Canon user looking for help - E420

Yes,
Anti-shock is Olympus-speak for the Mirror Lock-Up on Canons.
It sounds like you might have Anti-shock on, or using Live-view, or both.

I have an E-410, E-510, and several Canon cameras, and the Olys are as quick as my 5D. I also use the rear button for focusing.
--
Montana is BIG SKY Country!
Strive for excellence, not perfection.

Very true! I will do that. Thanks for the hint.

That makes sense.

In the Canon's, you can setup the shutter button to do nothing when half pressed.

So, for example, if you are using manual focus and manual exposure, the shutter buttons only activates the shutter. There is no delay whatsoever. I'll see if the Oly allows me to use a similar setup.

I might be spoiled. I use a Canon 1DMkII today. Problem is I had a problem in my right hands and I feel a lot of pain after a couple of hours because of the weight. I need to buy a lighter body/lenses system.

And the Zuiko lenses deserve my attention. Great stuff.

are you doing it with m, mf and slamming the button from untouched to fully depressed? my e3 won't even go off doing that. it'll do it perfectly if it's half way down already.

Nelson Ricciardi said:

Hi folks,

My name is Nelson. I'm a Canon shooter since the EOS 10D and recently
started to look for a really small SLR. The Oly 420 attracted my
attention.

I went to the store today to try it and didn't get it because I felt
the camera to be slow. When compared to the EOS 450, the Olympus 420
is really slower and presents a much worst shutter lag, but I believe
I might be doing something wrong due to lack of experience with the
brand.

What I did was to set the camera to Manual Mode and changed the focus
to the rear button (the way I like to use). Even with this setup, the
camera was slow when compared to the Canon Rebel.

I'd like to go back to the store again this weekend, and would
appreciate your input.

Thanks

Nelson

Click to expand...

Are you sure the 2 second self-timer wasn't on? It's probably that or the anti-shock mode. People mess with these in store demo models' settings sometimes.

Nelson Ricciardi said:

In the Canon's, you can setup the shutter button to do nothing when
half pressed.

Click to expand...

This is manual focus, mode 2 for the E-420.

ok, that might be the problem. I'm expecting the camera to do something it won't. Thanks for the info.

ok, let me come back to this subject.

what is the camera doing when you half press the shutter?

exposure is manual
focus in on the fn button (rear panel) .

so what is the half press doing that can slow down the camera? I just want to understand.

Nelson Ricciardi said:

ok, let me come back to this subject.

what is the camera doing when you half press the shutter?

exposure is manual
focus in on the fn button (rear panel) .

so what is the half press doing that can slow down the camera? I just
want to understand.

Click to expand...

In the situation you have stated above, there 'should' be nothing slowing down the shutter... except for the possibilities of 2 second timer/ anti-shock/ or live view.

--
Barry

Barry Stewart said:

Nelson Ricciardi said:

ok, let me come back to this subject.

what is the camera doing when you half press the shutter?

exposure is manual
focus in on the fn button (rear panel) .

so what is the half press doing that can slow down the camera? I just
want to understand.

Click to expand...

In the situation you have stated above, there 'should' be nothing
slowing down the shutter... except for the possibilities of 2 second
timer/ anti-shock/ or live view.

Click to expand...

Dunno. I just tested this with my e400. Manual mode, manual focus. There is a very slight difference in responsiveness. I wouldn't call the full press lag very slow either, but from half press to full it seemed instantaneous.

Nelson Ricciardi said:

Anyway, at the store I transferred the focus function to one of the
buttons on the rear panel of the camera.
With this setting, the shutter button is not linked to focus anymore.
It becomes only a AEL trigger.

Click to expand...

What you want is S-AF mode 3.

The focus setting is the one you get at from Menu> Wrench1> Wrench B> AEL/AFL > S-AF > Mode 3

Now I don't think you can swap the AEL/AFl and Fn buttons like you can on the 510 - so when you say in this post
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1022&message=28503540
that

Nelson Ricciardi said:

focus in on the fn button (rear panel) .

Click to expand...

I think you are confused. I don't think you can do that on the 420 - unless the dpreview menu's for the camera are incomplete.
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/olympuse420/page9.asp

Anyway if you want to try again do this-

Reset the camera
Menu> Camera 1> Custom Reset > Reset (start with a clean slate)
Put the camera in M
Put the focus mode in S-AF
Menu> Wrench 1> Wrench B > AEL/AFL -> S-AF -> Mode 3

This will let you use the AEL/AFL button to focus. Half press of the shutter only locks exposure. Full press of course takes the image. This sounds like what you want. If you accidentally let go of the shutter it will not try and refocus the next time you press it.

Good luck!

Cheers,
-Gautham

--
C&C always welcome.
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gnarayan/