Shutter Lag and Digital Cameras

What is Shutter Lag?
Shutter lag is the delay time between pressing the shutter button and a photo actually being taken. Most of this delay time is taken up by the camera focusing on a subject.

How is Shutter Lag Different to Shutter Speed?
You will see in camera specifications a feature called shutter speed. This is completely different to shutter lag. The majority of consumer digital cameras set the shutter speed automatically, but there are models available allowing you to set the shutter speed yourself.

The shutter speed determines how long the shutter will remain open while a photo is being taken. A camera will open the shutter for the length of time it believes it needs to in order to let enough light into to expose the photo properly. This is unrelated to the problem of shutter lag.

What Happens When a Camera Suffers From Shutter Lag?
Shutter lag can cause photo opportunities to be missed. If you point the camera at a moving subject it is likely that the subject will have moved out of the photo by the time a camera that suffers from pronounced shutter lag has managed to capture the shot.

What Can Make the Problem Worse?
Try thinking of your camera as an eye that no longer has 20/20 vision. The easiest subjects for an eye in this condition to focus on are stationary objects when the light is good. Therefore a camera finds it harder to focus in poor light and on moving subjects. The difference in the time taken to focus in poor light as opposed to good light can be very noticeable.

Using flash can also increase delay times. This is more to do with the amount of time it takes for the flash to recharge and be ready to take the next shot, then any additional focusing issues.

What Can Be Done to Reduce Delay Times or the Effect of Shutter Lag?
There are a few things you can try. Just how effective they are likely to be will vary from camera to camera. Not all cameras will offer all of the features.

Pre Focus. You can pre focus by pressing the shutter button half way down. Then when you are ready to take the photo press the shutter button down the rest of the way.

Continuous shooting. The camera will fire off a rapid set of shots.

Continuous auto focus. When using this setting the camera will constantly try to focus.

Change the focusing method. Try using centre weighted focusing rather than multi point. Be aware that this can change the sharpness levels of the photo.

Quick shutter. Some cameras have a quick shutter setting. Be aware that in some situations this can reduce the quality of the photo a fair amount. So make sure you experiment.

Higher ISO settings. This may help with moving subjects and in lower light. Be careful how far you increase the setting by as this can lead to loss of quality in the photo. A lower quality shot is likely to be better than a totally missed opportunity though.

Scene Modes. Use sports, children or pet scene modes. These can help with moving subjects.

Predict where action will occur. Try pressing the shutter button down pointing at an area where you think action may occur. As you get to know your camera you should find an improvement in snapping action shots.

Lighting. Use as much lighting as possible. If indoors turn on as many lights as possible.

Batteries. Shutter lag can become more pronounced as batteries run down. Make sure your batteries are fully charged.

Digital SLRs
If always getting the shot is of paramount importance than the answer is likely to lie with getting a better camera. Digital SLRs are more expensive, but you should find the problem of shutter lag disappears.

Shutter Lag Comparisons
To compare shutter lag between different cameras that a look at my Shutter Lag Comparison Table.