What digital camera?

[rosmari]

I'm ready to buy my first digital camera. Given my preferences, which one should I get?

1) shortest time lag between clicking the shutter and the actual taking the picture.
2) ability to take close-ups
3) best-possible zoom for distance

Also important are compactness, weight, price, sturdiness, water resistance (in rain)

Suggestions?

[D70FAN]

I'm ready to buy my first digital camera. Given my preferences, which one should I get?

1) shortest time lag between clicking the shutter and the actual taking the picture.
2) ability to take close-ups
3) best-possible zoom for distance

Also important are compactness, weight, price, sturdiness, water resistance (in rain)

Suggestions?

The requirement for Water Resistance kills 95% of the camera choices out there, and pretty much limits you to Pentax Optio 33WR and 43WR and maybe a few others, with the best possible zoom being 3X and these are not what I would call speedy, but maybe ok. Sorry, I tried these a while ago, but don't remember how fast they were.

In fact Jeff just introduced a new one from Pentax (Optio WP) that is Water Proof (hence the WP) submerged up to 3 feet! It appears to have no optical viewfinder, and looks to be pretty tiny. For the rest of the specs we will have to wait for Jeffs review.

You can get optional waterproof cases for many cameras for $100-$200 extra. That would open up a larger selection from Canon, Fuji, Kodak, Sony and maybe others. In that scenario you could get a Canon A75 and UW case for about $400.

Anyway hope this helps get you started.

Maybe someone else can shed some light on other models.

[rosmari]

Thank you for the waterproof info.

My most important preference is the shortest possible time lag. If I want to catch someone in action, it just won't do to have a delay between my click and the opening of the shutter.

[TheObiJuan]

my p150 has an optional waterproof kit, also it has almost no shutter lag. i think when it is prefocused, it was .011, or something to that effect. also, it is compact, i cary it in my pocket all the time. it feels just like my cell phone.

[PhilR.]

it just won't do to have a delay between my click and the opening of the shutter.

There will *always* be a delay if you use autofocus. The camera needs to determine focus and move the lens, and must also determine exposure as well. It takes time to do these things. On the other hand, you can greatly reduce times if you pre-focus, or focus yourself.

There are several internet sites that have camera reviews that will list lag times. As pointed out, there aren't a lot of cameras that are water- resistant. Therefore you won't have a lot of reviews to wade through.

Besides the Pentax's (Pentaxi?), there are also WR cameras from Sony and Olympus.

As for zoom - there aren't any water-resistant cameras with big zoom. Otherwise, the "best possible zoom for distance" are the Panasonic FZ series.

PhilR.

[rosmari]

Since lag time is important to me - what are the websites where I can find comparisons?
thanks...

[John_Reed]

Since lag time is important to me - what are the websites where I can find comparisons?
thanks...At http://www.dpreview.com, their reviews have a page on "timings and sizes;" here's the page for the Panasonic FZ20, (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz20/page4.asp) for example. You can find others that they've reviewed to ferret out comparative data for yourself. You should remember that for most digital cameras, after you've half-depressed the shutter button to "freeze" exposure and focus, your subject and you can still move around. So the really crucial lag time is the one that happens between when you complete the full depression of the shutter button and the shutter release. Just "mashing" the shutter button will nearly always get you a long lag time for any digital camera, except maybe for dSLR types.

[Thon]

Another thing to note about shutter lag.

The normal 3-4x camera would have a reasonable amount of shutter lag, whereas the ultrazooms would have a bit more comparatively. I guess it's something that you would have live with but good habits like pre-focussing helps and most of the cameras today have very very good prefocus reaction.

A good weatherproof camera would be any of the Olympus Stylus range (these are tough). These cameras are very good in all kinds of weather but it's not waterproof, meaning some splashes are ok but a full dunking in water is a no-no. Now the only downside that I can see with the Stylus series is the lack of manual controls (only P&S). I own a Stylus 400, battered but still giving good pics (my backup). The newer ones seems to have a better shutter lag compared to the 400.