On the Need for Speed...

RalphLambrecht · Dec 5, 2013

Sirius Glass said:
I used it once when it was useful. I would easily live without it.

+1

Jeff Kubach · Dec 5, 2013

I heard that power winders and motor drives wear out camera bodies faster, is this true?

Jeff

Fixcinater · Dec 5, 2013

Aja B said:
The question being posed relates to speed, not ergonomics or appearances: '...fits my hands better...', '...giant and heavy.', '...looks dangerous...'. Speed, man, it's all about speed!

Indeed, that was a tangent.

I gather your subject matter either affords the opportunity to repeatedly try again and again to get the timing right or the not getting the image wouldn't prove too disappointing. Your focus appears to be heavily weighted on the process rather than the result. Yeah, I enjoy the process as well but at day's end and when it matters, I'd like to have something more than satisfactory to show for my efforts. To each his/her own.

Surfing, race cars, motorcycles at speed are generally my subject matter where a motor drive would even be considered. Sure, getting *the* shot is more important than getting *a* shot, but it's been a rare occasion when 5fps has gotten me a shot that careful anticipation couldn't. I'm generally using set focus and exposure, so having the experience to catch the height of action is more effective than 10fps will ever be. It was a hard lesson to learn, luckily I wasn't paying per roll and coming home with nothing, but it was a lot of time invested until I learned to settle down and wait for it to happen.

The question of speed largely comes down to subject matter and the level of desire/need to 'get the shot'. When in doubt, stack the deck!

Of course, I see the pitching analogy as a perfect example of where 10fps would be even better than 5fps and 5fps worth using where as 1fps would not be of much help.

I'm not against using the drive when the situation calls for it, I'm just advocating knowing enough about the situation to know whether it is called for or not. Although...if more people were burning through a roll of 36 in 3.6 seconds, maybe film sales would go up?

Jim Jones · Dec 5, 2013

A fully manual RF camera with negligible shutter delay improves the chances of capturing the peak of motion. Consider a runner at 20 feet/second breaking the tape: many motor drives will often miss the critical moment.

Chan Tran · Dec 5, 2013

I do need a 5fps motor drive and I never use it in continuous mode. Mostly when I take pictures of people that pose for me they tend to be in a good pose right after I took the shot so I need to be able to make another shot immediately. 5fps is about all I need. Faster my reaction time isn't fast enough to need it.

Les Sarile · Dec 5, 2013

I found a use for mine . . . anything to blow through as much film as possible . . .

Fuji Press 800

MartinCrabtree · Dec 5, 2013

I cranked the F5 up once at the motocross races. It was the first lap and they were all bunched up going over a jump. A cool sequence.

Nikon Collector · Dec 5, 2013

Not for the speed but at least on my FM and FM2N it provides balance and ease of use, but I keep them and my F4 in "s" mode

MattKing · Dec 5, 2013

If you think of a 5 fps drive as permitting shots that are just 1/5 of a second apart they make more sense, because they enable short 2-4 exposure bursts that show quick transitions.

Poisson Du Jour · Dec 5, 2013

I don't find the 10fps drive on my elderly EOS1N particularly useful for photography involving considered, deliberate and slow (tripod-mounted) shooting; at 10fps, 36 exposures is gone in a couple more blinks shy of 3 seconds; I can imagine this churning would be useful in fields of science, research, astrophotography and some sports. If there is one benefit to the 1N with the power drive (offsetting the weight penalty), it is an enhancement of ergonomics and handling efficiency. But above and beyond that, getting 8 years from 8 lithium AA batteries (a lot of that with Bulb exposures) is very considerably better than the atrocious short power offered by the bog-standard 2CR5. I suspect other people here would also say that a drive enhances functionality and handling, comfort etc., even if you don't have a need for the top speed that is so often a selling point for bolt-on drives.

Poisson Du Jour · Dec 5, 2013

Les Sarile said:
I found a use for mine . . . anything to blow through as much film as possible . . .

Fuji Press 800

:eek: I didn't know you could throw a woman into the air...

Les Sarile · Dec 5, 2013

Poisson Du Jour said:
:eek: I didn't know you could throw a woman into the air...

And not be arrested . . .

Not historic as the Muybridge Horses Around With Motion Pictures but it was fun cool anyway . . .

Nikon Collector · Dec 6, 2013

Acouple years ago a friend got married, I wasn't the wedding photographer but I took along my 2 F3's, one with MD4 and one without. Being a bit of a nut my friend wanted to dance up the isle after the ceremony. I loaded the F3/MD4 with a 36 exp roll og Fugi 800 iso and put it on "c". They removed 2 pages of photos from the wedding phographer out of their wedding album and replaced them with 16 of the photos I took showing the wildest gyrations. So sometimes you need it, I could not have anticipated when the 6'5" Groom in a blue seersucker suit was going to throw a shoulder high karate kick toward the new FatherinLaw

BrianShaw · Dec 6, 2013

Nikon Collector said:
Acouple years ago a friend got married... in a blue seersucker suit ...

I hope that was a few more than "a couple of years ago).

pen s · Dec 6, 2013

Always valued compact size and leight to speed so my OM-1 cameras have been used with no MD or winder. A couple of times in a few years it would have been handy but not enough to warrent buying a winder.

David Brown · Dec 6, 2013

Geysers.

photopriscilla · Dec 7, 2013

I shoot weddings, so speed is important at key moments, but perhaps this is an exception.

Sirius Glass · Dec 7, 2013

Even wedding can better use anticipation rather than spray shooting. [Of course the concept of shotgunning a weeding is not a new one in the South.] When I anticipate an opportunity to photograph a wedding, I run the other way.

BradleyK · Dec 7, 2013

Sirius Glass said:
When I anticipate an opportunity to photograph a wedding, I run the other way.

+1. It has been my experience that long-anticipated/frequently-delayed (photo)road trips very often coincide with wedding dates...

Neal · Dec 7, 2013

Dear BradleyK,

Sports. I bought an autowinder for my Contax RTS and it was a huge help if for no other reason than I didn't jostle the camera when advancing. It was too slow for much else but once in a while it came in handy. Then I bought a Canon 7ne for shooting hockey games which was dramatically faster. Lastly, a few years back my neighbor gave me his Nikon F-100 and it's amazing. The frame advance is great. So handy for all sports. (Also handy that it takes all those old AIx lenes.)

Of course having said all that, the two best action shots I have were taken with an old Yashica FX-2.

Neal Wydra

flatulent1 · Dec 7, 2013

I've never needed the speed.

However I do appreciate a motordrive that moves along at 5fps much better than one that does only 1.5fps, even when shooting one frame at a time. The drives are noisy; the slower drives really drag out that noise. I hate that. I'd rather be shooting an FTb. For build-in drives I really do appreciate the near silent EOS RT.

On the Need for Speed...

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