Digital point and shoot with no shutter lag

<p>Can anybody recommend a point and shoot digital camera that doesnt have shutter lag? Specifically, something that could be used for street photography? I know the Ricoh GR and Canon G9 and 10 are popular but I was suprised by their shutter lags when I tried them in a store. I currently use a Leica M7 but was toying with the idea of a lighter alternative for something different. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.</p>

 

<p>you might want to read <a href="http://digital-photography-school.com/pre-focus-to-combat-shutter-lag">this</a></p>

<p>and have a look at <a href="../digital-camera-forum/00JYyf">this page</a> on PN</p>

<p>All P&S suffer from shutter lag. I bought a Nikon Coolpix P5100 last year for my wife and sometimes use it. Major drawback, it doesn't shoot in RAW. On the upside however it delivers great image quality and is very cheap. To be honest though I prefer a (D)SLR on the street.</p>

<p>Good work on your site btw</p>

<p> Another way to cut down on the shutter lag is to manually set the white balance.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>The Olympus E-420 is almost as small as the bigger P&S and it's a DSLR so shutter lag is minimal.</p>

<p>I am in agreement with Ton. I have both the G9 and G10 and both are very fine cameras. I find the performance to be better in the G9 over the G10. Don't know why, but it is.</p>

<p>@Luis. Are you saying that by adjusting the WB manually, the performance (shutter lag) will increase on a point and shoot?</p>

<p>shutter lag is due to the amount of work the processor has to do. I think that is what Luis implied, the less dataprocessing the processor has to do the less shutter lag you've got.</p>

<p>Steve</p>

<p>whatever it is that your doing, don't change. I laughed a lot at your images, best work I've seen in ages.</p>

<p>I doubt you'll improve on your Leica for the obvious reasons, but I use a Coolpix 5000 in manual focus. The focus range at f5.6 is sufficient that zone focusing works well. They handle RAW and are cheap to buy used. Perhaps try one? I recommend you try processing the NEF files with Photomatix in "tone mapping" with very mild parameters as this seems to give effects like negative. Used in this way there is almost no shutter lag. Their bodies are tough and if you add the HN-E5000 lens hood I can vouch for its ability to withstand drops on to concrete from waist height (with the lens extended).</p>

<p><strong><a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/NikonCP5000/page3.asp">Review</a> </strong></p>

<p>Thanks Ton,<br>

I have my G9 working as well as It can I think. I have it all set up and saved as the first of two custom settings. I have the WB set to auto, which I will change. I did notice that manually setting the ISO really improved the speed.</p>

<p>I am surprised at the short shutter lag from the Panasonic G1. Go to your local camera store and play with one.</p>

Steven, you can get a Leica M to micro 4/3 adapter now and use the Panasonic G1 with your existing lenses! The lens on the Canon G10 is good, but not that good.

<p>You can vastly improve shutter lag on at least the G9 by setting WB to a specific setting, half-press focusing, and using M mode.</p>

<p>I preset the WB and it did seem to help on the G9. I still have to try it on the G10</p>

<p>The Sigma DP-1 (and soon to be released DP-2) have no shutter lag if you have pre-focused.</p>

<p>I had a DP-1 for about a week and while the image quality of the DP1 was good, the auto focus was very slow and the lens was too wide for a point and shoot. I then Got the G9 and was happy as a clam. By the way, moving the wb to daylight really helped my G9 and G10. In manual mode there is no shutter lag at all.<br /> What I have done with both my G9 and G10 is this. I set up the cameras in manual l mode. I set up the aperture, shutter speed and focal length to hyperfocal and saved the setting in the custom menu t0 C1...So now I have no or very little if any shutter lag. I simply point and shoot and I am good to go. No missed shots....<br>

So I have C1 and C2 set up differently and from there I fine tune the focal length if needed.</p>

<p><img src="http://i404.photobucket.com/albums/pp128/jgredline/Street%202/IMG_4833.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p><img src="http://i404.photobucket.com/albums/pp128/jgredline/Street%202/IMG_4848.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p><img src="http://i404.photobucket.com/albums/pp128/jgredline/Street%202/IMG_4321.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>What does this mean "focal length to hyperfocal"?</p>

<p>When it comes to any shot that involves even the slightest object movement, like a facial expression, there is no lag which is tolerable. My best shots were taken on a tiny $100 manual Fugica single lens reflex. It was the lens! All else was just a matter of shutter speed and Fstop. Pro film and fine paper did the rest. The precise, often intuitive, moment is what photography is all about. Now I use an Olympus E3 but yearn for a tiny pocket camera that can do the job.</p><div></div>