Shooting delay with digital cameras

A barrier to taking fast action pictures.

One of the frustrating aspects of using a digital camera (most conumer digital cameras, that is - see the note at the bottom of this page) is the delay that occurs between pressing the shutter release button and the actual moment the picture is taken. This is known as "shutter lag."

Why is there a delay when you press the shutter button? The camera is clearing the CCD, adjusting white balance to correct for the color of light in which you are shooting, taking a meter reading and focusing.

This delay characteristic, which can be a quarter-second to as much as a second, and up to two seconds in the worst cases when shooting in low lighting, makes it difficult, if not impossible, to time the photography of subjects in motion. You may press the shutter when you think it is just the right moment to capture the height of the action only to discover that your picture shows the scene immediately after the one you wanted.

WHAT YOU SEE IS OFTEN NOT WHAT YOU GET

Photographers are used to anticipating the key moment for an action shot, and pressing the shutter button just when he or she sees it occuring. Do this with an inexpensive digital camera, and the picture is not taken precisely when you press the shutter, but a moment after.

The photographer who is used to capturing action shots on film using a traditional camera will find the delay using a digital camera intolerable. One way around it is to anticipate the moment of peak action and press the shutter button before it occurs, hoping the picture will be taken at the right moment. This is a hit-or-miss technique that sometimes produces good results.

If your camera allows continuous shooting, you can overcome shutter lag by beginning to take pictures just before the action commences and continue right through until the shot you wanted has come and gone. Check your images afterwards and simply delete those you don't want to keep.

Another solution, which we were reminded of by viewer, Giovanni Tosi, is to prefocus, half-depress the shutter button to lock in focus and the exposure reading, then continue to hold the shutter button half-way down until the action you wish to shoot presents itself. Fully-depressing the shutter button at that moment will usually result in minimal, sometimes unnoticeable, time-delay, and you can often capture just the action you want to photograph.

Note that some shooting situations suffer when you lock in the focus and the exposure setting in advance of the action - for instance, when the subject moves out of focus or into shadow or brightness. Giovanni's solution is not perfect, but it sure can be effective in many action photography situations with most digital cameras.

IMAGE PROCESSING MAKES SEQUENTIAL PHOTOGRAPHY SLOW

Digital cameras also require a certain amount of processing time to record each picture, storing it in the camera’s memory, before being able to take another one. The greater the resolution, the longer the delay - which, in all but the most-expensive, professional digital cameras, can be a couple of seconds - before you can take another picture.

Some digital cameras permit you to record fairly-rapid sequential shots, but the image resolution must usually be quite low for this to occur, since most digital cameras cannot process high-resolution images quickly enough for continuous mode shooting.

Not all digital cameras suffer from shutter lag. High-end digital SLR cameras, such as the Canon EOS-1DS Mark III (a pro camera with a 21.1 megapixel image sensor), have fast five-frames-per-second shooting capability with a 55-millisecond shutter lag that is actually faster than a film single-lens reflex camera. The Nikon D2 and D3 are other examples of high-end professional digital camera that have no discernible shutter lag, regardless of image resolution or the use of flash.

Technology is constantly improving digital hardware. Many less-expensive, advanced-amateur digital cameras now have reduced shutter lag and are capable of rapid sequence photography.