Shutter speed?

Hi. How fast is the shutter speed when focussed? I.e., from pressing the button to the picture being taken? Noticeable or pretty much straight away?

Many thanks for that. My 'old' Casio Exilim is pretty fast, so if it beats that I'll buy it, I think.

Aditya, I think he's talking about shutter lag here, not necessarily shutter speeds, per se. Shutter delay is a way of life in digital cameras. But the good news is that the delay is lessening as the technology matures. And what's interesting is, that DSLRs dont' have a lag issue at all.

The good news is that according to recent news articles, many camera companies will be incorporating the CCD chips they use in their SLR lines (which give no shutter lag) into their point and shoot cameras. So look for it within the next few years.

Meanwhile, there are ways to combat it.

1. Prefocus. Hold down the shutter half way to get a prefocus of the image you're shooting. When it changes, prefocus again. This will speed up your camera's performance during picture taking since it won't have to autofocus before it shoots the shot.

2. Use faster SD cards. Yes, there are faster cards and it does make a difference in writing the image file to the card. This is especially key if you're taking multiple or burst images.

3. Fresher batteries. Use alkalines at least. But I recommend using high energy batteries designed for digital photography. Varta is a good brand. They are usually sold in camera shops, are long lasting (because they are sold in small quantities) put out alot of energy.

4. Pan with the action. You can create some pretty cool shots by panning with your shot, focusing on your subject. This will create the effect of your subject in sharp contrast to the blurry background.

6. Stick with 100-400 ISO. Going higher will cause more noise/grain in your shots, particularly in darker settings.

Doing these, particularly prefocusing and panning with the action will cut your shutter lag by as much as 80%.

Meanwhile, benchmarks for this camera haven't been released yet. Look for reviews soon.

Oh, I guess I didn't quite understand the question, but as far as shutter lag goes, in terms of cameras the Casio is going to definitely be one of the fastest. The Fuji has a good shutter speed, but won't be as fast in terms of shutter lag as the Casio. So... with that being said if you want a good low light camera, go with the Fuji, if you want a camera with low shutter lag, stay with your Casio. Sorry about any confusion, thanks for clearing that up James.

Yes - I meant lag - thanks!

Also, I noted that the review on Steves-Digicams for shutter lag on the z10fd was good, so I was assuming it would be the same or better for the z20fd.

Many thanks for your replies and clarification of my novice question!

So, the shutter lag is NOT noticeable on the Z20FD?
(it varies, etc.. but in general, it is NOT noticeable... or is it? Thanks.)

From what I've been able to research, the shutter lag is a blazin' 0.01 seconds! So yeah, it's close.

I tried one of these cameras out at Walmart and I was amazed at the speed of both the auto-focus and the lag between pushing the button and the camera capturing an image. Almost instantaneous. I've been waiting to buy a compact camera for a while, and I think this one will be it. The images on the screen were crisp as well...even of my son moving all around.

If you do go to Walmart, they actually have tags on all their cameras that tell the shutter lag. A couple of them though claimed to be faster than the Fuji, but it must have been in different lighting conditions because, this camera seemed to be the fastest.

An excellent report, JBoy. I didn't realize Walmart was doing that. Excellent!

I tried it out at the store, too.

I tried taking photos while moving the camera. It appeared to take the photos well-- but, I could see them only on a small screen and not a computer. Do the photos still not look blurry on a computer?

I hope that this camera is the answer for me. I've had a camera a few years that has a horrid lag. I literally have to tell people to stand still for 10-15 or more seconds while taking a photo, while I stand completely still for the same amount of time, while crossing my fingers and hoping for a decent photo.