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

[datamaster at northcoastphotos.com (Gary Todoroff)]

Likewise, Ted. Lag-time was something I never thought of until some 
of the early digital cameras. I just posted the thoughts below on the 
MyOlympus e-list this week, bemoaning the fact of unacceptable 
shutter lag-time on every live-view DSLR they have made since the E-330:

"For my money, the real revolution at Olympus was with the E-330 (can
it be almost four years ago already?) and its second sensor for live
view with immediate shutter response (Mode A). I'll never understand
why Olympus abandoned their own revolution. The first time I had a
chance to try Live View shooting on [the newer] E-30 was at a carnival. The
camera owner and I bent over the flipped-out LCD screen, our body
language implying that we were studying the camera as I framed a
candid portrait shot just a couple feet away. "Ah, there is the look
I'm waiting for" - click. Then clack,clack, click . . . the person
had already moved half way out of the frame by the time the shutter fired!"

Every other DSLR with Live View uses the main image sensor to display 
the Live View image on the LCD. I can sometimes be prophetic out to 
about an eight of a second, but the lag-time in Live View (except on 
the E-330) is unacceptable. The Decisive Moment is gone by the time 
the shutter actually fires after all that mirror clicking and 
clacking. And anyone who thinks today that Live View with a 
flip-screen is just a gimmick would have thought that the M3 was just 
another camera 60 years ago!

Gary Todoroff


At 09:13 PM 1/28/2010, you wrote:
>I will make only one comment as I find this re-action-lag time 
>rather interesting.
>
>I must say until this particular conversation, at no time in 60 
>years as a professional photographer have I ever ever related to any 
>form of lag time. Only because I was never aware of it, nor that it 
>existed. Nobody told me, therefore it did not exisit!
>
>Now I'm not going to say it doesn't happen. I think much of this may 
>be a situation of... "TO EACH HIS OWN!"
>
>Simply because, what if you never knew it ever existed and people 
>still made incredible positive remarks about your photography, books 
>were published selling many thousands of copies. And yet within the 
>camera, there was a considered delay by some users?
>
>Does this mean everything given of praise is suspect? Or does it 
>mean to each his own and some react faster, therefore the delay is 
>not a problem? Other than that of one or two photographers? Or does 
>it matter, that some have an incredible re-action time therefore 
>eliminating the suggested delay factor of the camera?
>
>I don't think this can be answered simply. Some of us have evolved 
>with an incredible sense of re-action time, therefore we have an 
>innate sense of tripping the shutter before, while others may still 
>be thinking about it?
>I don't believe it's an easy subject to discuss simply becauase 
>there are so many variables to make a concrete decision and it 
>should be left .... "TO EACH HIS OWN!"
>
>cheerrs,
>ted