Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/08/09

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Subject: Re: [Leica] More on lag measurement
From: frank theriault <knarf.theriault@sympatico.ca>
Date: Sat, 09 Aug 2003 06:36:37 -0400
References: <D1258ED0-CA0E-11D7-8195-000393802534@mac.com> <008601c35e26$e9082860$87d86c18@gv.shawcable.net>

Hi, Ted,

I agree with everything you say, except the phrase "we don't think about it, we
just do it".

As you posted in another thread yesterday (I think), the only way one can just
do it without thinking about it, is by practise, whether it's by standing at the
side of a highway shooting licence plates, or by attending sports events,
shooting lots of rolls, and then learning from one's mistakes.

For me, the problem with measuring lag time is that it puts the cart before the
horse.  It reminds me of the audio industry in the 70's and 80's, where certain
Japanese manufacturers decided that focusing on raw numbers would sell
amplifiers and turntables.  So you had ads in which the "headline" was an
incredibly low distortion figure for an amp:  ".0001% Total Harmonic
Distortion!"  Never mind that anything less than .5% is inaudible!  You had
turntables that advertised incredibly low wow and flutter numbers.  Hey, they
had to be good!  Then, Linn turntables comes along, and says, "You know what?
We aren't even going to publish our numbers.  They aren't important.  Listen to
our turntables - if they ~sound~ better, then buy one."  And indeed, they were
audibly better than anything coming out of Japan at the time, even though the
"figures" said that the Japanese turntables should have sounded better.

So, back to lag times - they aren't important, except perhaps as in indication
that a camera is a well-engineered and assembled instrument.  They are the
~result~ of a good camera, and should not in and of themselves be the target of
designers.

regards,
frank

Ted Grant wrote:

> Hi Martin,
> In simple words, those of us who have whatever it is to capture the start
> with one foot in the block and the other in first stride happens simply
> because.... "we don't think about it!" We just do it!
>
> The previous poster "LRZeitlin" may have all the good intentions in the
> world with his mathematical figures, numbers and technical bull shit, but
> the bottom line comes down to being there, feeling it and shooting with
> instinct emotion and not some stupid Mickey mouse set of techie numbers.
>
> Man some people just don't understand what re-actions and real life shooting
> are all about.
> They're only interested in dumb ass tests and numbers that are meaningless
> in real life compared to actually doing it in the heat of the stadium with
> thousands of yelling and screaming spectators.
>
> This is really a stupid go no where topic and we've had some beauties, but
> this one gets the golden ring! ;-)
> ted
>
> --
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"The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist
fears it is true." -J. Robert
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Replies: Reply from Ted Grant <tedgrant@shaw.ca> (Re: [Leica] More on lag measurement)
In reply to: Message from Martin Howard <mvhoward@mac.com> (Re: [Leica] More on lag measurement)
Message from Ted Grant <tedgrant@shaw.ca> (Re: [Leica] More on lag measurement)