Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/02/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The following is a cut and past job of the original. The intent is to show another issue with electronic cameras..... > I would like an M-body with aperture controlled automatic electronic > shutter, just like the CLE. There is no need for autofocus. This means that > all earlier lenses could be used without any modification (even the SM:s > via the usual adapter). > This is why: > We are all aware of the work of a photographer like HCB, and his views > about the decisive moment. For this type of B/W photography, the M-Leica is > an excellent tool. .........In this type of "action", > "snapshot" or "street photography", the photograper has to be highly > concentrated to visualize the picture opportunities, and ...trip the shutter at the right moment...." The decisive moment is based on eye-brain-finger-mechanical linkage timing. I remember the older photo mags used to publish articles on time from shutter push to shutter open. Leica was of course #1. THe lowest delay. Only recently have I seen these issues come up again in Canon and Nikon's top cameras. I postulate that the electro-mechanical operation of electronically controlled cameras will be longer than the old Leicas.... Has anyone tried testing the response time of their Leica M3 or M6 (or M6J super camera) versus, say a Nikon F4 or F5? The decisive moment could be sorely delayed....and missed with an electronic shuttered camera. I hope Leitz Gwermany is listening to this argument.... it is crucial. On a side note on all digital cameras.... All digital cameras will have very fast response times, but there will be a difference from say the first pixel on the top left to the bottom right..... unlike shuttered cameras which expose the film at one time, digitals will have a sequence of pixels over time....let me explain another way.... Remember the picture of the race car passing in front of a tripod mounted camera without pan? The car gets either elongated or fore-shortened dependent on the shutter's direction of travel relative to the car's direction. The way to "fix" the problem is to pan or to use a higher shutter speed... the problem still manifests itself, but is reduced. Now in digital photography, the image will be distorted in a parallelogram fashion.....top left pixel will be taken first, followed by that row, go down a row and back to the left, continue.....and this will not change with shutter speed.