Digital cameras 101

[Alex Oliver]

Is there any way to elimintae if not drastically reduce the delay between pressing the button and the shutter operating? It's so infuriating to miss the moment time after time.

[ShutterbugGail]

Welcome to the Q& A Board, Alex!

One of the biggest complaints about consumer digital cameras is Shutter Lag. Shutter Lag is the amount of time it takes from when you fully depress the shutter button for the image to be actually processed onto a memory card.

Shutter Lag times vary from camera to camera. Many new digital cameras, particularly digital Single Lens Reflex Cameras, have greatly reduced Shutter Lag.

Of course, going out and buying a new digital camera is not an option for a lot of us. So here are two suggestions which may help.

- use fully charged batteries

- purchase a higher speed memory card

Check your manual for the highest speed rated memory card your digital camera accepts. Buying one higher than recommended does not necessarily improve write time, though images will most likely transfer faster from your camera to computer.

Many memory cards have a speed rating such as 8X, 12X, 40X. The higher the rating, the faster a digital camera writes (saves) images to the card.

Here is some additional information on high-speed memory cards:

http://www.digicamhelp.com/memory-cards/memory-card-speed.htm

[Deb]

Hi, if you're trying to capture moments of action, a way around the lag time is to try and anticipate the "moment". Track the action with your shutter pressed halfway down and use the "continuous focus" mode. You'll hear your camera focusing as it's tracking the subject. This will reduce that lag time when you actually press the shutter to snap the photo.

Hope this helps,
Deb

[ShutterbugGail]

You'll hear your camera focusing as it's tracking the subject.

Question.

I'm assuming that when shooting this type of photo, you must keep continuous auto-focusing on. If my tushyumption is correct, this is good to know.

Most consumer digital cameras focus continually but advanced ones, like mine, give you the option of shutting continuous auto-focus off. I typically have it set on off, so focus and exposure aren't locked until I depress the shutter button down halfway.

[Alex Oliver]

HERE'S A REPONSE FOLLOWED BY ANOTHER Q: Thank you all for your responses. They all make sense and round out the thoughts we'd been having; I'd been experimenting by looking over the camera to try and outsmart it!!

We have a Finepix S5000 but only have lower capacity XD cards at present One came with camera, other a gift from the nice girl who served us at Kuala Lumpur duty free (hey, it cost 250 as opposed to the £500 they started at new in the UK). It is a camera my partner (who is the better photogapher) would recommend, occupying the place between SLR for a grand and a better-than-average digital jobby.

It appears the most crucial area/action involves holding the button halfway down and even trying to psychically determine your subjects next move.

As we read elsewhere on your site that a bigger card can reduce the delay to less than 100ms, we could seemingly almost be on a par with that momentary blindness when an slr shutter swings open.

DEB: you mention turning off auto focus, which I believe we can - does this mean then that the time is reduced even more (than the 100ms quoted above) - even more like instant?
Oh, and can anyone reccommend a card brand for our upgrade (to 512MB)?
Thanks again and we shall watch thses pages more closely.

[Deb]

Hi Alex, for clarification, you don't want to turn off auto focus. What you do want to do is select continuous rather than single auto focus. Generally, there are three modes to choose from: Manual focus, Single auto focus, and Continuous auto focus. With continuous AF the camera is constantly tracking your subject as you keep the subject in the frame. Check your model to see if you need to slightly depress the shutter button or not to engage it. On some models, you only need to press the shutter button when you are ready to take the shot.

As for media, I use Lexar 40x Professional compact flash with WA (write accellerator). Zippy-do-dah on my D100!!  

You'll want to check compatibility with the model of camera you are using. Also, for an indepth media read/write speed comparison check out http://www.dpreview.com/articles/mediacompare/.

Cheers,
Deb

[ShutterbugGail]

Oh, and can anyone reccommend a card brand for our upgrade (to 512MB)?

I have several cards. I use Sandisk and Lexar. I've found them to be very reliable.