5 Materials and Technologies That Just Might Eliminate Digital Camera Shutter Delay

Bob pushed the shutter release button and??NOTHING HAPPENED. The football passed into his son's hands and the actual photo he took was one of a cheerleader's pom-pom. Bob missed the touchdown too. He resisted an insane urge to slam the camera to the ground and jump on it.

This was his first digital camera, and Bob had just experienced an unpleasant surprise. He had used film cameras all his life, but when his Yashica went into the shop a friend loaned him a digital camera. He naively decided to take some action shots and discovered the most maddening "feature" of digital cameras ?? the shutter delay.

MADDENING AND FRUSTRATING

Articles on this subject have attributed shutter delay to:

1. The camera's focus system

2. The time it takes the camera to digitally process the image

3. Reaction time of the photographer

Numbers one and three are lag times that most people using digital cameras are accustomed to. Most have used a film camera and know it needs a few milliseconds to focus.

The no-brainer solution is to reduce the aperture of the lens to increase depth of field, or aim the camera at the object you wish to be in focus and depress the shutter button half way in order to "tell" the camera what to focus on, then move the camera to center the image and depress it the rest of the way.

As far as human reaction time, well, it hasn't really changed much for users of film cameras, and people experienced in taking action shots usually get what they want.

So let's look at number 2, the time it takes to process the picture.

TIME TO DO THE PROCESSING

Processing the picture (so the camera can be ready for the next one) comes in several steps to move it from the image sensor to flash card storage:

1. Color corrections. The camera has to examine each and every Charge Couple Device (CCD) element on the photo sensor. It adds green, blue, and red to achieve the right color balance. For a 3 mega pixel camera, the processor has to make 9 million calculations.

2. Sharpening. This boosts the contrast by detecting and sharpening edges.

3. Compression. This process converts the 12 to 14 bits of each CCD sensor to 16 bits by "padding" the information and compressing it to 8 bits. This compresses the file size to 9 megabytes.

These steps require a tremendous amount of computational time. No wonder Bob missed his shot!

CATCHING THE ACTION

There are two ways of capturing action:

1. The "consecutive mode". If the camera has this mode, you can take a series of rapid shots moving through the event. This requires a camera with a large ??buffer" to hold photos for processing.

2. Anticipating shots by depressing and holding down the shutter release prior to the event. This requires an ability to predict the future, something most of us don't possess.

THE FUTURE OF FASTER SHOOTING

Obviously this would all be simplified if micro processing were faster. Even with large buffers, the speed in which data is transmitted to the processor is prohibited by the rate at which data is conveyed from the CCD. Micro processing speed is the next bottleneck.

Faster clock rates and data transfer speeds would reduce or even eliminate "shutter lag" time. There are several technologies in the wings that offer hope:

1. Nanotube and nanowire technologies. These are both the offspring of "nanotechnology", the ability to make tiny machines at the "nano" level, a billionth of a meter in size rather than a millionth of a meter (micrometer) and offer hope for a 500 GHz clock rate or more.

2. DNA Yes, you heard me right. Computing based on DNA strands in which information is stored and processed.

3. Other materials

?? Gallium Arsenide with much a faster speed has been used for years for military purposes.

?? Silicon-Germanium chips increase the transfer of light signals to silicon. These traditionally have worked best at ultra cold temperatures, but many computer simulations have shown that they may be made to approach 1000 GHz (1 THz) at room temperature.

?? Indium-antimonide. Much faster than silicon

??Optical transistors. A glass material known as chalcogenide becomes a switch as its refracting properties are changed. No need to translate those photons into anything else.

?? Coated Viruses. The latest research involves coating viruses with a conducting material. Much higher speeds at the molecular level can be obtained. This will give a new meaning to the term "computer virus".

4. Parallel Processing. As we've noticed lately with the war between Intel and AMD over the number of parallel processors crammed into a CPU, digital camera processing would benefit from parallel processors handling the focussing, sharpening and squeezing.

5. Software. Improvement in instructional efficiency by reducing the lines of code would make the whole process more efficient.

HOLD ON AND WAIT FOR THE FUTURE

The REAL solution to this maddening shutter delay appears to be in the material the processor is constructed of, as well as advancements in the software.

But we've got awhile to wait for it. Although a few alternate materials have been around for awhile, everything else is still in the research and development phase. Even when it finally trickles out of the labs, it will probably make your future digital camera cost around $10000 - $15000.

Quite a price tag for the ability to take pictures as fast as a film camera! Still??

Except for the lag, the digital camera has it all over film cameras, once the photo is captured by the memory card. The new technology will be worth the wait.

Digital camera owners are known for their ability to wait??as they desperately punch the shutter release trying to grab the fleeting smile of their new baby, or the football that lands in his hands eighteen years later, when he scores the winning touchdown.

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3 Alternative Tripod Tips for Steady Photographs

The tripod is one cumbersome accessory, and in many cases, it's just one of those items you don't want to lug along with you each and every time you??re planning on taking pictures. However, even without the tripod, there are several ways to improve your photographing results, if you pay attention to your surroundings.

The Lazy Photographers Tripod

Let's say you're heading out for nice stroll, digital camera in your pocket, and you really don't want to carry that bulky heavy tripod. The first consideration is of course how to properly steady your hands while taking pictures. Most people use their hands when taking pictures, so it's not the end of the world if you have to. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it.

Even if you have steady hands like that of a surgeon, you??ll need a little assistance when it comes to holding that camera perfectly still. For your best results, always hold the camera with both hands. Your left hand should not be grasping the camera, rather it should be supporting it, while your right hand has a solid grip on it. Use your chest to brace your arms and steady your hands.

When you're ready to snap the picture, don't press the shutter button quickly as this will actually cause the camera to shake slightly as you click it. Try squeezing the button slowly. As you squeeze you are entering a two-stage process. The first stage will lock in your focus and exposure and as you continue to squeeze down on the shutter button, the picture will be taken.

The Spur of the Moment Tripod

Depending on the environment you are in, you can use your surroundings to help steady the camera. If there's a nearby railing, use it as your steadying device. If the surface is smooth enough, you can place the camera directly on the railing, gently but firmly gripping the camera as you squeeze off your next shot.

Even using a nearby wall or fence to lean against can help create a more secure way of steadying your camera while manually pressing the shutter button. Of course you'll want to make sure you're the only one using the prop to steady yourself. If someone were to come along just at the right moment and bump the railing or perhaps simply backup against it, you might get a sudden jarring motion just as you take your picture, which will produce an unwanted result.

The Less Cumbersome Tripod Alternative

Sometimes the surface of your possible props may not be as steady or smooth as preferred. In these cases, you can use a beanbag. Some beanbags are actually specifically threaded just for this purpose, allowing you to securely attach your camera to it. The nice thing about the beanbag is it's flexibility, which allows you to adapt it to almost any surface providing you with a more stable setting for your camera.

The most important thing to remember is to take along that camera everywhere you go. Tripod or not, the world is full of wonderful and exciting things that you can capture on film or memory disc, if you take it with you always.

Article by Kimberly Shannon - Exploring the world through the digital camera. Visit DigitalTipsWeekly.com where you can read more articles for digital camera comparisons and photography tips.

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