I sometimes puzzle over the problem of how to avoid missed shots -- pictures I wish I could have taken if the camera had been ready. (This was a particular problem with my now-damaged Canon G1, which took 8 seconds to power-on and be ready for the first photo.)
I just read of one solution over at MobileMag.com, although it applies only to digital video cameras with FireWire connectors (a.k.a. IEEE 1394 and Sony iWire). MCE Technologies has a portable harddrive called the QuickStream DV. Its purpose is to record direct to its hard drive in AVI, QuickTime, or RAW format -- bypassing the record-to-tape-then-transfer-to-harddrive stage of digital video editing.
Here's the exciting innovation: Even when in stand-by, the harddrive continuously captures six seconds of video from your DV camcorder; when you press the Record button, the pre-captured clip is appended -- so that you don't miss the early part of the shot, delayed by the time it takes to react and press Record.
I am guessing that the catch is that the continuous 6-second recording chews through battery life. Prices range from US$599 (1.5-hour hard drive) to $999 (6-hour drive) plus $99 for each additional battery pack. I estimate that the "1.5-hour drive" is 20GB and 6-hour drive might be 80GB, steep prices for external hard drives.
Application to Digital Still Photography
This pre-recording technique would not work with still photographs -- or would it?
Lessee: how if a camera, like the Canon S1iS (which takes continuous photos at a rate of 1.6/sec until the memory card is full) had a recycle mode that worked like this:
* Recycle Mode takes continuous photographs.
* I don't need to have my finger on the shutter (as is the case now, with continuous shooting).
* The camera erases photos older than 30 seconds or so (about 50 pictures).
* It saves that buffer of 50 photos when I do press the shutter button.
Comments