Compact with DSLR Speed

sep9001

sep9001

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Kev
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Hi,

My friend want to get a camera for his sister, the budget is about £400 but the main thing she wants is the speed of taking pictures is as fast as a DSLR and not a compact.

The camera will be used for taking general pictures and on holiday.

Thank you
 
Presumably this is all about auto focusing speed as that is really the only thing that is any different?
If so, bad luck. There isn't one!
 
Thanks, what comes closer to a DSLR then.
 
Have a look at the Olympus E-PM1. Much better IQ and autofocus than a compact. Decent kit lens. Only about £230 at the mo which makes it good value.
 
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Thanks. Will look at that. He has seen the Nikon J1 with two lenses which will come to about £300 with the cash back.
 
Phil Young said:
Shot to shot, af, operations, write speeds... I'm yet to find anything that satisfies me like a DSLR...I've stopped looking and hoping :)
Click to expand...

Thanks
 
Not having used a compact/P&S for a long time, they used to suffer with a delay between pressing the shutter and the image actually being taken - that was the biggest thing I hated about them as far as delays go - is that the kind of thing we're talking about?

Do modern compacts/P&S suffer with this still? :shrug:
 
OutLore said:
Not having used a compact/P&S for a long time, they used to suffer with a delay between pressing the shutter and the image actually being taken - that was the biggest thing I hated about them as far as delays go - is that the kind of thing we're talking about?

Do modern compacts/P&S suffer with this still? :shrug:
Click to expand...

Yes, Sir that is what I was trying to say. Thanks
 
Shutter lag (delay between pressing shutter and image taken) has improved a lot and on a compact like the Fuji X10 it is down to levels where it is no longer noticeable.

Auto focus speeds have also improved a lot and are nowhere near as bad as a few years ago.

So for what they are, modern compacts are very good. Comparing with a DSLR is however not a fair comparison and expecting too much.
Probably a good idea to try a few at the £400 range and see them in action and then decide if they are fast enough rather than expecting them to be as fast as a DSLR.
 
ernesto said:
Shutter lag (delay between pressing shutter and image taken) has improved a lot and on a compact like the Fuji X10 it is down to levels where it is no longer noticeable.

Auto focus speeds have also improved a lot and are nowhere near as bad as a few years ago.

So for what they are, modern compacts are very good. Comparing with a DSLR is however not a fair comparison and expecting too much.
Probably a good idea to try a few at the £400 range and see them in action and then decide if they are fast enough rather than expecting them to be as fast as a DSLR.
Click to expand...

Thanks Chris, he tried out a Nikon J1 and liked it so it might be the one he goes for.
 
Try jessops, right now on the ex-demo page listing Olympus epm-1 and Nikon J1 with lenses under £200
 
Big fan of the RX100 here, in the process of selling all my Nikon DSLR gear because the RX has made it pretty much redundant!
 
Same here only had the Rx100 a few weeks and im already thinking of selling my 40D.
 
Thanks, just checked online for rx100 and it is a bit over budget.
 
You get £50 cashback at the minute if that helps.
 
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With the cash back on the Nikon J1 it works out at about 300 with two lenses, he did try it out and thought is was okay. Just waiting for him to decide.
 
Going back to the OP, there are very small sesnor compacts (generally slow) and CSC compact system cameras that are usually very fast - nothing in it compared to a DSLR. The only thing they struggle with is tracking moving subjects* but for your average static subject they'll nail it almost instantly.

*Basic difference is CSCs have contrast-detect AF systems, and DSLRs have phase-detect with inherent advantages.
 
I think the Nikon CSC cameras (J1 etc) use a hybrid contrast-detect/phase-detect AF system and are the fastest focusing CSC camera as a result. They have a smaller sensor than the micro four thirds cameras and the APS-C mirrorless cameras (like the Nex).

The Olympus and Panasonic micro four thirds cameras (like the E-PM1 and even more so the current models like E-PM2, OMD etc) have fast single shot AF, but they don't come close to a dslr (not yet anyway) when it comes to tracking. So if you want to take pictures of wildlife (birds in flight etc), sports or children running around then no csc can match a dslr afaik, but if you don't take those kinds of pictures then you should find a csc AF speed sufficient and a lot faster than most compacts.
 
Thank you all for the input. I have passed the details on.
 
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