Quick question about a digital cam

Posted by: Bas V on 13 July 2007

Hi all,
On Monday I will go on holidays to Switzerland and Italy. Now I need a new digital camera, not too expensive (E 200-250 max.) and the most important to me is that it makes a picture fast. My present camera, a 5 year old Sony DSC-P5 takes too much time between pressing the button and making the picture. Do you have any suggestions for a good camera? I saw a nice Kodak-camera (803 something) with specs saying it takes 0,4 seconds. Is that fast or slow? Most people I know recommend Canon, are these indeed better camera's? Sorry, I really have no knowledge on this subject (but I don't want to buy a pig in a poke).

Regards, Bas

Posted on: 16 July 2007 by AL4N

0.4 seconds is good, nikon (aswell as other's) go down to 0.2 seconds, this almost eliminates shutter lag,you can't really go wrong with a top make,canon nikon to name just 2.

Posted on: 17 July 2007 by Andrew Jackson

I use digital and 35mm film SLRs and the "shutter-lag" in the digitals is now very low...much less than 0.2 seconds etc. With this sort of delay you could easily miss and action shot, the other common problem being "lazy-eye" as your model isn't quite sure when an image will be taken. The small DSLRs from Canon, Nikon and Sony (alpha 100) are all very good.

Posted on: 23 July 2007 by Nick_S

Here is some info from a relevant website which lists digicam shutter lag times:
http://www.cameras.co.uk/html/shutter-lag-comparisons.cfm

A notably quick time is listed for the Sony DSC N2 Ultra Compact at 0.14 sec, the worst is the Nikon Coolpix L3 with a shutter lag of 1.8 seconds!

Comparisons with standard times for film cameras are given here, no wonder many digital cameras feel slooooow:
"a "standard" pro film SLR has a shutter lag of about .06 sec., an amateur film SLR about .125 or .150, a mechanical Leica .018, and a Canon EOS RT with the metering plate pre-fired, about .008!"
quoted from:
http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com/2007/05/hall-...utter-lag-shame.html

Nick