Shutter Lag? We don't need no stinkin' shutter lag

One week from a trip to Cozumel and I found myself enjoying my own backyard...Colorado. While taking a hike with the family we (My wife with an E-500 and me with my SP-350) took a few photos and stopped to feed some trout at a ranger station. My goal? Catch a skitish trout taking the food on top of the water. Needless to say I had plenty of opportunities with Purina Trout Chow in hand, but I didn't need any. With the camera on full manual mode, including manual focus, I only needed to depress the shutter half way to get a white balance and bam...no shutter lag at all. There is a notable drawback to this method...you have to estimate the distance to the subject because trying to determine whether something is in, or out, of focus on the LCD is impossible. However, with some practice you can obtain a good idea on how far you subject is and preset the focus to that distance. While these trout were at a ranger station they seemed to be taking the food rather aggressively and quickly. Blink and you'd miss them for sure. Here's the results of our weekend outting. Although not underwater, I hope you enjoy a taste of Colorado.

Another

Woodland Flower at 8000ft.

Tree growing in a rock

My wife's photo...

Nice pictures Gary. I especially liked the flower and the sky shot. I've been playing with manual focus underwater for my Super macro shots. I've had a lot of focus problems lately on those. My earlier shots worked about 2/3 of the time, but lately, I'm getting like 1 out of 4 with auto focus, and they take forever. I'm more consistent from really close distances on manual, but I'm just a hair off, and they're slightly fuzzy. My G-flash failed (non-flood) after the first set of dives. Working on warranty for it now. Very disappointed with the Oly flash alone. The beam is too narrow. I get pictures with half washed out and the other half black. Also can't keep the diffuser on for more than one shot. I'm thinking velcro or something. I plan to set up a My mode for manual focus, manual flash for wide shots. Have you played with focal distances? It seems to set up at the minimum when you turn it on, and it takes forever to adust through the screens. I can't read well enough at depth to deal with that.

Hey Larry,

I've played with the manual focus in the swimming pool on dead bugs but not in the ocean so I'm certain you know more than I do. I've found that trying to focus in supermacro mode can be a challenge. I have better success using regular macro from about 10 inches or so and then using the zoom feature. You're right about the Olympus Flash but it should be great for macro. WA...forget it. Anyway, I practiced and practiced with this thing in the pool and figured about 10inches away with the flash set on manual on the lowest setting produced good results. I also did a few with TTL but every now and then it would wash out the subject. The diffuser is junk but they make those round (velcro dots) which I might give a shot this weekend. I'm off to Cozumel on Wednesday so I'll be back in the pool tomorrow ironing out any bugs...literally. The only way I had any success with supermacro was on manual focus mode and then moving the camera body closer to the subject or farther away to obtain focus. I'm not sure how practical this would be in the big blue with currents etc moving subjects around. I should have plenty of frustrating stories to share next week. BTW...the sky photo was my wifes taken with the E-500. Later,