Want camera with fast shutter speed and low lag time

[GroovyDreamyFab]

I'm new to this forum. I've used a Nikon D70s in the past and currently use a Nikon Coolpix P500. I want to replace this camera. I'm just an amateur photographer and I love photographing my dogs. I enjoy taking lots of action shots. I always felt like the D70s was too much camera for me, however, it did meet my needs. I want a camera with a fast shutter speed (but how fast?) and low lag time. The D70s was up to 1/8000. My current camera is way lower. Do you think 1/4000 would meet my needs? The lag on the Coolpix just kills me. These two things are most important to me, shutter speed and lag time. I am open to cameras other than Nikon for sure. Recently I was eyeing the Canon Alpha Nex-5T. It's up to 1/4000. Any advice would be appreciated.
Cassandra

 

[table1349]

For what you want you need an electric/mechanical shutter. What your D70 and most DSLR's use. Most P&S cameras don't, thus the lag time.

 

[MOREGONE]

1/4000 would be plenty fast to freeze a dog. Personally I would try to find the sweet spot where the dogs feet would have a little blur since they would be moving faster than the body to give a sense of motion.

Sony makes the NEX 5T and would serve your needs great. I owned the last model the NEX 5R and loved it. Very fast response time.

 

[KmH]

Sony NEX-5TL Compact Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera with 16-50mm Power Zoom Lens

 

[bratkinson]

Although I really liked my two Canon point-and-shoots as I transitioned from 35mm SLRs, the shutter lag caused way too many missed shots. I learned to 'live with it' for 7-8 years before I finally moved up to a used DSLR. Shutter lag problem solved.

 

[Gavjenks]

There's not actually anything magical about DSLRs that give them low shutter lag. They have low shutter lag purely because they have fairly powerful computers in them for what they are.

I'm sure there are some high end point and shoots or if not, mirrorless cameras as well that have very low shutter lag. Not that I'm advising you against a DSLR, by no means. Just mentioning options. And lots of different kinds of cameras can have mechanical shutters for 1/4000-1/8000th second.

These are both usually advertised numbers, so it should be really easy to confirm whether or not a camera makes the cut just by glancing at its stats online.

 

[amolitor]

I think you want a Nikon 1, which has basically 0 shutter lag by design!

 

[table1349]

There's not actually anything magical about DSLRs that give them low shutter lag. They have low shutter lag purely because they have fairly powerful computers in them for what they are.

I'm sure there are some high end point and shoots or if not, mirrorless cameras as well that have very low shutter lag. Not that I'm advising you against a DSLR, by no means. Just mentioning options. And lots of different kinds of cameras can have mechanical shutters for 1/4000-1/8000th second.

These are both usually advertised numbers, so it should be really easy to confirm whether or not a camera makes the cut just by glancing at its stats online.

There is some magic to the typical DSLR shutter, as it is an electro/mechanical shutter. This is usually a focal plane dual curtain shutter or it can be a leaf shutter. Most P&S cameras have no mechanical shutter, rather they use an electronic sensor that turns on and off the light reading ability of the sensor. The electronic shutter by it's very nature has a greater inherent lag time.

 

[Gavjenks]

There's not actually anything magical about DSLRs that give them low shutter lag. They have low shutter lag purely because they have fairly powerful computers in them for what they are.

I'm sure there are some high end point and shoots or if not, mirrorless cameras as well that have very low shutter lag. Not that I'm advising you against a DSLR, by no means. Just mentioning options. And lots of different kinds of cameras can have mechanical shutters for 1/4000-1/8000th second.

These are both usually advertised numbers, so it should be really easy to confirm whether or not a camera makes the cut just by glancing at its stats online.

There is some magic to the typical DSLR shutter, as it is an electro/mechanical shutter. This is usually a focal plane dual curtain shutter or it can be a leaf shutter. Most P&S cameras have no mechanical shutter, rather they use an electronic sensor that turns on and off the light reading ability of the sensor. The electronic shutter by it's very nature has a greater inherent lag time.

I said there's nothing magical about DSLRs, not "DSLR shutters." As in, a camera being a single lens reflex camera by definition has nothing at all to do with its shutter lag or its shutter speed. These things are limited mainly by processor power and shutter actuation, respectively, not by the presence or absence of a mirror. If anything, the presence of a mirror, which has to be flipped out of the way, only serves as a potential impediment to shutter lag compared to mirrorless designs.

Yes, a camera being a DSLR may happen to be correlated with high quality processors and shutters. But that has more to do with them being generally expensive and thus coming with options like this. It's not a necessary relationship or an exclusive relationship, and I just want to make that clear to the OP so that he does not misunderstand and restrict his search to only DSLRs. Other options may happen to be better fits for him, and can and do often have equally fast shutters and equally low lag (again, to verify this, both numbers are usually advertised in plain sight online, so there shouldn't be any surprises, and nothing has to be taken on faith).



For example, the Olympus OM-D mirrorless versus the Canon 6D full frame DSLR:
1) The mirrorless has a center single point AF shutter lag of 0.277 seconds, versus the more expensive DSLR's center single point AF shutter lag of 0.290.
2) Both cameras go to 1/4000th of a second.
3) The mirrorless shoots with double the FPS.

 

[KenC]

The Canon G16 is reported to be very good re shutter lag. I'm sure there's a similar Nikon which does as well.

Canon Announces New PowerShot G16 ? First G-Series Camera With Built-In Wi-Fi | Camera News & Reviews

 

[table1349]

There's not actually anything magical about DSLRs that give them low shutter lag. They have low shutter lag purely because they have fairly powerful computers in them for what they are.

