.
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if you click on your camera in the viewport and go to your camera settings and click lens, you can edit the focal length, wich is basically what you can zoom or âunzoomâ in a scene
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edit: bah, never mind. I should read better before posting
Itâs not been Shift+F for a number of versions now. AFAIK the default is now Shift+`
Itâs the method I use exclusively for positioning my cameras. Decades of WASD computer gaming hasnât went to waste 
Hi and thank you all for you suggestions.
This is great to know.
The thing I struggle with, the manual does not offer examples to set the features, nor does it suggest numerical setting for thing like node values.
Shortcuts are easy to forget. I wish there was a shortcut/keystroke pop up.
In MAX there is a small panel at the bottom\ right corner of the UI:
Is there a way to create a viewport that looks from a light source?
Again, thank you very much!!
For your most recent question:
-select the light that you want to position
-go to View > Cameras > Set Active Object as Camera
-in the âViewâ Tab in the viewport, check âLock Camera to Viewâ to keep the âcameraâ bound to the viewportâs transformation.
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I know, the Max manual is absolutely fantastic. If you are used to it you will find the Blender manual lacking.
Camera navigation in the manual is described here:
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/editors/3dview/navigate/camera_view.html?highlight=camera
Btw, if you are looking for something like the target cam in Max you can check out the following pages in the manual:
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/addons/camera/camera_rigs.html
As for nodes, I assume you mean shader nodes, well a lot of them are similar to the Max equivalents. Noise Texture in Blender uses the same algorithm as the Noise Map in Max. Voronoi is pretty much the same thing as celular. Color Ramp in Blender is a Gradient Ramp in Max.
So if you understand these maps in Max it is easy to figure out how to use them in Blender. But if youâre having trouble with any particular node just ask and people will usually be happy to help.
If you hover over a button you will see the coresponding shortcut. You can also right click it and assign a new hotkey there.
Then there is the bottom bar thingy were shortcuts are displayed if you are in a specific mode.
For example if you press âgâ to go into grab mode the bottom bar will display a bunch of secondary shortcuts like âxâ and âtabâ or âshift-zâ.
And there is the search menu (depending on your preferences on either F3 or space) which displays the shorcuts and menus the search result can be found in.
I donât think Blender has something like that. The closest thing is locking camera to view and using the hand symbol and the magnifiying glass symbol in the to right corner of the viewport. But of course that does not cover all the possiblities you get in Max.
The best thing imo is to get used to the way it is described in the manual. If you use it for a while you internalize it pretty quickly and it becomes a lot faster and less annoying than using icons.
I think my favorite thing about Blender is the camera Fly mode. This used to be default, but now it defaults to walk which is fairly lack luster.
Set the camera mode to Fly under Preferences/Navigation and lock it in.
Now you can fly in the viewport, not just a camera.
Press SHIFT-~ to enter this mode. (SHIFT-F 2.79 legacy)
The mouse wheel will zoom you in and out. Hold down the SHIFT key while zooming for finer control.
While in Fly mode you can press the D-KEY to dolly left and right with the wheel. You can also press the F-KEY to move up and down with the mouse wheel.
Press ESC-KEY to exit and abort move. or LEFT-Click to lock in new position.
This is the one thing I miss the most in other 3D apps. It makes fussing with the axis of the camera seem silly.
If I am looking through a camera, Iâll also select it. This means I can used the G-KEY to âgrabâ the camera I am looking through and reframe the view as a final step.
@Lumpengnom sorry i have replied to you⌠it xas for @thekid29
@JohnMalcolm1970 , As you can see and because i use 2.7x shortcuts⌠it was not removed 
Max has this as well. I allways assumed this was a standard feature for 3D apps.
Itâs probably safe to assume most people, especially newer users, are using the default keymap. Iâm not sure if there was ever a poll to find out, but I think I remember a poll showing most people had embraced left-click select, so itâs a good bet.
another way to manipulate camera
I really appreciate all of your replies, the Blender community is vibrant, so helpful. It sets Blender apart in a good way.
Best,
Richard Sher
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Great to know this.
The Blender community rocks (!)