As a staunch supporter of ML/EVF, I also have this admit it remains a major problem I can only hope can be reduced in the future.
Already addressed long time ago.
I assume that with "no" blackout (unless done by tricks), the A9 may be better in this regard, but I have no personal experience with it yet.
And what you have personally experienced?
As many of us mirrorless users has already experienced years ago problem free EVF operations in most erratic situations, with better results than any DSLR offers.
Already years ago it became that no way back to DSLR that has anyways longer blackouts and incapability to compensate the real lag, the reaction time of the user.
Already 7 years ago the EVF lag was negligent compared to reaction time lag that photographers has.
- EVF vs OVF difference in lag was about 16ms vs 0ms.
- Reaction time on average photographer who is expecting something to happen is about 250-350 ms.
- The shutter release lag time is by average 50-80 ms depending the modes.
So the arguments that EVF is always showing the action late and no change to react to them, is purely false, has been for almost decade.
The only cause that makes or breaks the change of the photo has been the
reaction time of the photographer AND
knowledge of the subject/situation.
Example, a experienced sports player who has followed specific team for years, knows their players and knows their usual strategies and tactics. A dedicated sports fan knows the tactics used by the players in different moments, and they know what comes next once cue appears, they know when the player is to do the action that is wanted to be photographed.
A seasoned wildlife amateur knows the animals and their behavior, with a dedication the person learns to identify specific individuals like specific wolves, bears, foxes, elephants etc if they are usual animals in the area. The person learns their habits, the terrain and the usual locations and times. It becomes easier to find the animals, and in time many of the animals even learns to accept such people around them.
So what comes as the real limitation on the getting the shot? Timing. The reaction time is main limiting factor, a bird taking off or catching a prey is the moment of action that many like to capture, question is the pose, the attitude, the moment.
There are those who will manage to do it with a single frame if the action is well predictable like example a football player kicking a penalty kick at the goal, american football player throwing ball or bird preparing to dive on pray and then it is question of just timing the shot when the foot moves and when the bird dives.
So how have photographers increased their change to get the moment? High speed sequential/burst/motor shooting. Meaning pure luck method, but statistically increasing the probability to overcome one-shot change for hit-or-miss.
Why for the long time the camera FPS capability was critical as you had change to get the single frame from the series of 5-7 that was great or 2-3 frames that were acceptable, depending how many frames per second the camera could capture.
Like
on film bodies you had max 5 frames per second since 1972 (Olympus was way before of others, Minolta, Pentax, Canon, Nikon etc), limited by the film length and your focusing speed and accuracy.
For very long time on digital cameras it was around 4-5 frames in full frame and if you cropped then you managed to get higher, like Nikon D2x had 5 in full frame and in cropped 8 frames. Canon 1D II had 8.5 frames per second in 4Mpix mode.
Until we started to see higher rates, 5.5, 6.5 and then 7-8 frames constantly on lower end cameras as well, usually AF disabled.
Not so long time ago we did reach laughable numbers, 10 FPS!
And now you had people saying that they don't need so ridiculous rates but a 3-4 FPS or 4-5 FPS is enough as otherwise you fill the buffer or you need to go through huge amount of wasted frames.
And what we have now?
- 18-20 FPS with AF or 60 FPS without.
- We have infinite buffers or buffers of 50-80 frames
We have a
Pro-Capture mode in professional high-end models that allows you to capture
25 frames before you fully press the shutter button! And you can get that
60 FPS if you can use focus stationary, or
18 FPS with continuous focus.
And what is the point of all this?
Features like Pro-Capture mode
eliminates the reaction lag of the photographer!
A DSLR shooter has today max 14 FPS when AF is locked, compared that to 60 FPS with AF locked on mirrorless.
A DSLR shooter has 12 FPS with AF, mirrorless has 18/20 FPS with AF.
A moment is about to come, you half-press shutter release button and Pro-Capture starts buffering 25 frames at the 18 FPS rate, when you see that the moment
starts or it already happened, you fully press shutter release button and now the previous 25 frames are written to card and your buffer starts to fill with frames until you release the shutter button when you see the action was done.
You are not required to predict moment so much, a sudden move, a not predicted action etc that happens in the moment you have the shutter release button half-pressed, and you have it very likely with the 18/60 FPS rate at max (nothing denies to use even lower rates).
Your 250-350 ms reaction time limitation has just been eliminated!
And you will save a lot of time to go through frames that doesn't have something that didn't happen. As you can just release the shutter release button from half-way if there didn't happen anything.
So how many is still whining about a 5-6 ms EVF lag? Does people even talk that it is 5-6 milliseconds? Even a 32/16 ms delay is negligent compared to anything that the user reaction times are. We are talking about speeds that no photographer is there having problems with it. Why? Because not even computer players with a far superior reaction times and hand-eye coordination skills than any photographer likely has, have problems with such or even longer lag!
The camera users whining about 16 or even 32 millisecond lag is just pathetic.
The unwillingness to upgrade and use a far more capable gears is just stubbornness to stay in the old DSLR technology that is holding them back, or comparing things to obsolete models.
10 years ago I would personally agreed, but things changes. Technology evolves. And what you knew 5 years ago or even 3 years ago, doesn't anymore matter. It is old information, claims based to old information is invalid.
It doesn't matter is the argument about camera from 1972 or 2018, but when it is old information, it is called history. We can learn from it, but we shouldn't be stuck to it and believe that nothing has changed.
The arguments about EVF lag is like arguing is the 4.5 FPS so much worse than 5 FPS?
wish I didn’t have to work so much I’m missing out on all the fun and experiments. A mate shoots birds with a v15 pf300 he loves it and his images are first class. He prefers it over his d500 with a 300 vr2 2.8.