I'm sure there are some high end point and shoots or if not, mirrorless cameras as well that have very low shutter lag. Not that I'm advising you against a DSLR, by no means. Just mentioning options. And lots of different kinds of cameras can have mechanical shutters for 1/4000-1/8000th second.

These are both usually advertised numbers, so it should be really easy to confirm whether or not a camera makes the cut just by glancing at its stats online.

There is some magic to the typical DSLR shutter, as it is an electro/mechanical shutter. This is usually a focal plane dual curtain shutter or it can be a leaf shutter. Most P&S cameras have no mechanical shutter, rather they use an electronic sensor that turns on and off the light reading ability of the sensor. The electronic shutter by it's very nature has a greater inherent lag time.

I said there's nothing magical about DSLRs, not "DSLR shutters." As in, a camera being a single lens reflex camera by definition has nothing at all to do with its shutter lag or its shutter speed. These things are limited mainly by processor power and shutter actuation, respectively, not by the presence or absence of a mirror. If anything, the presence of a mirror, which has to be flipped out of the way, only serves as a potential impediment to shutter lag compared to mirrorless designs.

Yes, a camera being a DSLR may happen to be correlated with high quality processors and shutters. But that has more to do with them being generally expensive and thus coming with options like this. It's not a necessary relationship or an exclusive relationship, and I just want to make that clear to the OP so that he does not misunderstand and restrict his search to only DSLRs. Other options may happen to be better fits for him, and can and do often have equally fast shutters and equally low lag (again, to verify this, both numbers are usually advertised in plain sight online, so there shouldn't be any surprises, and nothing has to be taken on faith).



For example, the Olympus OM-D mirrorless versus the Canon 6D full frame DSLR:
1) The mirrorless has a center single point AF shutter lag of 0.277 seconds, versus the more expensive DSLR's center single point AF shutter lag of 0.290.
2) Both cameras go to 1/4000th of a second.
3) The mirrorless shoots with double the FPS.

I must say I love the way you can take something simple and not only make it complicated but also incorrect. My first post was simple to the point and correct, as you little example demonstrates. The Olympus has a focal plane shutter, ie. and electro/mechanical shutter. The 6D has a focal plane shutter as well. Shutter Lag with any camera that has an electro/mechanical shutter is a result of the shutter, not the sensor/processor speed.

Shutter lag in a camera that uses an electronic on/off sensor is dependent on the sensor.

One thing that you failed to mention in you OM-D review was the fact that in focus is locked during high speed shooting.

What I said before is correct. The op wants a camera with and Electro/Mechanical shutter, not one that uses an On/Off sensor as the shutter. Simple really.

 

[amolitor]

I am actually baffled by the (apparent?) claim that mirrors aren't a problem. Of course they are. The mirror-flip-up time is frequently the limiting factor in shutter lag. What else IS there before the shutters can start to move?

The Nikon 1 bests them all by starting to take pictures as soon as you half-depress the shutter button. In theory it could have negative shutter lag. In it's "best 5" mode it sometimes WILL have negative shutter lag, assuming i am reading the descriptions properly.

 

[table1349]

I don't think we are talking about mirrored shutters being the problem. The problem is that a camera be it mirrored or mirror-less that uses and electro/mechanical shutter is going to have significantly less lag than a camera that relies on a system of On/Off for the sensor to capture the image instead of having an actual shutter. Yes a mirror is going to have a minuscule effect on shutter actuation, especially in a continuous shooting mode. It is still going to faster than a camera that does not employ an actual shutter.

To date I am not unaware of any DSLR that does not use an Electro/Mechanical shutter. There may be, but I am not aware of any. In the P&S world a majority of the cameras do not use an actual electro/mechanical shutter, rather they rely on a sensor that is turned on at the time of image capture and then turned off.

 

[Gavjenks]

Gryphon, I wasn't originally repsonding to you so much as Bratkinson, who put it almost entirely in terms of camera class, not shutter, and thus made it seem potentially confusing when I put myself in the OP's shoes.

As you are explaining, shutter type is what matters for shutter speed. Various things (shutter type, sensor type, autofocus method, firmware, etc.) matter for lag. Overall camera classification doesn't matter much, as it is trivial to use google to search for a couple specific cameras that have these two specific desired features in pretty much any class.

What else IS there before the shutters can start to move?

Focusing is a big one. Also some electronic stuff like clearing all of the sensor wells to zero.

 

[table1349]

The things you point out are not necessarily true when it comes to shutter lag. Focusing for example. Set you camera to manual and you lens to manual focus. Focus plays no part in shutter lag. Trip the shutter release and the shutter fires. Set it to AI servo. Again plays no part in shutter lag. Trip the shutter release and the shutter fires. Some settings can keep the camera from firing until focus has been locked, but the actual shutter lag is the time between when the shutter button is activated and the shutter fires. With a camera that has a true physical shutter, sensor type plays no part nor does the in camera processor. That is one area where the DSLR and any other camera that has an physical electro/mechanical shutter shines.

I think you are confusing shutter lag with buffer and write speed. For the most part two separate issues. Processor and write speed to play a part in continuous shooting. Even then, the first push of the shutter button trips the shutter. From then on the shutter trip is controlled by many factors not just the sensor/processor. That first trip of the shutter however is still the same as any other. When you have lag here it is buffer lag, not shutter lag.

And yes camera class has everything to do with it. There are two classes of camera when it comes to shutter lag. Those with physical electro/mechanical shutters and those that do not have physical shutters. To choose a camera with minimal shutter lag you must choose one that has and electro/mechanical shutter. Some time in the future this may not be so, but presently that is the way it is.