Digital Camera Shutter Lag and Screen Refresh Rates

When you take a picture with your digital camera do you experience an annoying lag between the time you fully press the shutter and the time the picture is captured? Does the screen on the back of your digital camera go all blurry when you pan the camera around or when the subject is moving?

If it doesn't you are fortunate enough to have bought a top brand make with the latest and usually more expensive technology built into it.

Shutter Lag Explained
Shutter lag is the time needed by the camera to set the exposure, focus the camera and save the information falling onto the millions of tiny cells on the image sensor semiconductor chip.

A bad case of shutter lag could range from 1-1.5 seconds. A lot can happen in that time and that special moment may be lost. The main reason for poor shutter lag is a slow processor chip within the camera.

Reducing Shutter Lag
pre-focusing your camera can shorten the shutter lag times. That is, have your camera out, switched on and ready to take the photo by pressing the shutter half way. This takes the exposure reading and focuses the camera ready for you to take the photo by pressing the shutter the rest of the way down. Using fresh batteries also helps you get ready for the next shot a bit quicker, especially if flash is involved.

Screen Refresh Rate
An example of a bad screen refresh rate is when you pan the camera around and the screen is nothing but a blur of colour until you stop moving. Even then it takes a second or so to settle down.

Why does this occur? The image sensor in your camera has millions of cells that measure the light that falls onto it. The more cells the more megapixels your camera has. The information from these cells is processed and displayed on the screen. A good camera will read this information and display it at least 25 times per second. The Fuji FinePix F10 has a very fast screen refresh rate of 60 frames per second. If you have a camera with a very slow screen refresh rate, and you are panning to follow a moving subject, the screen will blur badly. As the camera displayes the colours picked up by each cell and displayes it, each part of your pictures jigsaw has changed as you or the subject moves, so the peices don't fit and it all looks blured.

How To Eliminate A Poor Screen Refresh Rate
There is realy only one way to get rid of a poor refresh rate, which can be very anoying when you can't see what you are trying to take a picture of, is to plain and simply buy a better camera.