shutter delay

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I have a snapshot button on my cam-corder that when pressed do not immediatly take the picture. perhaps a second later. I've heard that this same delay is also in digital cameras. My question is are there any digital cameras whose shutter or picture taking is done as soon as the button is pressed?

-- Arthur Plante (payrollcdp@juno.com), April 22, 1999

Answers

Arthur: You've struck on one of my favorite RANTS! The new breed of camera manufacturers just don't get it sometimes. One of the defining differences between good and better photographers is their ability to anticipate and capture the character of the shot - expecially in moving subjects. Even the slightest delay from trigger to exposure is both annoying and fatal to the photographers vision. So - sorry this doesn't answer your question - just wanted a soap box which you so handily provided.

Hint: Check out the cameras made by PHOTOGRAPHIC companies, not COMPUTER companies. It would seem these folks would have a better idea of the specs required by photographers. Canon, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Kodak. They also have a tendency to provide usefull features like PC connections for flash sync (boy that's a confusing acronym now that cameras and computers are merging!) It's certainly no certainty, but it makes sense. I have a Sony, and there is a delay - but fortunately I bought it for non-motion subjects and toying (???). I use my Nikon F3 and scan the negatives for photography. I use the Sony for snapshots.

Des

-- Dan Desjardins (dan.desjardins@avstarnews.com), April 23, 1999.


Just in defense of the digital cameras I have used several 35mm auto-focus camera, both SLR and point and shoot, that have a delay from first pressing the shutter release till the shutter fires. So isn't it kind of a bad rap to put the blame on the digital camera and not the mechanics of auto-focus system?

-- Bob G (rgreg88721@hotmail.com), April 27, 1999.

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