[Leica] M9, lag time, perception and other things

[benedenia at gmail.com (Marty Deveney)]

I changed the subject line because I agreed with Steve that the
previous one was absurd.

>How does one measure 0.08s?

You measure it using a device designed for the task.  These shine a
laser in onto a mirror that you attach to the film or sensor plane and
have a sensor next to the laser outside the camera that detects the
reflected beam.  The sensor is also attached to the shutter release.
There is a very precise chronometer or computer in the middle.  You
set it to go, the shutter fires, the chronometer or the computer tells
you the lag.  It compensates for shutter button travel by determining
where the cutoff point lies prior to measuring the lag.

>And this is important because?  Its only 8 hundreths of a second, who 
>really cares?

Maybe it isn't important to you, but it is to me; I still perceive a
distict gap between when I pressed the shutter and when the camera
took the picture - it matters for most of the stuff that I photograph.
 With a mechanical M or an M7 it's almost instantaneous, whereas with
an M8 or M9 it is not.  If you don't care, or can't perceive it, then
it is no problem.  I can and for me it is an issue.  It means my M8
spends most of its life tethered to a microscope where it's slowness
doesn't bother anyone.

It matters to some of the rest of us too; take a look in the archive.

Marty