On Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 12:49 PM, Ken Waller <[email protected]> wrote: > Godfrey is there a significant delay in the viewing system? > I used a Nikon Coolpix 5700 for several years in my job and while it was a > very good piece for static images - which is all I shot on the job - it was > all but unusable for any action shot - the delay between the push of the > shutter release and the image capture - was simply intolerable.
The issue of responsiveness is more than just the viewing system. The AF and AE systems all have their part as well. The current generation of Micro-FourThirds cameras, *used with the lenses designed for them*, are quick focusing and minimal shutter delay. It's about on the order of an entry- to mid-level DSLR camera with cameras like the Panasonic G1 or Olympus E-P2. Viewfinder delay is another issue with any EVF/LCD as the camera must process an image to display it ... In good light and with a fast lens, the delay is virtually non-existent but in poor light and with slow lenses, the viewfinder refresh rate slows down and framing subjects in motion becomes more challenging. The viewfinder display can also become noisier and more grainy in these circumstances, although my experience has been that at least I can still see *something* where with most SLRs at these light levels I can't see *anything*. ;-) The difference and interactions between these different sources of delay become clearer when you adapt a manual lens. In this case auto-focus lag is completely eliminated as the body doesn't even know there is a lens attached and shutter responsiveness to what you see is very similar to any SLR camera. The EVF lag becomes apparent as you stop the lens down (since adapted lenses give the body no control over anything, you're simply closing down the iris) and the body gains up and slows down the EVF to allow the viewfinder to remain bright, but the shutter still fires very responsively regardless of whether the EVF is refreshing slowly or not. Optical reflex viewfinders retain a major advantage when doing sequence shooting. As I alluded to above, an EVF requires that the sensor capture an image and the body process it before anything can be displayed. What this means is that you are *always* seeing the subject slightly behind the point of exposure when shooting a sequence, and in general the body cannot refresh and update the display as quickly as the sequence is being shot. You get a long delay time-lapse view of the moving subject. An optical reflex system, with no processing required, is shunting an image to you at the speed of light as fast as the mirror can flip up and down so you're always seeing a view of the subject a split-second *before* the exposure is made. They're two different types of viewfinder/focusing/framing tools, each with its strengths and weaknesses, that's all. I believe the electronic viewfinder is a major advantage with small format cameras, on brightness, price, magnification and potential feature-add, but the SLR viewfinder is also advantageous for some specific purposes and situations ... and primarily with larger format cameras. -- Godfrey godfreydigiorgi.posterous.com -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
