Delay dilema

[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.