Digital Cameras

[White Whale]

Does anyone know of a digital camera that has almost no lag time between the time you click the button to the time it takes the picture?

 

[spanair]

 

[spanair]

Does anyone know of a digital camera that has almost no lag time between the time you click the button to the time it takes the picture?

I bought mines a while back and it takes just over 5 sconds to take a pic after the last one and it usually when it's getting full which is just about 18 pics it lags 10secs plus.

So that is no good, I am getting a Canon PowerShot A60 Digital Camera , good value for a good camera 8)

WOOPS double post, delete my first post please

 

[Cian McLiam]

All digital cameras have a lag or latency time, between when you press the shutter and when the shutter pops, but because life inside a digital camera is so much faster than it is for us, it can do many very complicated calculations in a split second. Unfortunately for us, its not fast enough.

One way of overcoming this is to let the camera do the work in advance. On most models, you can set the aperature, focus and exposure in advance of taking the final shot by pressing down the shutter button half way. This means the camera has much less work to do when you do take the final pic. Focus in on the area, or the fish itself and press the shutter half down, the camera will read the light, lock the focus and prepare itself for taking the picture. Now, when the perfect moment arrives, pressing the button further down will take the shot in an instant.

Try it out yourself

Oh and BTW, the time you are talking about will vary between cameras and is usually quoted in the detailed specs, as lag or latency time.

I couldnt find the shutter lag for my camera in its own specs sheet, but from the quote below from my own cameras review (HERE), you can see what kind of info you are looking for in a review: (The link above is a great resource for camera reviews...)

Shutter lag, the delay between depressing the shutter and capturing the image, was 3/10 second when pre-focused, and 9/10 second including autofocus time. Shot-to-shot delay averaged about 1.5 seconds, while burst mode captured five shots in only 1.3 seconds; the viewfinder remained usable in both modes of rapid image capture

You can see the huge difference when you pre-focus first

Ken


Ken

 

[bubbles12003]

my digital cam is a sony cyber-shot when i push the button to take a pic it instantly takes it, there no waiting at all. hope this answers your question

 

[petitericeball]

i have a sony cybershot too (its really my dads) theres not much waiting time but after you take the pic the screen goes black for a couple secs and the orange light on the top goes in but a couple secs later its back to normal i think its just the camra doing its thing

 

[bstier]

I have a Canon Powershot A80. I love the camera and you can adjust the timing of when it takes the shot. Usualy the only reason that the cameras have lag time is because they are focusing the aperture and letting the right amount of light in. You should be able to adjust this setting with most new cameras. The A80 is an awesome piece of equipment. Visit my site for some of the shots that I have taken with it, specially the panoramic shots. The camera is great for that.

But really, most cameras will have a "lag" time to focus and get everything right. It also might depend on what shutter speed you are set at...hope this helps someway.

 

[Jesse]

You all are making nice points, but you fail to mention the fact of the memory write speed. Your memory card that you use in your camera has a certain speed. I believe the standard is 4x, then 8x, and up to 10x. The time between pictures depends on the speed of memory you have, because it takes a while for the camera to write it to the card. 10x has about no lag time.

 

[Cian McLiam]

Im not sure memory card speed has any bearing on the actual time between pressing the shutter and the photo being taken. The CCD stores all the data as soon as the pic is taken, then it is written to the memory card. The only affect this will have is the time between shots, not the actual time from when you see a great pic opportunity and when the camera actually takes the pic (usually just after the fish has swam away!). I think this is the delay IBB was asking about?

Ken