[lug] OT: Digital cameras

[Jeffrey Siegal]

Timothy C. Klein wrote:
> The shutter lag and low light problems are common to all lower end
> cameras.  I have yet to hear of *any* digital point and shoot cameras
> that can really solve those.  You have to go into the digital SLR realm
> to truly solve them.  That said, if you are not really serious about
> photography, some are better than others, and it might not bother you.

Most of the shutter lag on at least some of the cameras is auto-focus, 
and can be greatly reduced by pre-focusing (often by pressing the 
shutter release halfway).  The slow lenses are a necessary tradeoff of 
putting a small zoom lens in a small and thin pocket cameras, but some 
are definitely better than others. For example, the Sony S85 is a nice 
sweet spot if you're looking for a relatively fast lens on a camera that 
is still a lot smaller than an SLR.