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SD14 in a studio session...

Hi all
Chris Leong here, one time pro photographer, now turned mostly to movies - but still shoot often!

I'm running a DP2 at the moment, very happy with it, but have a question
about the SD14 - and that is this - mostly when I've shot headshots in the past I've used something very responsive (like a DCS76 or an F3HP with a motor drive if shooting on film). Nearly always an 85mm 1/4 manual lens or the 105mm f/2 DC lens, pretty much wide open all the time.

Does anybody here have any experiences to share on this level of shooting? I'm thinking of going SD14 since I love the Foveon image so much, and I've seen Carl's stuff on his site (and the forced jpeg sessions), but there's little to nothing about the actual responsiveness to the camera - i.e. half press to full press lag, single shot lag time, lag times between series of shots, all in RAW of course.

Yes, I know that a digital camera won't be able to get 250 shots off at 10fps like my motorized Nikon with large back can, but at the same time I do need something that will actually get the shots when I push the button. Yes, there are decisive moments even when shooting very quickly, like I do, and I need a very quick and responsive camera to enable me to do that. Needless to say, the DP2, not being built for this kind of work, cannot.

I usually shoot manual everything, by the way, so I'm not talking about AF, which I find not too great with the kind of photography I do anyway, no matter whatever brand of camera I use.

Comments, anybody?

Thanks!
Cheers
Chris
 
In manual mode lag is minimal (I've not measured it though). But - you can take about 5 or 6 images quickly (not at 10fps, rather at 1-2fps), after that camera needs to write images to card. Unfortunately SD writing speed is low, fast CF cards do not help.

It takes some seconds (5-6) to write single image; much more for 5 or 6 images. Well, camera writes them asyncronously and you can shoot, once enough space is available in buffer.

Of course my experience is not very usable to you - I usually take single shots, preparing these for long time :) But on few occasions I've taken images in quicker sequences too (just for testing or at some events), quite possible for 2-4 images bursts.
 
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