Using Olympus C5050 to reduce shutter delay.

There are times I would like to use my C5050 as I would a film camera

with as little shutter delay/lag as possible.

 

What I do is this: I go to manual focus, which is a scale of

distances on the image screen and try to estimate/zone focus. I then

go to manual exposure and set a small aperture...is that correct?

 

However, there seems to be no metering function in manual exposure.

Would I proceed as if I were using a film camera with no meter, and

use a hand meter or use the sunny 16 method?

 

The instruction book is worthless on advanced/specialized shooting

techniques. Any suggestions? Thank you.

why use full-manual exposure? if it's anything like the C2020z, set the manual mode to 'A' - Aperture priority - at the bottom of the menu. use the arrow buttons to select an aperture, and let the camera select a shutter speed. instruction book explains manual mode fairly well.

also, you probably know this already, but prefocusing/metering by half-pressing the shutter makes it a little easier to catch the right moment. using the optical viewfinder also reduces your visual lag slightly.

Todd,

 

You can also reduce lag by setting the camera to "Full Time AF" using the Mode Menu. Mode Menu -> Camera -> Fulltime AF -> (or something like that).

 

-Nick

Thank you...I'll recheck the instruction book. What is "Full Time AF?" I'm very new to this.

I have tried all of these things and at least in the underwater realm can't get the thing to be remotely fast enough.

Sold it and am now using the D60.

Full-Time AF (AKA Nikon's Continuous AF) means that the little beast's AF system will chitter away every second that the unit is powered on. Can be useful, but I found it somewhat annoying (camera will decide to wander infinity-wards periodically) and a waste of battery power.

Last year when shooting live theatre performances with my C-3040Z digicam I used a few tricks to minimize lag time.

 

Set the camera to fulltime AF. It uses up batteries quicker but that's the tradeoff for a fraction of a second performance increase. Spot focus can help in tricky circumstances to minimize hunting.

 

Keep the shutter release button partially depressed while aimed at your subject. This will lock on the exposure and focus (when not in fulltime AF mode). As long as the light or subject distance doesn't change significantly this works great.

 

Sometimes I'll also use manual exposure mode, tho' almost never manual focus - the latter option is practically useless.

 

Use the continuous shooting mode. Digital captures are cheap. Set it to 3 or 5 continuous shots, bracketed or not, and increase your chances of getting the shot.

 

Here's an animated GIF I created last night from just such a capture. Five consecutive frames depicting a moment of dramatic choreography in a performance of "Savage Love" last year.

 

I tarted it up a bit in Jasc Paint Shop Pro 7 and Animation Shop, adding the obligatory but kinda cool fake "film" scratches, grain and shaky cam tricks.

Lex,

 

That photo is wild. I had no idea that could be done.

 

I think the continuous sequential shooting mode might be the answer for action photography with this camera. I did it once before accidently having set that mode, and I saw the potential then.

In manual mode there should be a display (probably on the LCD) of the amount of over or under exposure. Watch the upper left corner as you scroll through shutter speeds or apertures. You should se negative a positive 1/3 steps. Then it goes blank for correct exposure. It's the same display as when selecting exposure compensation in A, S, or P modes.