Micro 4/3 for street

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uhligfd

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I have read a few reviews on the Oly E-P1/2 and Pana G1/2 micro 4/3 cameras and systems and they describe a focusing time (= until a shot is taken .. after the expose button is hit?) as around 1 second (or slightly less with the Panasonics) to allow the AF to settle in ....

Is this really the case, dear users?

So in case it is, if I want to catch Cartier-Bresson's puddle jumper I should learn to hit the expose button about 1 second before the man jumps? I hope not ... !

Is this really the case? Or is there a workaround to shoot quickly as scenes happen in near real time (maybe a 0.1 sec delay might be tolerable ...) How about other digital P+S, DSLRs? Or can I be guaranteed success only for landscapes with slow moving clouds, cityscapes, staged group portraits, tripoded macros etc?

Can someone inform me? Thanks!
 
I have trouble in such situations with my 4/3 cameras. The best solution -- though it is not always possible and usually is still too slow -- is to pre-focus on something at the same distance as the intended subject and in the same light. With subjects in motion, the difficulty in re-composing quickly after focussing with the centre point means that most subjects end up in the centre of the frame.
 
I keep my E-P1 set to MF and use single shot AF to preset the focus.
With LENS RESET turned off in the menu - the last used focus point is retained when the camera is power cycled.

In experimentation, I found than I needed to hold an object half a meter above the camera for it to be in shot if I fired the shutter at the same time as releasing the object.

Donald.
 
Somebody (?Federico) recently posted a technique which I've used with my E-P2 and am very happy with. You simply separate the AF and AE functions by programming the AEL/AFL button to act as your AF. Therefore you pre-focus the set distance you require with this in advance and then the shutter release deals only with the exposure and taking the shot. There's no need to keep switching AF on & off with this technique - it's a lot less clumsy. For me the time between depressing the shutter button and the photograph being taken with this technique is not at all significant. I still use the function button to switch AF off (instead of going into the menu) if I need to manually focus.

Ian.
 
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I zone focus with manual focus lenses and optical finders. No AF lag with these. But even with the AF, it is still practical for "street" photography--simply use focus lock. The AF is no slower than manual rangefinder focusing which has been used for candid photography for a long time.

There is a long thread covering this topic at RFF. The folks who use m4/3 cameras for this type of photography have come to understand the camera and how to use it. The nice thing is how the camera operation can be customized.

Personally, I find every camera design a compromise. I just have to learn to compensate for it.
 
I do AF at the AEL button, the FN button to LCD on/off mostlly Aperture Priority mode....
I preset the focus with the AEL button...it will stay there forever if the camera is set to lens reset off.... then there is no lag to speak of.... With the 17 and finder, it's the most satisfying experience to this ole M4 shooter....

The FN controls the screen which maintains power and heat management.....
shooter
 
Is there any way to do something like have a bunch of pre-set focus distances that are quickly accessible? Like a custom 1, 2, 3 which are set to say 3 feet, 6 feet, 12 feet so you could basically switch between focus zones.
 
I prefer to term it "camera response delay time", because the causes are multiple, not just related to auto focus or shutter delay. This has been covered in other threads, so I'm being pedantic, but the delays can be attributed to: acquiring autofocus; exposure calculation (in the case of iA mode with the Lumix cameras); pre-flash (in the case of red-eye reduction with flash on); actual mechanical shutter release delay; and electronic image delay in the EVF/LCD.

Of all these, I think the electronic image delay is the one hardest to compensate for, unless you're using an external optical finder. This type of delay is also the least understood or appreciated, since most people assume that electrons move around inside the chips near the speed of light or something (far from it), and they don't appreciate the time delay in signal processing the live-view image. Try this: watch some moving action with both the action itself and the live-view in the LCD simultaneously visible; you'll notice a sizable time delay between both. So when you're framing the setting in the EVF or LCD, what you're seeing is already in the past. (For those relativistic sticklers, it's all in the past, since light has a finite speed, but now I think we're quibbling.)

Preset your autofocus (focus on an object at the expected distance, then turn the focus selector to manual), or zone focus with manual lenses; set the camera to aperture or shutter priority, not auto-everything. Avoid flash indoors; instead, crank up the ISO and use a fast lens (like the 20-f/1.7); and when the subject is moving, use your other eye to gauge the timing real-time, rather than in the EVF/LCD. These steps will help you tremendously in quicker camera response.

~Joe
 
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The good news is there's a new firmware update coming out next week to improve AF times for all the PENs. As discussed previously, the best solution is to use the FN button for AFL and prefocusing. Much faster than S-AF for each shot.

With new firmware update: "So on average we found a 13 percent improvement in full-autofocus shutter lag speed with the E-PL1 overall." Source: http://www.imaging-resource.com/NEWS/1271311200.html?r=55735954
 
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