What digital cameras don’t have that stupid delay?
thabtidc asked:
I have a great (big) old Sony digital camera that takes floppy’s and not memory cards but the best thing is there is no delay when taking pics. I have bought numberous new cameras, including Sony Cybershot and get driven mad as my 2yr old runs off before picture is taken. Do any new cameras have no delay? Why does it do this when my previous didn’t?
I asked my camera mad son in law this the other day after losing another picture of his 2 yr old twins (they ran off).
He said all digital cameras have a delay,the only ones that dont are the very expensive ones,think I will go back to my brownie☺
DSLRs don’t have that delay.
Examples: Nikon D40, Canon Digital Rebel, etc.
alot of them
I really believe buying a camera is an individual choice.
The person needs to read alot of reviews on cameras and learn as much as they can from the internet.
Go to the store and hold them and try them to see what they feel like and how they take pictures.
I can only give a suggestion of what to look for in a new digital camera.
Good Luck
my suggestion
go to yahoo shopping
digital cameras
digital camera GUIDE
be sure to check titles on the left side
the guide should answer your questions
Your camera doesn’t have auto-focus either. That is what causes shutter lag. Most cameras now make images that would not even fit on a floppy
My mother has a Kodak Easy Share digital camera, I’m fairly sure it doesnt have a delay. I use a Nikon D40, it doesnt either but it is a bit on the expensive side just for snapshots.
As a part-time sportsphotographer, I was getting really frustrated by digital camera ’shutterlag’.
It’s caused by several factors, but is a common albatross of point shoot digitals. They have to autofocus, refresh the lcd, set the exposure, process the image, store it on the memory card, and review it for you on the lcd again.
DSLR cameras don’t have that delay. That is why they have become so popular. As for the statement about them being much more expensive - it’s all relative. I will always cherish the pictures I took over the years of my two daughers at they grew. How important should your memories of your 2-year old be? Don’t be one of those people who get a too-basic camera and then don’t take photos because, it doesn’t work that well, so I’ll let someone else take the pictures.
Consider the Nikon D40, which retails for under $599 with a nice 18-55mm zoom lens. Look at what some ordinary people did with this camera. The automatic mode is wonderful to learn with, and the manual settings and interchangeable lenses guaranty that you won’t soon outgrow it. (And you’ll be using it for your little one’s soccer games, school plays, and graduations!)
And a very nice write up:
Hope this is helpful for you.
A couple of things you can do to help the camera out:
1. Switch off the redeye reduction mode on the flash. This delays the photo by around 2 seconds.
2. If you have focus over-ride use this, set it to infinity, throw the lens wide and you will have no AF hunting to slow you down.
3. Do you really need to take photographs at a zillion megapixels? If your camera has a lower resolution setting then use it instead. Despite the marketing, if you are doing up to A4 prints then a 4 MP camera is all you need. If youare doing 6×4 or 7×5 prints (the most common) then the 2MP setting will do. Using higher resolution fills up the cameras buffer memory, and it can’t take more photographs until this is clear.
4. Track the moving subject. Don’t just hit the shutter and stand stock still. If the kid is running about you would need an expensive fast lens and manual shutter to freeze the motion.
Keep the lens fairly wide and move the camera to track the subject, even after pressing the shutter. Make the motion a feature. You’ll be surprised how well this works.
5. If the camera has a multiframe mode then use this and just keep your finger pressed on the shutter and fire off a few frames in a sequence. You’ve more chance of getting a good shot in there.
6. If you are shooting outside with the sun behind you, switch the flash off altogether. It’s not required and the recharge time will slow you down. If you are shooting in overcast conditions, turn the flash off. Overcast is perfect soft light for portrait photographs.
So it’s not about having the latest or best camera, its a case of applying some technique. Hope this helps.
You can usually trust Canon compact cameras to have a very short shutter lag (usually around .4 seconds). DSLR have even shorter delays. Your old sony did not have delays because it’s a very very basic camera that does not need to do much to take a very mediocre picture.
Digital SLR’s have virtually no shutter lag at all.
If you pre-focus by pressing the shutter button half-way down while aiming at your subject - or where you anticipate your subject will be when you want to take the picture - it will help considerably. You can set your camera in Sport mode or Scenery and this will minimize the lag. If you do not use the flash, it will help. If you turn off face detection, it will help. If you turn off the LCD monitor and use the viewfinder only, it will help. If you use the continuous shooting mode for a burst of 4 or 5 shots, there will be no pre-focus in between those shots. For most point and shoot cameras, this will give you 1.5-to-2 frames per second, but you can’t use flash.
