Digital Photography in Available Light

essential skills: digital photography in available light

The Canon EOS 1D Mark II and Nikon D2Hs - 8 frames per second and bursts in excess of 20 RAW fi les before the

buffer is full. The Canon EOS 1D Mark II should not be confused with the EOS 1Ds Mark II (you may want to read

that again and note the little ‘s’ difference) which is the full-frame state of the art quality DSLR

The need for speed

The issue of speed can arise in many stages of a digital workfl ow. Many of the issues that were

connected to the issue of speed that proved problematic in digital cameras only a few years ago

have largely been removed from the equation. Delays between switching the camera on and

being able to take your fi rst image, achieving focus and the delay between pressing the shutter

release and the camera actually capturing the image (called shutter lag) have now been mostly

relegated to the digital compacts. After capturing the image the camera then has to write the fi le to

the memory card. The issue of speed here usually only becomes problematic if the photographer

is shooting in the RAW format. Camera manufacturers resolve this issue of write speed by placing

a ‘buffer’ that can store multiple images before the camera has to write the fi les to the card. If an

unfolding action requires the photographer to shoot bursts of images in rapid succession then the

size of the buffer is an important issue if the photographer needs to capture in the RAW format.

Fast shooting whilst using the camera RAW format is usually the preserve of photographers using

higher quality DSLRs. If the photographer is capturing images faster than the camera can write

them to the memory card the camera will be unable to capture additional images until the buffer

has more available memory. If the camera is continually ‘locking up’ whilst the camera’s processor

writes the images to the card the photographer must make the choice to shoot in shorter bursts,

switch to the JPEG format or upgrade to a camera with a larger buffer and faster write speed.

Note > If the camera you are looking at is not an SLR it is advised that you test the amount

of shutter lag prior to making a purchase. Lag is reduced signifi cantly in the budget digital

cameras if the shutter release is already half pressed prior to capturing the image, i.e. focus

and exposure are already set.