Low distraction snap-shooter

<p>I often see interesting things while driving in Los Angeles. I would like to take pictures with the minimum amout of fiddling with buttons, menus, screens, etc. needed to get a shot. The cellphone camera is a total joke and my little Canon SD700 is marginal for this purpose. Any suggestions? A reasonable range zoom would be good. I got lucky (if lucky is the word) with the burning car 'cause the traffic stopped dead while I was across from it. Since there was nothing else to do but wait for the explosion, I used the SD700. </p><div></div>

<p>I don't know how long your SD700 takes to wake up but I see the problem with a long reach lensed camera is the time it takes to wake up and get the lens out of the body and then maybe zoom out for the close view. The answer is a camera that has the lens out 7/24 and has manual, if fire by wire, zoom. The drawback is the size of the camera, it will not fit in your pocket. My thoughts go to the Panasonic FZ50 of the millions of options open to you. But not the Panies which have been 'compacted' and sleep with the lens in the body. Even though they come with greater reach. If you like tight framing the long zoom is addictive :-)</p>

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<p><strong>Perlis</strong>: <em>I often see interesting things while driving in Los Angeles. I would like to take pictures with the minimum amout of fiddling with buttons, menus, screens, etc. needed to get a shot. I got lucky... with the burning car 'cause the traffic stopped dead while I was across from it.</em></p>

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<p>If you plan to shoot from a moving car, the most important setting is shutter speed, so set your SD700 to Tv mode. As far as the shutter speed to select in the daytime, 1/500s or 1/1000s should freeze motion-but do experiment with one stop faster and slower. Your camera will auto-select aperture and iso, so no fiddling is necessary unless you want a creative effect or don't agree with its exposure of the subject.</p>

<p>PS - I hope you're a passenger or considering safety when taking driving shots, as few images are worth a life.</p>

<p>JC, I'll see if I can find a FZ50 to try. Thanks.<br>

Ron, the whole object of this exercise is to stay alive while driving and also getting the occasional picture of interest. If I'm a passenger there is no problem and if there's room to pull over, there's no problem.<br>

It's the times where there's some reasonable space and time available to multitask that I'd like to optimize, not the times when I've got a gasoline tanker tailgating me and a herd of school-kids crossing in front of me.</p>

Kodak EasyShare Z950 is the only camera rated Excellent for both first-shot delay and next-shot delay by a leading consumer magazine. Hard to go wrong, it costs less than a tank of gas for a Hummer.

<p>The price is certainly right. I'll look around. Thanks.</p>

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<p>Kodak EasyShare Z950 is the only camera rated Excellent for both first-shot delay and next-shot delay by a leading consumer magazine.</p>

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<p>To put these camera's first-shot and next-shot delays into numbers, according to CNET. Note, zooming in or out or otherwise changing settings would add to these base times.</p>

<p>FZ50 - 1.1s first-shot, 1.2s next-shot<br />SD700 - 1.5s first-shot, 1.6s next-shot<br />Z950 - 3.2s first-shot, 3.5s next-shot</p>

<p>Oops. Over three seconds won't do. I can see spending some time at Samy's, driving salespeople out of their minds.</p>

Consumer Reports probably blew this one. Steve's Digicams says 3.3 seconds versus 2.0 seconds for the Panasonic FZ35, probably the best current superzoom (FZ50 is discontinued). You can't go wrong with the FZ35, Will.