Thread: Cameras: shutter delay time

Nathan older digital cameras were terrible but yours sounds drastic it should be better, a number of things
batteries need to be fully charged
Memory stick the faster the better some elcheapo cards are slow to write
the fuller the memory card the slower they get
zooming out slower they get

what type of camera ???

An SLR style digital has no shutter delay to speak of (the mirror swinging up out of the way is the most delay you'll get, and that's no different to the good old days of film), and they go from 'Off' to fully powered on and ready to take a picture in less time than it takes to put the camera to your eye.

The latest crop of semi-pro Canon bodies (50D) will happily bang away at 6.5 frames per second; the current consumer SLR (500D) will do 3.4 frames per second for up to 70 jpeg images before it runs out of internal buffer.

With a fast card in the 50D, you can shoot till the card runs out of space - the speed limit is the card write speed, not the camera logic/processor speed.

However, the 500D can also be switched to 'Video' mode and it'll take a high-def video, while allowing you to take pictures at the same time!!

Autofocus is good, but it won't keep up with a high speed rally car, but it'll probably do a better job than you can - fixed manual focus or focus on a static point and wait for the car to hit that point will be the order of the day if your are trying to do your own focusing.

The big difference between the prosumer digitals and the DSLRs is basically the fact that with DSLRs you get a huge range of additional, very high quality lenses, external flashes, motor drives, bigger sensors (in both physical size - so less electrical 'noise' and 15-21 megapixels worth of image information) and .... sooooo much more 'cred' as a photographer!

Thanks for the replies Wheelin and Master Splinter.

The one I'm using at the moment is pretty old, and doesn't have any features besides on and off.

One feature I am definately after though is very short shutter delay time. It sounds like a DSLR achieves this.

The high number of photos per second in a DSLR sounds good too. My current one waits around 3 seconds between snaps (with flash off).

I'll have to try and find a site that explains all this photography lingo in layman's terms, as I am a real amateur at photography (does anyone know of such a website?). If I do spend the money on a DSLR, I will also do a photography course to get the most value from the camera.

Thanks for the reponses!

Nathan.

Here you go
Compact digital shutter delay data, ie bugger all.
Digital Camera Shutter Lag Comparison Table

DSLRs are no better (and some are worse) than than the newer compacts

if you can manual or prefocus the delay times on the new cameras are sub 100 ms!

I have a 20D and a 50D, no problems there.

Nathan there are many sites regarding Digital photography a good one is Canon's own site I will also email a good PDF when I locate it.

some links Digital Cameras, Digital Camera Reviews - The Imaging Resource!

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech.htm

Welcome to the PassionforPixels.com

Ray

I had a digital camera given to me a gift

It was slow like that , and some other annoying features

I hit the restore factory setting and got significant improvement

My Olympus digital camera (about 5 years old) has significant delay if I turn the monitor screen off and look through the viewfinder. it's much quicker when I turn the display on.

I can't think of any reason why it is so, I just know it is!

Originally Posted by murray44

My Olympus digital camera (about 5 years old) has significant delay if I turn the monitor screen off and look through the viewfinder. it's much quicker when I turn the display on.

I can't think of any reason why it is so, I just know it is!

That's because when the screen is on all the circuits are already fired up and ready to just grab the picture that is already sitting on the CCD. The older cameras chewed a lot of power with the CCD active so they gave the operator a choice of switching all the electronics off to save power.

Originally Posted by I_wanna_Shed

My current one waits around 3 seconds between snaps (with flash off).

You'll always have to wait for the flash to recharge between shots, and the little pop-up flashes are...pretty 'consumer' (Canon's top of the line models, like the 7D, proclaim that they are professional cameras by not having a pop-up flash!!); if you are trying for night shots of cars, I would suggest something like (assuming a Canon camera) the 580EX flash which will only set you back another $600-odd dollars - but they do work quite well. (and you thought woodworking could be an expensive hobby!!)