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A funny thing happened on the way out of the Forum... - part 2 of 1 2 3

by Tom Lee Published 01/05/2003

Start up access time was about 3 seconds on the E20 compared to under 1 second with the S2. Something to bear in mind if you need a quick grab shot with a cold camera!

The S2 is capable of capturing an eight-frame burst before the buffer becomes full, and took about 5 seconds to write all images to the compact flash card. Only four continuous burst frames could be captured on the E20 before the buffer became full and took a good 12 seconds to write the images to the compact flash card. This makes the camera impractical for all but the most considerate and sedate worker, not for your average fashion photographer. Bear in mind that the capture rates will slow down if you use the onboard flash unit.

More importantly however, is how soon you can take another single frame whilst the buffer is writing the captured images to the compact flash card. The S2 can retake images after just 1 second even though the buffer is still full, whilst the E20 needs about 3 second intervals between shots.

So how does this affect me? So long as the speed limitations of the camera are understood, this should not hinder the general photographer. I have never been one to fire more than two or three frames at any one time, and usually consider my composition for longer than 3 seconds. It should be noted that start up access times and writing speeds will increase if smaller capture cards are used.

In the Studio.

Having used an E10 camera, I had little reservation about using the E20 in a studio environment. With equivalent ISO speeds of 80, 160 and 320, it seems ideally suited to this function. Using radio slave triggers allows complete freedom from wires trailing across the floor, which is not the best thing in a studio crowded with children! The slow operational speed of the camera did not pose a hindrance where anticipation and planning is as much of an asset as speed.

The captured file has the same aspect ratio as an 8x6 image and can produce excellent quality up to and greater than 20x24, without throwing away hard earned pixels. Cropping on a 2/3rds chip such as the S2 means that although the pixel count is greater, many of the pixels used to capture the image are thrown away!

The images of Sally and her baby sister in the shell were taken using only the standard fixed zoom lens i.e. without any afocal attachments.

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1st Published 01/05/2003
last update 09/12/2022 14:59:40

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