brucem105 wrote:I see a LOT of complaints about battery life and shutter lag. Anyone that owns one care to comment on either complaint? Some of the ones about shutter lag (even after firmware update)make the camera sound nearly unusable. 5-10 seconds in between shots???
After teaching "How To Use The Digital Camera You Just Bought," I wrote a book on it, based on hundreds of students questions.
So, in the interest of clarity, let's clear the air, as I want people to make good choices based on good information.
First, "shutter lag" and the time between shots (as the file is saved to the card) are two different animals.
Shutter lag is the result of all the things that must be turned on, activated and adjusted as you press the shutter. There may be as many a 10 things that have to happen, powering up the sensor, meter reading, focusing, shutter speed adjusting, aperture adjust, white balance adjusting, flash charging, etc. in that moment.
DSLRS and more expensive cameras do that faster than cheaper cameras. It is getting better all the time, but some cameras are simply faster than others.
Also, shooting in low light (which tons of parents try to do at home or in gyms) slows down the focus process when you have a small aperture lens (which most cheap cameras have.) That's why a lot of cheap cameras have a "focus assist" light that turns on. Want blistering fast results? Buy a $2,000 camera body and a $1,000 lens today. Or wait a few more years.
Battery life has a lot to do with how big the battery is and how you set the camera. Many consumers leave the screen on all the time (especially if there is no other way to view the scene!) and spend lots of time looking at photos they have taken. They also leave the flash on "auto" even outside, which uses more power. Some set the camera for continuous autofocus, which uses even more power.
Just as there are ways to get more MPG in cars, there are ways to save battery power. But some cameras use more power than others. This is getting better.
Time between shots is essentially a question of file size and processor speed, with a bit of concern with the speed of the storage card. Large 16 MP images will take longer to move than a 4 MP image if both cameras have the same processing speed. RAW images are far bigger than JPEGS. If you are using the "burst" mode, a lot depends on how much buffer storage there is in the camera. Again, more expensive cameras use better components than cheaper ones, and there ain't no free lunch...you get what you pay for. (I have a small 16 MP Kodak with a touch screen and it IS slow...but it only cost $85. I don't try to shoot indoor sports shots or weddings with it as it wasn't designed for that!)
Finally, the problem with reading "a LOT of complaints" is that a LOT of people have no idea what they are taking about and cannot sort out their problems. Beware of anyone who claims their camera takes "blurry" pictures: they cannot discern between out of focus, camera shake and subject movement and should be largely ignored.
Hope this helps is comparing specs of cameras.
