That's well and good for stationary or slow moving subject matter, but truly, the world can change in those nanoseconds between mirror up and shutter function, and you won't know it until viewing the results. I have several times lost a priceless expression or "decisive moment" by an eye blink or something else at the moment of exposure, not visible through the viewfinder because of a raised mirror. Nothing would have saved those particular exposures, but with continuous viewing I would at least have known to try again.
In fluid situations it is always a matter of timing when all elements fall into place at the right instant. From when the shutter release is pressed, my Nikon SLR goes blank 70 ms before the exposure. With non-autofocusing VF or TLR cameras, the lag is 20 ms or less, giving me a better average of success than SLRs in those circumstances. I can work it with SLRs by anticipating time and space, but that requires a heightened "in the Zen" awareness which, in myself, isn't always available on demand. Sure, many successful photographs have been achieved with SLRs, some made possible largely by that very feature. But in my experience, photography depending upon split second timing more often gets done better with continuous viewing systems.
Allen Zak On Dec 18, 2006, at 1:36 PM, David Dodge wrote:
I have a different take on the black out. I like a non returning SLR mirror. It makes clear, to me, the instant the picture was taken. It is the last thing you saw. The disadvantage is that you can't look through the camera without cocking the shutter. And that when the mirror is up the sun can burn a hole in the curtain.---I always thought that the digital camera companies in their endless quest for bells and whistles should add a black out feature.David Carlos Manuel Freaza wrote:From a physical-practical point of view perhaps youare right, but several times the mirror movement uses a time that exceeds the time to open and to shut the shutter and some SLRs have a system to up the mirror before to open the shutter and to bring the mirror down after the shutter is closed to diminish the unavoidable mirror vibration effect on the picture; however IMO and for my case I dislike very much the fact I can't follow my subject all the time, I often use 35mm SLR too and the fraction of second I'm blind due to the mirror movement is horrible, suddenly something is broken; in general the subject appears different when you recover the light regarding the way you saw this subject before to shoot. Using a TLR you follow the subject all the time, you don't have the bad surprise about the subject disappears suddenly, the fact you know you can follow your subject all the time gives you a security feeling about the composition and the exact moment to release the shutter, at least for my case. BTW, this issue is less relevant for landscapes,still life and studio situations, but it's relevant for subjects in movement within their natural context.- All the best Carlos --- ERoustom <eroustom@xxxxxxxxxxx> escribió:I think these snapshots are easier with a TLR (or a rangefinder) because you can see the action in the focusing screen all the time, no mirror movement blinding the vision.-Well now that's a little bit of an exageration. When the mirror is blocking your vision it's not the time to benoticing anything you can react to anyway. Once you click, it's always inanticipation of the next 1/125th of a second, regardless of what you're shooting with. The view throughout the shot only tells what's happening during the shot, and there's nothing you can do about it, same as an SLR. There's much to be said for rangefinders and TLRs (over SLRs), but that can't really be one of them, can it? E. --- Rollei List - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx - Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org - Online, searchable archives are available at //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list__________________________________________________ Correo Yahoo!Espacio para todos tus mensajes, antivirus y antispam ¡gratis! ¡Abrí tu cuenta ya! - http://correo.yahoo.com.ar--- Rollei List - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx- Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org- Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org- Online, searchable archives are available at //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list--- Rollei List - Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx- Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org- Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org- Online, searchable archives are available at //www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list
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