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General discussion

Shutter Lag

Oct 20, 2004 4:47AM PDT

I'm looking at buying a 5 Megapixel camera that is relatively small and easy to use. I've been looking at the Sony DSC-W1, Canon PowerShot S500, etc. I want a camera that takes really good quality pictures, but I'm not that concerned with the extra bells and whistles. I do want a camera with a quick shutter lag (pre-focused and not pre-focused). What do you recommend? Thanks.

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Re: Shutter Lag
Oct 20, 2004 9:39AM PDT

Both cameras can take excellent sharp photos.

The Sony W1 has a much shorter shutter lag, and would seem to be the best choice.

But there is a well documented problem with the W1 (and its brother, the P100).
If you are shooting in good light, you will have no problem.

If you are shooting in low light or flash, you will encounter various degrees of blurred photos.
Unlike most cameras, the W1 has only two f-stops (f2.8 and f5.2). So the camera must select one or the other (nothing in between).
The firmware in the camera will try to select f5.2 as long as it can in low light. This results in a slow shutter speed. And with flash you usually end up with a shutter speed of 1/40th of a second.
A slow shutter speed is the cause of the blurred photos. If you can hold the camera perfectly still under low light conditins (and flash) you will get good photos. If you use the cameras manual mode and manually select a faster shutter speed you will get good photos.

It appears that Sony could fix the problem with a firmware change so that the camera made better use of the ISO settings along with the f-stop selections.
However, they have not done so.

I suggest you read the Owners Opinions at the following link.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/read_opinions.asp?prodkey=sony_dscw1

It is a great little camera with a problem that has not been corrected.

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Re: Shutter Lag
Dec 4, 2004 4:06AM PST

Thank you Snapshot 2. I've been trying to figure out why most of my pictures are blurry. This explains it perfectly. Why hasn't Sony come up with a firmware fix?