Calling all Camera Experts... please help!

[lpoeppelman]

I'm looking for a good camera for our Disney trip that has a quick shutter speed? At least... that's what I think it is called? I'm not a very knowledgeable photographer, but there are three main things I want in a new camera for my upcoming Disney trip (in less than 3 weeks!), listing in order of importance:

1. First and foremost, I need to take pictures fast (I think that is called shutter speed)? I have little kids and I want to get those hard to take action shots. I'd also like to use it for the older boys when they play sports.

2. Small. I need a small camera. I'm sure this is everyone's request But I'd trade a lot of things to get something that I can easily fit in a fanny pack... except the speed of picture taking.

3. The dreaded red-eye. I hate red-eye and I have yet to find a good computer program that will take it out.

Other points: I'd like to have something that is easy to use. I don't need lots of bells and whistles on it. Zoom is really not an issue for me. I don't zoom a lot. If it means the camera would be smaller with just a little zoom, that would be find with me.

Please let me know what you think. I'd appreciate any and all comments.

 

[SonyaM]

This one has a fast start up and a fast shutter speed. Hope this helps!

bhphotovideo.com/c/product/518952-REG/Nikon_25582_Coolpix_S510_Digital_Camera.html

 

[maccagerl]

Whatever camera you decide on, be sure to spend some time practicing with it at home so you are comfortable with the menu and controls before you head off to Disney- there's nothing like going off on vacation with a brand new camera and missing all the shots because you don't know how to use it!

 

[MICKEY88]

if you take kids pics and sports a good zoom is a very valuable feature, with little kids it lets you get closer by zooming rather than actually moving closer which usually get's their attention and will cause missed candid shots, with sports a good zoom allows you to isolate specific players for great shots...

as for red eye corels paint shop pro photo X2 does an excellent job of removing redeye

 

[Frantasmic]

Canon PowerShot G9 has shutter speeds to 1/2500

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/c...ategoryid=144&modelid=15669#ModelTechSpecsAct

It sounds like you might like a Canon with the CHDK program that adds quicker shutter capabilities.

http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK_in_Brief

It looks like many of the A Series for Canon shoot with 1/2000 sec shutter speeds. (scroll down to the bottom).

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ProductCatIndexAct&fcategoryid=113

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Don't confuse "shutter lag" and "shutter speed." "Shutter lag" is the time between when you push the button and when the camera finally takes the picture. "Shutter speed" is how long the shutter is open while the picture is being taken.

Let's say that my son is running and getting ready to jump over an obstacle. With a long shutter lag, it will be very hard to take the picture. I've got to time it so that I press the shutter button well before he starts his jump and hope that the camera takes the picture at the right time. With a short shutter lag, I press the button at virtually the same instant I want the picture to capture him jumping.

With a long shutter speed, my rapidly moving son will be blurry because the picture didn't capture an instant in time; it captured a period of time during which my son was moving. With a fast shutter speed, he'll be blur-free because I captured a very, very brief period of time during which he didn't effectively move.

Something else to consider for "fast" pictures and that is burst rate and buffer size. Burst rate is the rate at which you can take pictures. Some cameras can take one picture every second. Others can take 10 pictures in one second. It's usually given as a number followed by fps (frames per second). The buffer size is how many pictures the camera can take at full speed before it slows down and has to wait for pictures to be written to the memory card. So a camera might be able to shoot 3 pictures every second, but after it has taken 9 pictures it will slow down because the buffer is full.

Red eye is a problem that all cameras have when the flash is very close to the lens. On a small camera, there are no good solutions. It helps if the subject is staring at a bright light so that their pupils are small. That's why some cameras have a red-eye mode that flashes a few times before it takes the picture. Some cameras also detect eyes and try to automatically "photoshop" out the red-eye for you. The only true solution is to move the flash away from the camera, but that's often not practical.

 

[grandall]

I am still learning, but I wanted to tell you that on my Olympus FE-180 and now on my Canon Powershot S5 IS, if I press the shutter halfway and then compose the shot, I can take a photo almost instanteously. What I do with my kids is I press the shutter halfway, wait for the perfect moment, and then press it the whole way with almost no wait, lag, or whatever. So this whole concept of a camera with a quick shutter is really more a matter of technique than what type of camera you have.