Delay dilema

[Vianna Szabo]

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping some of you digital wizards out there can give me some advice. I am having a second photo shoot with a toddler this Sunday. I was very excited to use my digital camera for the original photo shoot in May. Unfortunately the little guy was teething something fierce and was in constant motion looking for something to chomp on. The delay has not been an issue until I tried unsuccessfully to photograph the teething 14 month old. Any advice on how to cut the delay time? I have a Pentax Optio, 33L. I am pondering pulling out my Minolta 35mm with the manual focus (ugh!).
Hopefully all the teeth are through now and he will be calmer but any and all advice is appreciated.

Vianna

[Brenda Ellis]

Vianna,
I know just how you feel. I have a Sony Cybershot and unless I'm in bright light or daylight, it takes up to one second from the time I press the shutter release to the time the darn thing actually snaps the photo! It drives me crazy!
Is there any way you can bump up the lighting situation?

On my camera I have a continuous shot option (where the camera just keeps taking one pic after another up to a certain amount of pics). I've not used this and I don't know if that would solve the delay problem or not.

I have just learned to shoot children in relatively bright light!

Many is the time I wish I had a decent SLR!!! (Or a digital SLR! I'm pretty sure you can manually adjust the shutter speed on those.)

[Vianna Szabo]

I didn't realize that the light situation was the source of the delay. Thanks, Brenda, that was a big help. I'll practice photographing my kids in different light and see if that makes a difference. I may attempt the continuous shoot also. I don't know what an SLR is but I think I want one.

Thanks again,
Vianna

[Chris Saper]

Dear Vianna,

I feel your pain.

As I think about it, there are two delay times. One is the time between pressing the shutter button and the taking of the image; the other is the recycling time required until the camera is ready for the next pic.

The first can be the problem the camera has trying to focus because of poor lighting or movement (both may have been at play during your session). The second has to do with the time it takes the camera to write the image to the chip. The higher the resolution, the longer it takes.

I use a Nikon 5700, and of course I want the highest possible resolution for my resource images. If I am photographing a very active 2 year old, he'd be running into traffic by the time I watch my little digital hourglass do its thing. So for young kids I still go back to my film camera. I have auto focus on my regular camera, and it is still much better than manual focus.

As far as I know, the only way to get the delay under control is to go with a SLR digital camera, which is an economic jump from where you and I are. Then you can do rapid succession photos at high resolution. If you already have lenses for your film camera, it might make $$ sense to get its digital SLR equivalent. Mike M probably knows much more than I on this subject.

I am always dreaming of new technology (geek). When my ship comes in , it will probably have a Nikon D-70 or D-10 onboard. The downside though, is that the SLRs are quite a bit heavier than their non-SLR counterparts.

Not that this is particularly relevant, but I generally reccommend to my clients that children be about 18 months old at the minimum. I'm not sure that has anything to do with how squiggly they are since I just photographed some REALLY squiggly kids who were 4 and 5. Just be patient, flexible and persistent.

Good luck!

[Vianna Szabo]

Hi Chris,

I just spent a few hours on the net and on the forum learning about SLR cameras and now I want one. There are two musicians in the family and their need of the newest toy usually wins over my art wants but I think I have a good case for a new camera. For this Sunday I will load up my old 35 mm (wish I had auto focus) Minolta and the digital camera and hopefully get a good shot. I am also hoping the teething and drooling have ended.

Vianna

[Leslie Ficcaglia]

I had a Canon G2 which didn't have much of a delay but did produce a moir

[Vianna Szabo]

Hi Leslie,

I am going to purchase an SLR camera soon. As you say it is a sound business expense. I may have a series of judicial portraits coming up shortly and would like to have a decent camera before then. There is a new Cannon SLR out that is less than $1000.00 and has recieved very good reviews. Meanwhile, the dreaded drooling teething toddler photo shoot is tomorrow morning. I experimented on my daughter using the continuous shoot function and found it worked better outside than indoors. Hopefully if I get him in the right light and let the camera fire off continuously. I will eventually get a good reference.

[Leslie Ficcaglia]

I have only had two photosessions with my digital camera, but along with the camera I've brought along a laptop computer. After the shoot I load the pictures onto the computer and the client and I go over them. Really beats having to find a one-hour processing place near the location and then waiting for the film to be developed. We can see whether we like what we've got and then shoot a few more if we need to fill in or catch some other detail or if we find that none of the expressions are quite right. I bought my son's old iBook for that purpose and it makes going digital even nicer.

[Marcus Lim]

Originally Posted by Vianna Szabo

... Unfortunately the little guy was teething something fierce and was in constant motion looking for something to chomp on. ... Any advice on how to cut the delay time?
Vianna

Hi Vianna, i can appreciate the painful sessions you must go through with your camera. My camera, the Fuji FinePix S5500 comes with continuous shots functions but i have problems with delays too. In fact, even for the best digital SLRs in the markets still experience some forms of delays.

After checking out your cam model on dpreview.com, i reckon you can do two things for yourself :
(1) change the memory card
(2) Set your cam to high speeds
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/spec...x_optio33l.asp

Your model can do multiple shots too (see ? on continuous drive on the website). I met a professional photographer and he swears that different memory cards have different "transfer speeds" - the speed of transferring the photo-shot onto the memory card. He said to look out for cards with 80X or higher transfer speeds...of course, that comes with higher prices.

Next, your cam does a whopping max speed of 1/1500 sec shots. So that's another enhancement that you can use for those lightning quick shots you sought to take.

Hope all this helps your work from now on!

[Vianna Szabo]

Whew, it's over!

I went online about 30 minutes before the client came and was happy to see the information you sent, Marcus. Thank you so much for looking up the info on my camera. I did go into it's guts and make a few adjustments. The mom came with a high chair and Barney tape (Big Help) and the 6 year old sister (Not Big Help). I set the toddler so that his high chair was in good light and used the continous shoot option. The only problem with that function is that the camera insists that I also have continuous playback.. I should have found a way to shut off the playback but between the jealous sibling and Barney blasting in the background I found my ability to read camera functions hamperd. Again, outside in the shade (It is a beautiful sunny day) the camera excelled and the shots were fast and lovely. Unfortunately the little guy felt the session was over and we complied. Out of 100 photos there are 4 that are charming and usable.
Leslie, I did show the photos right away to the mother on my computer which is in my studio. I burned a CD of all the shots plus a file of the favorites. I do think a laptop would be nice and will add that to my wish list.

Thank you again, everyone for all your advice. I learned a lot.
Vianna Szabo