[thechat] Re: Digicam Shutter Lag Time

Martin Burns martin at easyweb.co.uk
Fri Jul 23 01:28:38 CDT 2004


On 22 Jul 2004, at 23:38, Hassan Schroeder wrote:

>> I've tried to find a good reference on which cameras
>> have a slow response to a click of the shutter and
>> which ones have a fast response.  The best web site
>> I know of for digital photography,
>> http://dpreview.com/
>> doesn't seem to be any help.
>
> Say it again, brother! Shutter speed or anything else. You'd think
> someone would offer camera reviews that went beyond "dood, it's got,
> like, *four* *mega*pixels".

Aye. Reviews with sample images (at original resolution, and no 
tweaking) are always a bonus too.

> Besides shutter speed, write-buffer-to-card time is making me nuts.

Yeah, a lot of the speed issues people complain about are perceptual, 
rather than actual. For the time between pressing the button and the 
shot being taken, much it is focus time, particularly on Compacts. What 
several manufacturers offer (Sony for one) is a two-step shutter: 
half-depress the button and the camera focuses. Push all the way down 
and it takes the shot. If you're pre-focused, the shot is remarkably 
quick.

It's the same on my Canon SLR (EOS D10, fact fans) - Canon have used 
this on their film EOS models for ever (my 1st one was bought in 1990).

> Taking high-res shots of small items for a project, and storing one
> shot takes -- OK, I haven't timed it, but it seems like forever :-)

One of the (many) good things about my Canon - it can take several 
shots in a burst, buffering them before writing them to the card. Oh, 
and if your camera takes Compact Flash, you can use an IBM Microdrive 
instead. My work laptop happened to come with a 1GB Microdrive... guess 
where it is now?

Cheers
Martin
--
Now playing on iTunes: "Had She Been Aye" by Ivan Drever from 'Every 
Breaking Heart'



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