Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/07/31

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Subject: Re: Humbug: [Leica] Millimeters and milliseconds
From: "Douglas Herr"<telyt@earthlink.net>
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 14:54:23 -0700

On Wed, 31 Jul 2002 17:18:32 -0400 (EDT) Dante Stella <dante@umich.edu> wrote:

> no system approach would
> make you more likely to hit with one over the
> other.  You are always leading.
>

In the example I posted, 

http://www.wildlightphoto.com/birds/rcki.html

I pushed the button at the moment the bird was in focus.  The bird was gone by
the time the mirror returned to the viewing position. 
 
If you assume that my reaction time is a constant, it stands to reason that
the longer it takes the camera to respond to my finger pressure the more
likely it is that I'll miss the photo I wanted. 
 
I could have anticipated the moment the bird came into focus just as easily as
I could have anticipated its next flick of a wing or turn of its head; if you
are at all familiar with the north american Kinglets, you know that absolutely
nothing they do can be anticipated and that a few tenths of a second is a very
long time for a kinglet to hold any given posture.
 
The R4sP my daughter now has once came back from service with a much longer
reaction time than the SL (it went back to the shop and was re-repaired).  I
could watch through the viewfinder as the lens stopped down, then the mirror
flipped up.  A camera with that much shutter lag can only be used to
photograph random kinglet postures, or twigs where kinglets used to be.
 

Doug Herr<BR>Birdman of Sacramento<BR>http://www.wildlightphoto.com
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