Re: [Leica] Millimeters and milliseconds

[Ted Grant <tedgrant@shaw.ca>]

Peter Klein wrote in answer to my question:

> (Ted Grant asked why some of us, me included, were so concerned about
> squigglies per millimeter, Aspherics, and shutter lag milliseconds.)
 It's the light, eyes, the action and that's the bottom line! Screw the
> > rest! :-) Go capture great moments with whatever lens you own.
>
> > So please explain to me "in real time meaning " just what this ms thing
> > has to do with real photojournalistic photography and just how it can be
> > applied, don't forget to please do so in common sense logic for
> > successful photographs.

Peter answered:
> OK, here goes.  The shorter the shutter lag, the more likely it is that
> I will capture the expression on the person's face that I saw as I
> tripped the shutter.  For decisive moment stuff, it does matter.

No No no what you see is what you get if you know how to use the camera and
have extremely sharp / quick lightening reflexes!. This takes practice and
years of experience in relation to what you're shooting  You don't think
about any of it... you react!

Are you telling me that you think about this lag stuff while you are
shooting and that it makes a definitive difference that you can see when you
look at your pictures later?

> Do you know the piece of classical music "The Flight of the Bumblebee?"
> Think about all those fast notes.  As the piece is often performed, each
> one is about 100 ms long.<<<

I enjoy the music, but this has nothing to do with the thousands of frames
that I've shot because I "reacted to what I saw" and put on film regardless
of the tune or the delay factor you describe. And if this were not the case,
I surely wouldn't have been hired to cover the Olympics and many other
sports events for 40 years plus!! Or the many hundreds and hundreds of
non-sport assignments .

>>  Now think about the animated face of a subject you're trying to
photograph. In the space of one or two of those
> notes, the expression can change.<<<

That's true, but can you honestly say that you can tell the differnce or
that there's another human who can? Or that you missed the expression of the
century due to the lag? It's conjecture and theory!

> This is one of the reasons why a Leica M is a better people photographing
> machine than an SLR.<<<

Of course, and do you have any idea at all how many people in this world
think about some mickey mouse technical detail like this lag thing when
they're taking pictures? Hell I bet HCB would laugh his head off if this
subject were brought up to him to explain how many milliseconds he related
to each time he shot a picture of the "Decisive moment?"

Obviously there's some difference between an R8 and an M7, but who in their
right mind cares? And if photographers were concerned about the lag time why
is it that over the years we've seen such incredible action photographs? Is
it wildly possible  Eddy Adams as he photographed the VC getting his brains
blown out in Saigon had any thought about the lag time?  Like do you or
anyone else in their wildest thoughts ever consider Eddy said to himself,
"Damn! I missed the key moment  because of the shutter lag!"

> Now, here's an example of why all the techie stuff matters, using a real
> live picture.  I'm very pleased with the content of this photo.
>
>     http://www.2alpha.com/~pklein/currentpics/grackle.htm

Sorry Peter lad, some day we'll break bread and drink water, then discuss
this topic, as I like your picture of the bird very much! But to read all
this techie stuff  that makes or breaks it spoils the picture, as I see it
as a photograph taken by a talented photographer with a quick trigger
finger! The explanations and technical stuff is for the theory artists in
the crowd! Not for one second does it mean anything the the doers of picture
taking.

And the bottom line of all this techie stuff is the image on the film! If
it's great, cool! If it isn't, too bad, better luck next time!

That my friend is why 99.9999% of the techie stuff doesn't mean anything in
practice!  Those that have it, do it. Those who think about it, miss it!
ted



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