Bridge camera - Quick ques on shutter delay

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Sara
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I think I have convinced hubby to get a bridge camera and perhaps get shot of the G9. I know that it's not so pocket-able, but he does get frustrated at the lack of reach with the G9 as well as the huge delay in the shutter from pressing the button to taking the shot. Lots of things have moved in that time!

My question is whether there is still this delay on a bridge camera like on the G9? Looking at the Panny FZ38 if that helps.

:thumbs:
 
I can only comment on the Z2 (about 4-5 years old), and I got that one at the time, as it was reported as having a very short shutter lag. In this case, it's been tested at about 0.1s, from half pressed to shot saved. Worth reading the reviews on places like dpreview and steves digicams.
 
Is it really shutter lag?

It's possible that there's very little actual shutter lag, you may not in reality notice the actual shutter lag, and that what you're seeing is a delay caused by the camera being slow to meter and focus. It amounts to almost the same thing but can be overcome to an extent by metering and focusing before taking the shot.
 
i thought the G9 was a bridge camera
 
Most bridge cameras have a shutter lag, but it varies between models.

http://www.cameras.co.uk/html/shutter-lag-comparisons.cfm?sort=ShutterLag


0.2 sec seems to be a good speed for a bridge, a dslr like the D200 has a shutter lag of 0.056 sec for comparison.
You'd notice the lag going from slr to bridge easily.

Cheers - That's a good link. Interesting that a Canon SX20 bridge has half the shutter lag time as the G10. Assuming the G9 is the same, hubby will be well pleased with that one - Should be quite noticeable I would think.
 
The extra delay is because all non-SLR cameras are forced to use contrast based AF.

SLRs have dedicated AF mechanisms which use phase detection instead, which is far faster. They can employ this because of the mirror mechanism, which brings the focus box into play ahead of the sensor.

So your so-called bridge camera is going to be just as hampered by needing to use contrast based AF as are compacts. The only difference being that it'll probably have a more powerful chip performing the focusing. It'll never be as fast as even a humble SLR however.

Compacts and 'bridge' cameras are fine for snapshots and landscapes, but they're completely rubbish for anything moving.
 
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