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

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

Other things being equal, I'd certainly opt for shorter lag times.

Years ago the M4 shutter lag was my standard and what I got 
accustomed to. SLR times varied, and were between 2 to 5 times as 
long. Going back and forth between SLR's and M's caused some 
problems. Then, much later, AF came along and changed things 
drastically. Lag times were now up into major fractions of a second 
or even more. Shooting techniques had to adapt, and AF had to be set 
to not be a priority, or turned off for best response, but lag times 
were still higher than pre-AF. Gradually this improved; most notably 
with Canon's USM which most other manufacturers gradually adopted.

Now SLR lag times can be very short, and even with AF on are often 
quite acceptable.

Then came the digital P&S cameras, which initially had lag times in 
the order of 2 to 3 seconds, so that you took a lot of pictures of 
your shoes. Lag times there are still awful, especially if you shoot 
with red-eye reduction and AF on.

Leica M8 and M9 times, being of a long but more or less fixed time 
due to an underpowered processor, are at least predictable and I can 
work with that, and after some use find them not to be a real 
problem. All AF cameras, especially those where it's not easy to go 
to manual focus are still a problem.

A D3 is only fast if you switch off AF. If you use AF, and especially 
if you switch between AF and non-AF will probably cause you to miss 
more pictures due to lag issues than an M8 or 9.



At 9:55 AM +1030 1/29/10, Marty Deveney wrote:
>Hi Aram,
>
>Yes, I've measured them.  My times coincided to within .001 s with
>Leica's published times for the M3, M8 and M9, but I can't find what
>Leica say about the M7 - I've read 0.02 and 0.012 (Erwin Puts stated
>the latter time).  I times the M7s lag within 0.001 s of the figure
>Puts published.
>
>0.08 s is about 1/13 s - much longer than most exposures.
>
>Later,
>
>Marty
>
>
>
>On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 2:42 AM, Aram Langhans <leicar at q.com> wrote:
>>>  Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:42:07 +1030
>>
>>  Marty.  Just wondering.  Did you measure the lag on the M3, M7 and Nikon 
>> D3
>>  or are these stated times?  If they are stated times, perhaps the vast
>>  difference is in the measurement technique, and perhaps that is why 
>> others
>>  have not noticed any real problem.
>>
>>  But it sounds like you are a scientist (microscope reference) and have
>>  probably accounted for this already.
>>
>>  Aram
>>
>>
>>
>>>  From: Marty Deveney <benedenia at gmail.com>
>>>  Subject: [Leica] M9, lag time, perception and other things
>>>  To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
>>>  Message-ID:
>>>  <ee8fa51c1001280012s3456bc6fw80acdc1c4ba7be9 at mail.gmail.com>
>>>  Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>>>
>>>  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
>>>
>>
>>
>>  _______________________________________________
>>  Leica Users Group.
>>  See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>>
>
>_______________________________________________
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>See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information

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