Flash recovery times - fastest

[collectablesseller]

we sell items on line which often require scores, or even hundreds, of images per item. for the past 6 years we have been getting by with old fuji a201 cameras.

i'm not joking, these old dinosaurs have been almost perfect for us. we have about 30 of them in use at any one time (some of our staff take photos, others take care of html, so cameras are moving back and forth around the office.

we always liked the a201 because it had no moving parts and wouldn't get damaged if the staff dropped one. also, we could pick up replacement second hand models on ebay for £10. we must have about 50 of them by now. most have broken, but they have earned their money.

we are not really too bothered about superb resolution, as we have to compress all our images anyway. the one thing we have always wanted was cameras with a fast flash recovery time. it seemed to us that although huge leaps were being made in camera technology, few companies had really addressed this issue. our cameras have a flash recovery time of about 2-4 seconds, depending on the darkness of the background.

can anyone recommend cameras that can deal with this problem and overcome the power issue. i'm interested in hearing about both cheap and mid-range cameras. i know that cheap means more than £10! if it is worth it i will grudgingly put my hand in my pocket.

hope someone can help.

[collectablesseller]

To give you an idea of what we do (and what we need), imagine photographing 50 pages of an a4 reading book, 2 shots per page (top half and bottom half), so 100 shots in all. at the moment, this takes a member of staff about 10-15 minutes. what camera could we use to bring that time down drastically?

[Paradox]

Well the most effective method would probably be cutting down the number of photos you need but I'm guessing that's not an option. Your current speed of 6-9 seconds a photo doesn't seem bad, but if you want to cut down recycle times then don't use flashes. Buy yourself some bright lamps and set them up pointing at whatever it is you're photographing...No recycle times at all then, and you can shoot as fast as the camera/person can. :)

[collectablesseller]

Well the most effective method would probably be cutting down the number of photos you need but I'm guessing that's not an option. Your current speed of 6-9 seconds a photo doesn't seem bad, but if you want to cut down recycle times then don't use flashes. Buy yourself some bright lamps and set them up pointing at whatever it is you're photographing...No recycle times at all then, and you can shoot as fast as the camera/person can. :)

Thanks Paradox. What sort of lamp could give the same light intensity as a camera flash. i'm guessing all bulbs are going to create a lot of heat in the room. are you saying that no modern cameras have over come the flash recovery time issue?

[David Metsky]

are you saying that no modern cameras have over come the flash recovery time issue?
Pretty much, that's correct. Flash recycle time is best with a lot of battery power, which means a bigger camera. A lot of work is being made to reduce camera sizes, and most people don't put flash recharge as high on the list of requirements as you.

You don't necessarily need to duplicated the intensity of a flash to take these photos. Set the ISO to 400 and put a simple table lamp over the book and you should be able to get reasonable shots with most cameras. How much do you want to be able to read the text in the shots? BTW, why do you need to shoot all 50 pages of the book?

[Paradox]

Thanks Paradox. What sort of lamp could give the same light intensity as a camera flash. i'm guessing all bulbs are going to create a lot of heat in the room. are you saying that no modern cameras have over come the flash recovery time issue?

You can get lamps that don't get too hot. You could go for an LED panel, for example, which is very energy efficient and produces very little heat.

[cdifoto]

Books aren't that big and you can shoot close enough that it doesn't drain the flash much thus doesn't take long to recycle.

Any modern camera SHOULD suffice in this regard. 6-9 seconds is atrocious for up close work. This type of product photo looks like crap, IMHO, but that's what you've been doing so it's obviously working for you. Better photos could be had even faster BUT you'd have to invest significant dollars (relative to what you have in your current setup) and some time to learn the process. If it doesn't help your bottom line then it really isn't worth it.

[collectablesseller]

the books could be albums of old postcards, or something similar. reasonable detail is important, to show condition.

what could i buy, second hand, for around £200. perhaps i could buy a few cameras like that. it doesn't need to do anything fancy, just take crisp images in quick succession.

thanks