Shutter button delay

This is a common situation with almost all point-and-shoot cameras. The delay is because the camera has to do so much when you push the button. Bulkier and more expensive SLRs eliminate the delay by having more hardware to handle the various tasks.

You can reduce the delay by anticipating the action. If you know where the action is going to happen (a child blowing out the candles on a cake, or right in front of a soccer goal, for example) aim the camera there and press the shutter button halfway and hold it there. This meters the exposure and focuses the lens. Then when the action finally happens, press the shutter button the rest of the way. With the camera having done most of the work when you pressed the button halfway, there will be much less delay.

Again, the delay is a basic "feature" of the camera design. It can't be completely eliminated, but by pressing the shutter release halfway it can be reduced.

Set the camera in TV mode, (delayed shutter mode) set the shutter at 15 sec, click to take a picture and during that 15 secs (like, after 7 seconds) open the battery compartment which cuts contact with the battery circuit. Close the battery cover. At this point the camera works fine ... but only temporarily.... Here is the key to the permanent fix. While the camera is working via the temporary fix, take many, many pictures. Hundreds! I probably snapped 400-600 pics. The idea is to wear down the little patches of hardened oil on the shutter blades. For the next three days I took hundreds of pics each day. Basically, I just aimed the camera at the wall or whatever and snapped off several hundred pics.

Shutter lag is one (of the many) problems with compact point&shoot cameras, not seen in bulkier (costlier, more complicated) dSLRs. You can reduce the lag by pressing the shutter release button halfway to focus and meter beforehand. Keep the button half-pressed while anticipating the key moment, then press the button the rest of the way.

You'll have to release the button and half-press it again if the distance to the subject changes, or it moves to/from light/shadow.

This is a common situation with many compact point&shoot cameras. Larger and more expensive dSLRs have additional hardware that eliminates this "shutter lag".

You can eliminate much of the lag by anticipating the peak of the action. Press the shutter release button halfway to focus and meter, and hold it there until the moment, then press the shutter release button the rest of the way.

This is "shutter lag," the delay between pressing the shutter release button and the camera actually taking a picture. This is a common situation with many compact cameras. The camera has to focus on the subject, meter the exposure, and switch the circuitry from displaying on the screen to recording the image and saving it in memory. More sophisticated (and expensive) DSLRs eliminate this shutter lag by having more dedicated hardware for this.

With a compact camera, you can reduce the shutter lag by anticipating the shot. Press the shutter release button halfway to focus and meter the exposure. Continue to hold the shutter release button halfway until the right time, then press it the rest of the way.

It's called "shutter lag"...a common problem with all point and shoot cameras. To avoid it, press the shutter button half-way and allow the camera to lock in the focus (it will beep) before pressing the rest of the way.

Shutter lag is a universal problem with digital cameras...more so with the point-and-shoots than the slr types. To avoid the problem, press the shutter button half-way to lock in the focus then press the rest of the way when the moment is right and you will get no shutter lag.

are you using mirror lock-up or live-view feature?

If you have installed optional expanded memory, you may notice a delay between the time you press the shutter button and when the camera beeps. You can reduce this delay by pressing the button down halfway, holding it as long as necessary, and then pressing it down the rest of the way when you are ready to take the picture. The reason for this two-step shutter is to save battery power. After a picture is taken, compressed, and written to memory, the Sparc CPU shuts down to save the battery's power. When the shutter button is pressed halfway, the Sparc wakes up and stays in the ready state until the user presses the shutter button the rest of the way. Besides the delay in waking the Sparc, there is a variable delay which occurs prior to the Sparc being in the ready state. This delay is dependent on the amount of free flash memory.

The longest part of the shutter delay is caused by the autofocus mechanism. Most cameras will let you press the button half-way down and wait until the autofocus is locked. Then wait for the action to occur. When you press the button the remaining distance, there will be a shutter delay of about 0.2 seconds before the picture is taken. Using that technique will let you capture action shots. There is no way to improve shutter delay on any particular camera. The newer digital cameras are showing improvement in this area. Some are achieving autofocus lock in 0.4 seconds and shutter delay of an additional 0.1 seconds.