Some point and shoot cameras are better than others. I have a Canon Powershot SD900 that seems quite fast to me. If you go to and read the reviews (once they are available for the cameras you are considering), you can go to the page called Performance and see exactly what the tested shutter lag is, as well as several other performace benchmarks.
Here’s a link showing a chart of various cameras and their shutter lag as well as the time it takes to shoot five frames. You will not see any DSLR’s listed, because they have no shutter lag. If you click on the column heading, such as One Shot, the chart will sort according to that measurement.
Here’s a list of five good cameras with brief shot-to-shot delays of less than 1.5 seconds (in good light) each:
Canon Powershots SD850-IS and SD750, Sony Cybershots DSC-T100 and DSC-W55, Kodak Easyshare C875.
The best way to deal with shutter lag is to go for an SLR, with them there is no shutter lag and yet there can be a delay.
There are three things that cause shutter lag in most cameras - flash, focus and exposure. Measuring the exposure is the simplest for the camera and usually happens in a tiny fraction of a second. Getting the focus right is trickier, that can take a half second to a second if the subject is easy to focus on, it can take longer if the subject is in poor lighting. On top of that the motor that drives the auto focus mechanism is usually slow and relatively weak to conserve battery power, but that of course delays getting the lens focussed. SLRs have faster more powerful motors but PS cameras do not. Flash is the third, it takes time to charge up the flash and PS cameras tend to charge the flash when you press the shutter instead of ahead of time. That’s deliberate because this saves power and prevents your batteries from draining even faster.
Dealing with shutter lag is not so easy. Forget exposure, that always happens quickly. Flash can be addressed by keeping your finger on the shutter, holding it down half way until you’re ready to shoot. This drains your battery but ensures that the flash is always ready to go. When you’re ready shoot you lift your finger briefly and then press the shutter and it should be almost instant … well … except for focus.
Dealing with focus is not always easy. If you concentrate on subjects that have clearly defined contrasts the focus can be really fast. But you have no choice about that usually. So like getter the flash ready, you can also point the lens at the subject and hold the shutter down part way to get the focus right. Then press the shutter when the moment is right.
Ok, all that said, there are cameras that minimize the problems. I have a Canon PowerShot G7 for instance. It’s a really sophisticated PS camera though not as sophisticated as my Nikon SLR. The shutter lag on this camera is rarely more than a second, it operates really fast.
One thing that I do like about it however is that it also has a continuous shooting mode. That comes in two flavours. The first is simply continuous shooting, in this case there is a bit of a lag at the start to get the exposure and the focus and after that the camera fires off images at the rate of two or three per second, it’s almost as fast as my SLR. However the way it achieves this remarkable feat is to not focus or reset exposure settings after the first shot.
That can be a problem if your subject is moving so there is a second shooting mode called continuous auto-focus. In this case the camera will refocus after each shot. That slows it down a little, I get about one shot per second in that mode but again that’s a minimal lag.
That’s the best solution I’ve found to dealing with shutter lag in the PS cameras. I suppose there are probably a few other models and brands with similar features but I don’t know what they are. I’m sorry.
Finally, if you really want to get rid of those problems you have no choice but to go to an SLR. My Nikon SLR rarely ever has any shutter lag. What slows it down briefly is only a rare subject that it can’t seem to focus on instantly. It also fires off images at three per second, my other Nikon SLR does that at five per second. The only problem with this solution is that it’s very expensive. The camera itself isn’t cheap.
If you do want to go this way, I’d suggest a Nikon D40x as an entry model probably with the Nikon 18mm-200mm lens. That is an ideal combination. If you’re a sophisticated photographer, the Nikon D80 is better and the D200 is ideal.
I hope this helps a little.
There are certain things that a digital camera has to do in order to prepare itslef to take a photograph. Most of these activities are active by default.
If you configure the camera to switch off all the automatic functions (exposure, focus, auto-flash, white balance etc.) then it’ll be almost instantaneous operation. You must carefully read the manual.
Note that the cheaper the camera is then the fewer ‘manual’ functions there will be.
Go over to and check out the reviews.
They measure the shutter delay (and a whole bunch of other things) on every camera they test.