"pre shot" burst mode

Started by clint, November 17, 2012, 03:53:50 AM

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clint

"Pre-shot" burst mode: as described by casio " a ultra-high speed continuous shooting mode that captures images from the scene prior to the moment when you actually press the shutter button"
as soon as the photographer presses the shutter button only the last user defined amount of photos are kept.

It's great if you're waiting for a once in a life-time moment to happen and don't want to miss it.  You can just fire away before the action happens, then disengage the continuous burst mode (normally a press of the shutter button) once the action you want to capture finishes, without using up your entire memory card.

If you linked this with any of the motion detection shutter controls, you'd have something very interesting.


Some high-end video cameras have this feature as well as some point and shoots.

Francis

Sounds pretty impossible. This would require some sort of buffer to continuously record the Liveview feed but delete every frame previous to the user defined "pre-shot" time in real-time. Even if you were able to capture this feed, the resolution would be 1920x1080, which isn't exactly great for stills.

a1ex

Quotethe resolution would be 1920x1080

... only on 5D Mark III and 600D and 500D, if you take pictures in movie mode ;)

halbmoki

Sounds impossible to me, because you'd need very fast specialized buffers for all that writing an deleting at the same time. I'm pretty sure that current Canon DSLRs don't even have the hardware for this kind of task. Writing and simultaneously deleting that many images at full resolution would also require much faster memory access which is just not possible. I guess, Casio built special hardware to accomplish this.
The best solution for now is simply recording a video in 1080p and highest possible framerate with fastest possible shutter (video shutter speeds like 1/15 or 1/30 rarely make good still images) and pick out the best pictures afterwards. 1920x1080 is actually good enough for newspaper prints, but not much more.

g3gg0

sorry, there is no special memory needed for such feature.

but are you sure you want your expensive DSLR shoot images (not saving them) permanently after powering on?
clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack... right after switching on would kill your shutter and your nerves.

the DSLR is no mirrorless point-and-shoot camera and never should be ;)
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scrax

Also burst shot to capture a precise moment isn't really good idea, what if the moment is exactly during the time frame between two shot?
I'm using ML2.3 for photography with:
EOS 600DML | EOS 400Dplus | EOS 5D MLbeta5- EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro  - EF-S 17-85mm f4-5.6 IS USM - EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM - 580EXII - OsX, PS, LR, RawTherapee, LightZone -no video experience-

clint

My old nikon point and shoot from 2004 had this feature (functional even when capturing RAW at 8MP).  I'm not sure its something ML can allow, but I wonder if the hardware demands aren't that high.

I might be off base, I am quite often, but I believe the two main functions necessary for this are
1. Allowing the buffer to write over itself once its full.
2. Allow the buffer to cycle (start at the beginning, once its full)

Lowering the capture resolution would greatly increase the use of this tool, allowing more images in the buffer.  So MRaw or LRaw would probably make this more useful.

Clint

g3gg0

as said, this will kill shutter on DSLRs.
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clint

point taken.  The constant shutter sound could take a bit to get used to.  The other cameras I've seen with this feature (including high end cameras) certainly weren't DSLRs like you said, but UHD video cameras (capturing jumping great white sharks).

Perhaps I didn't explain it very well.
The camera doesn't begin capturing photos until after you've pressed the shutter button (or are holding it down), then quits taking the photos once you press the shutter again (or release the shutter) at which point it writes the last 5-24 photos (whatever the buffer can hold) to card.

This could be quit helpful for when you're working with animals or children.  If you have to get a dog or baby to do something, it can be difficult to determine when that'll happen, perhaps bad starts or "misfires" on a trick or a smile, but within a second or two they'll hit that desired look or pose.  So a continuous pre shot would be handy for that, so you wouldn't have to wait for the buffer to clear and write the photos to disc, you just keep photographing until he hits that pose, then hit the shutter button again to finally write whats left in the buffer.

I understand the idea of shutter abuse, though I did purchase my camera with the intent to use it to get the shot, even if it means pushing it to the limits.

feureau

But it would make a nice feature for video shooting though.

Switch to movie mode, and it shoots x (can be customized) seconds pre-roll before you start recording, so all the vids would have several seconds of footage from before you hit record.

3pointedit

I thought that this already exists! Prerecord just records short clips constantly, overwriting the ones that don't get saved. When you button on to save a file the camera continues to record a longer version of the clip. Sadly there will be a gap when the camera starts a new file.

Not sure about usefulness in stills mode.
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gerk.raisen

+1

I already proposed something similar for video here http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=1125.0 but I never received answers.
Yes, some gaps will be present when changing from one file to another but I think is very interesting feature...

clint

Quote from: 3pointedit on November 18, 2012, 01:00:29 PM

Not sure about usefulness in stills mode.

I agree, the practicality dramatically increases with video, yet I believe it is relevant for still photography as well.  Especially if you are documenting a build-up of some sort, over the period of a few seconds.  You don't have to wait for the first several useless photos to write to disc before you can start shooting at the burst speed again, you can just keep your finger on the shutter to let those photos get overwritten in the buffer without missing a beat.  Then let up on the shutter to allow your group of shots to get written to disc.  That could be a huge feature at the right time.